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England should take great credit for their response to a toxic atmosphere that led to two stoppages for racist chanting on a wretched night for football
Welcome to the new world. This was a miserable occasion on a miserable night, in a miserable stadium, against miserable opposition – decorated with a miserable backdrop of recrimination and bad blood.
But it was also, in its own way, a righteous occasion. Racist abuse in football stadiums has been a source of unhappiness for as long as there has been racist abuse, racist violence and everything else along the spectrum. In Sofia, for the first time, football made a live intervention. It was vile, disturbing and toxic, with the promise of greater violence in the air as the stadium simmered through a deeply unpleasant evening of what was, at times only notionally, international sport. Continue reading...