England Women manager, Sarina Wiegman has blasted “ridiculous and disgusting” fans for racial abuse of Jess Carter.
England are currently preparing for their UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy at Stade de Geneve, Geneva, Switzerland tomorrow (22 July), amidst the fallout of racial abuse of Carter on social media which saw the defender opt to withdraw from her accounts indefinitely.
Wiegman’s pre-match press conference consequently was dominated by the topic as the ex Netherlands manager blasted the “sad” disruption to preparations, having hoped to focus mainly on the build-up to the semi-finals.
“It’s really sad that we have to be occupied by this, it’s ridiculous and disgusting what’s happening.
“It goes beyond football, we have to support Jess. She’s not the only one who gets this abuse that’s why she wanted to address it. She’s fully supported by the team and myself.”
Wiegman also confirmed that Carter is keen to focus on the match following conversations with the defender.
“Of course we have had a conversation. It’s a hard situation but Jess is a very strong person, she wants to move on too, but she and we felt we had to address this, we can’t let it go. So we did.
“We want to perform in the match, she’s ready to perform and compete. That says a lot about her and the team.”
Wiegman also iterated that she didn’t need to deliver a message to the team as they instead united quickly with a thorough group discussion, eager to deliver a strong performance as their message to critics.
“That didn’t need a message, the team came really well together. We spoke about it, everyone wants to perform tomorrow but wanted to address this and send a message to the world. It says a lot about the team.”
With many fans and players asking what more can be done to tackle online abuse amidst a team decision to stand rather than take a knee ahead of kick-off in Geneva, Wiegman urged everyone to take “responsibility” and social media platforms to “do something also.”
Attention later turned to the semi-final but Wiegman refused to consider England as heavy favourites as she complimented Italy for their first semi-final appearance since 1997.
“I think it would be really disrespectful to Italy to think we are the favourites. They made the semi-final like we did, it’s impressive for any team to make the semis.
“Complacency is the biggest mistake any team could make. We’ve seen how they’ve played. I don’t think there’s any way we could think we are the favourite We have to be at our very best to win the game.”
Captain, Leah Williamson is a doubt after she was substituted in extra-time during England’s eventual Quarter-Final victory over Sweden on penalties, having fought back for a 2-2 draw through Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang after Kosovare Asllani and Stina Blackstenius put the Swedes ahead.
Wiegman however is confident that Williamson could feature if she completes a full recovery in time ahead of the team sheet announcement.
“She really wants to play, she did everything to recover as good as possible, and she has. She trained today, If she recovers well she can play tomorrow.”
Given the emotionally chaotic rollercoaster of their penalty shootout, Wiegman joked that the team “practice for hours and hours!,” given the prospect of facing another shootout.
Wiegman however admitted that the players have been training for penalties in recent months both on international duty and with their clubs, but clarified that they had indeed dome some practice despite hoping that everyone is spared that scenario.
“Over the last months players train for penalties all the time, also at their clubs, you want to be as prepared as possible.
“Hopefully it’s not necessary. We have practiced again.”
Addressing the tactical lessons learned from the Sweden game, Wiegman is treating this as a fresh game despite the strong counter-attacking abilities of both Sweden and Italy.
“I think this is a different game. Sweden were a very physical counter-attacking team – Italy can do that too, they are creative in their shapes, they can do different things.
“I wouldn’t say there was one thing I could literally take over from the Sweden game to the Italy game.”
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