But the manager insists that this country has to get its own affairs in order before criticising Russian crowds for racism.
The England coach, on the eve of his team’s World Cup warm up game with Holland here in Amsterdam, hit out at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has urged fans not to travel to Russia this summer for the World Cup, and raised fears over their safety.
But Southgate fiercely attacked England’s own fans for racially abusing their own youngsters – pointing to the abuse aimed at them after Steven Gerrard posted a picture on his social media account of England’s Under 16 team, in which his nephew Bobby Duncan was playing, after they had beaten Brazil in the Florida Cup in 2016.
There were several black players in the England team, among them Liverpool’s Trent Alexander Arnold, and among the comments on social media were: “Is this England or Senegal? Looks more like Nigeria.” And “seven black players ha, ha, ha.”
Southgate and his England staff were shown the picture and comments recently by Kick it Out Education Manager Troy Townsend, father of England winger and Crystal Palace star Andros.
Southgate said: “I don’t think we should talk about racism in Russia.
“We have got to get our own house in order we keep pointing the finger at Russia, where we are going to be guests in the next couple of months. We have not resolved the issue in our own country.
“I can give you an example. I had a really interesting couple of hours with Troy a couple of weeks ago, speaking to our coaches.
“He showed us a picture of our U16s 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. 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. When I look at people like Trent, who I looked at in America a few years ago, it’s brilliant to see them come through.
“To see them abused in that way is absolutely disgusting. So when we speak about other countries, I find it difficult to deflect that with what we’ve seen there.”
Foreign Secretary Johnson this week compared the 2018 World Cup to the 1936 Olympics in Germany when Adolf Hitler was in power.
But Southgate said: “It is of little interest to me what the Foreign Secretary thinks about it.
“I don’t think we are going to be the most popular team out there the way things are going at the moment.
“But that is something that I have got used to over the years.”
Southgate will be without Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere tonight, after he injured a knee in training – but the England coach expects him to be fit in time for Tuesday’s game against Italy at Wembley.
