Gareth Southgate says the suggestion of a racial split among England’s young footballers is “hard to stomach”.
The Daily Mail posted a picture on its twitter feed on Saturday showing members of England’s U20 squad eating a meal at two tables, one shared by black players and the other white.
An accompanying caption asked “what does it say about race in Britain today?”
England U21 boss Southgate was asked about the picture ahead of Sunday’s European Championship game against Sweden.
He said: “It is quite clear to me in my experiences with England junior teams that there is no issue. It was a picture that was unrepresentative of what goes on in our development teams.
“I think anyone who has seen this group of players and staff mix over the last two years, or if they have been around the hotel or the training ground for the last couple of weeks alone, will see the realities of the situation.
“I grew up in a dressing-room (at Crystal Palace) with Chris Powell and John Salako as my team-mates at youth level, and I’m still very close friends with both. Mark Bright and Ian Wright were in the first team, so I don’t know anything different.
“For me sport crosses religion, race, everything else. I’m well aware of the problems in society, well aware we can all do better, but I find the accusation of a split within teams and football a little bit difficult to stomach actually.”
The U21s go into the Sweden game on the back of an opening defeat to Portugal, but Southgate stands by his post-match verdict that England were unfortunate to lose.
He said: “I think the last day or so has been about getting everyone’s emotions ready for this match. When there’s a defeat it’s easy to feel as if everything’s not going your way, so we needed to get everybody together and explain the realities of the performance against Portugal. There was very little in that game.”
Wolves striker Benik Afobe has replaced the injured Saido Berahino in the squad, and Southgate said: “He has a tremendous ethusiasm to be here. He was ready to cancel his holiday straight away and told me he was keeping his fitness going.”
