‘They are not fans’ – Georgia Stanway and Sarina Wiegman condemn ‘disgusting’ racist abuse Jess Carter has faced | OneFootball

Sarina Wiegman and Georgia Stanway have spoken out about the “disgusting” racist abuse that Jess Carter has endured during Euro 2025.

Carter took to social media on Sunday to call out the unacceptable abuse she had faced since the tournament started in Switzerland, saying she will be taking a break from social media as a result.

The England manager was speaking ahead of England’s semi-final tie against Italy alongside Carter’s Lionesses’ teammate Stanway, who both condemned the abuse.

“It’s really sad that we have to be occupied by this,” Wiegman said. “It’s ridiculous and disgusting what is happening and that goes beyond football. We had to pay attention to that and support Jess.

“Of course, she’s not the only one who gets this abuse or racism. That’s why she wanted to address it and she’s fully supported by the team.

“I think it starts with everyone taking responsibility. And then you have the bodies that are responsible for all these platforms that should also do something.”

Stanway added: “There are some things that we will never be able to understand, and that’s one of those. We need to cut it out of society and cut it out of football.

“We don’t know the steps that it takes in order for that to happen, but right now, all we can do is show our support, our togetherness, and we can be united in what we want to make sure is right.

“To us, the people are sending the abuse, the people that are saying these things and doing things like this, they are not fans.

“When we pull on that shirt we are doing it for the people we stand next to, for our families and the actual people who are there watching the games and enjoying the games. I really believe in that, we believe in that. The people who are like that (abusive) don’t deserve to be called fans.”

The Lionesses have decided not to do the anti-racism gesture of taking the knee ahead of kick-off at Geneva Stadium on Tuesday night, with Lucy Bronze previously stating that “we and football need to find another way to tackle racism.”

On this topic, Stanway added: “It’s just to change it up. We felt like the knee was just a little bit repetitive, we felt like it’s come to a point where the knee isn’t doing what we wanted it to do, so now our decision is to stand and hopefully that will bring up more conversation, more change and hopefully get the topic [spoken about].”