After England lost the European Championship final against Italy on penalties this summer, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho received hate and racism online.
Now one of those who wrote a racist tweet directed at Rashford has been sentenced to six weeks in prison.
After the tweet was reported, the man changed his name on Twitter in order not to be discovered and in the first police interrogation he also denied that he had written it.
He later confessed to the crime and now he has been sentenced to prison.
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He targeted a football player based on skin color and his actions were clearly a racist hate crime, prosecutor Mike Johnson says and continues:
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Those who target racism against football players destroy the sport for everyone.
I hope this shows that we will not tolerate racism and that those who break the law will be punished.
Douglas Mackay, a leading prosecutor in sports affairs at the Swedish Public Prosecutor's Office, says that the number of hate crimes linked to sports has increased in recent years.
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The latest report shows a clear increase in football-related crime, compared to before the pandemic, he says.