English football fan jailed after LIVE-STREAMING himself racially abusing Sancho, Saka and Rashford

English football supporter Jonathan Best has been jailed for 10 weeks after live-streaming racial abuse towards Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka on his personal Facebook page following England's Euro 2020 final loss.

England's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) heard that Best, 52, streamed an 18-second clip to the social media platform in which he unleashed a litany of racial abuse towards the trio of black players who missed penalties in the shootout against eventual winners Italy at Wembley Stadium in July, and was on Tuesday sentenced to the prison term.

Best, who works as a forklift driver, had previously pleaded guilty to 'sending by public communication network a grossly offensive or indecent or obscene or menacing message or matter' and had initially refused to take the offending clip down from his social media page after being reported to both Facebook and local police by a work colleague.

Facebook eventually intervened and removed the clip three days after it was posted.

"While the majority of the nation took great pride in the Three Lions reaching their first international final in more than 50 years, Jonathon Best took to Facebook to livestream a barrage of racist abuse at the three players who missed penalties during the game," said Elaine Cousins of the CPS of the case.

"He used social media to publicly vilify these three young men who tried to score for England. When approached by a Facebook friend asking him to remove the grossly offensive content, Best replied: 'It's my profile, I can do what I want.'

"There is absolutely no room in the game, nor elsewhere, for racism. The CPS is committed to bringing perpetrators of hate crime to justice where there is the evidence to do so.

"I would like to thank the individual who reported this appalling hate crime and I hope this prosecution goes some way in educating and deterring people from posting hate on social media."

News of the prosecution and subsequent sentencing comes as social media companies attempt to grapple with an alarming rise in racist messaging being sent to public figures, and especially high profile black footballers in the United Kingdom. 

Manchester United's Rashford, who was one of the players targeted by Best, has detailed on numerous occasions the offensive messages he says he receives on an almost daily basis while Arsenal's Saka said that his first thought after missing the penalty against Italy was related to the immediate abuse he expected to receive on social media.

The CPS also affirmed that it is working with representatives of both the police and football bodies in a bid to solidify the requirements for criminal prosecutions of people who sent racist messages online.

"Hate crimes such as these have a massive impact on players and their mental health," said Elizabeth Jenkins of the CPS.

"The CPS takes this kind of offending very seriously and this case shows that where offensive content is reported to the police we can successfully bring offenders to justice."

"It may be only 10 weeks prison time, but for probably the next 3 - 6 years that criminal record will pop up for checks relating to future employment and visas..... Actions have consequences," said one person in reaction to the news.

"Don’t call him a football fan, call him what he is, a racist," said another.

"70 days is plenty of time to read lots of books about black history and heritage," added a third.