Originally published 2021-07-15.
Minutes after England lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy on penalties on 11 July 2021, a racist comment about three of the team’s black players appeared on Twitter. It was posted from the personal account of Andrew Bone, a manager at the estate agency Savills. He deleted it within minutes, but others had already copied it and sent it to his employer. Savills opened an investigation, suspended him and later dismissed him, and in 2024 he admitted a criminal offence in court.
The case became one of the best-documented examples of the online abuse that followed the final, and it shows how such cases unfold: an employer’s inquiry, a police investigation, a claim that the account was hacked, and finally evidence that settled the question. Here is what happened, why the reaction was so strong, and what changed afterwards.
The final and the penalty shootout
The final was played at Wembley Stadium in London, England’s first major men’s final since 1966. Luke Shaw scored in the second minute, Leonardo Bonucci equalised, and the match finished 1–1 after extra time. In the shootout Italy won 3–2. England’s last three takers all missed: Marcus Rashford hit the post, and Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved from Jadon Sancho and then from Bukayo Saka, who was 19 years old.
Within hours the three young men were targeted on social media with racist language and monkey emojis, some telling them to leave the country they had just represented. The Metropolitan Police later said it had received around 600 reports of racist comments, of which it judged 207 to be criminal. Most of the accounts behind those comments were based outside the UK, which made prosecutions difficult; the Savills case was one of the domestic ones that could be traced.
What Savills did
Screenshots of Bone’s post spread quickly, and people tagged Savills, one of the UK’s largest property firms. The company responded publicly within a day. In its statement it said it had zero tolerance for racism, was appalled by the comments and was investigating so it could take appropriate action. Bone was suspended while the inquiry ran, and Savills dismissed him in September 2021.
An important detail: the post did not come from a Savills company account. It came from an employee’s personal profile, which is why the early reports that the firm’s own social media had carried the abuse were inaccurate. Employers increasingly treat that distinction as less important than it once was. If a manager’s public posts bring the business into disrepute or break its conduct policies, many contracts allow disciplinary action, as happened here.
The hacking claim and the conviction
Bone, from Sale in Greater Manchester, was arrested on 14 July 2021. From the start he said his account had been hacked, and he repeated that to his employer, to police and to the court. He pleaded not guilty, and a trial was set for October 2024.
The Crown Prosecution Service then obtained cell-site data placing the device used to post the comment in the same location as Bone at the time. The court also agreed that earlier hateful posts from his account could be put before it as evidence of bad character. Faced with that case, he changed his plea. On 14 November 2024, at Manchester City Magistrates’ Court, he pleaded guilty to sending a grossly offensive message under the Communications Act.
He was sentenced on 4 February 2025 to six weeks in prison, suspended for a year, with 15 rehabilitation activity days and £1,054 in costs and surcharges. The deputy district judge said the tweet was clearly motivated by hostility based on race
, while noting that it was a single post deleted fairly quickly. Because the offence was committed before 29 June 2022, prosecutors could not ask for a football banning order, which the law has allowed for online abuse since that date.
How the country responded
The abuse prompted an unusually wide reaction. The Football Association condemned it, and Prince William, then the FA’s president, said he was sickened by it and that those responsible should be held to account. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer both spoke out, and Johnson promised to extend football banning orders to people who abuse players online.
The response to Home Secretary Priti Patel was more divided. She condemned the abuse, but England defender Tyrone Mings publicly accused her of having stoked the problem earlier in the tournament, when she described players taking the knee as “gesture politics” and declined to criticise fans who booed it. Other players and commentators made similar points about Johnson. The exchange turned a debate about social media into one about political leadership as well.
In Withington, south Manchester, a mural of Rashford was defaced the morning after the final. Within hours local people had covered the damaged area with hearts, flags and handwritten notes of support, and the artist restored it within days. Greater Manchester Police later said they did not believe the vandalism itself was racially motivated. Rashford wrote that he would apologise for his penalty but never for who he was. A public petition calling for racists to be banned from football matches for life passed one million signatures.
Why online abuse is hard to stop
The Euro 2020 abuse showed both the reach of social platforms and the limits of policing them. Twitter said it removed more than 1,000 tweets and suspended a number of accounts in the first day; Instagram faced criticism because some reported comments were initially judged not to break its rules. Players and campaign groups had already staged a social media boycott in spring 2021 to press for stronger action, including identity verification and faster removal.
The Bone case shows what tends to work. When abuse comes from an identifiable person in the same country, ordinary evidence such as device data, account history and witness reports can lead to a conviction, even after deletion and a denial. When it comes from anonymous accounts abroad, the realistic tools are platform moderation and prevention rather than prosecution.
What readers can do
If you see racist abuse aimed at a player, report it to the platform and, in the UK, to the police or the charity Kick It Out, which collects reports from fans. Avoid sharing screenshots of the abuse itself unless you are reporting it; reposting slurs widens their audience even when the intent is to condemn them. Employers, for their part, can make clear in conduct policies how staff behaviour online is treated, so that an investigation like the one Savills ran is fair and predictable.
Saka, Sancho and Rashford all returned to play for England. Saka in particular was cheered by home crowds in the matches that followed, a small sign of how many fans wanted to answer the abuse with support.
Sources: Crown Prosecution Service, November 2024: Former Savills manager guilty of posting racist comment; Property Industry Eye, 5 February 2025: sentencing report; Wikipedia: UEFA Euro 2020 final; original news coverage by the Daily Mail.
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