Gareth Southgate Talks 'Disgusting' Racist Abuse of U17s Before England Friendly

Gareth Southgate has demanded England "get our own house in order" before criticising 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts Russia about racism. 

Speaking ahead of England's friendly with the Netherlands in Amsterdam on Friday, the Three Lions boss was questioned about the impact racism could potentially have on this summer's World Cup.

Per BBC Sport's Phil McNulty, in response Southgate looked to highlight issues closer to home and discussed a "really interesting couple of hours" he had spent with Kick it Out's Troy Townsend:

"I don't think we should just talk about racism in Russia...

"[Troy] showed a picture of our under-17s on social media. The comments about that team were disgusting. They're part of our England family. We have a club environment at St George's Park. It is our training ground. Our teams mix and the youngsters look up to the senior team. I know most of those young players really closely and I've seen them come through.

"To see them abused in that way is absolutely disgusting. When we speak about other countries, I find it difficult to deflect what we've seen there."

There have been fears that racism could tarnish the 2018 World Cup ever since Russia were awarded the tournament back in 2010, per Rajeev Syal in the Guardian.

McNulty's report highlighted cases of racism involving Spartak Moscow that have done little to quell the concerns in the run-up to the summer's action: 

"European football's governing body Uefa charged Spartak Moscow for racist chanting during a Uefa Youth League fixture against Liverpool, while Spartak were also criticised for a 'racist' tweet about their own players.

"Spartak defender Leonid Mironov was charged with racially abusing Liverpool striker Rhian Brewster, though that was later dropped."

Brewster, the 17-year-old Liverpool and England youth forward, spoke in December about racist abuse he received while playing against Spartak to Daniel Taylor of the Guardian.

Sky Sports News' Kaveh Solhekol outlined the magnitude of the racism problem in Russian football and why it is such a concern ahead of the World Cup:

Southgate, though, brought to light that racism is a problem elsewhere, while he and the Football Association were recently criticised by MP David Lammy for a lack of black and ethnic minority coaches in the England set-up.