AMSTERDAM -- Gareth Southgate has said England must deal with its own racism issues before condemning Russia ahead of the World Cup, after speaking of the "disgusting" online abuse directed at England's Under-16 players.
England manager Southgate has admitted his team will be "unpopular" at the World Cup this summer because of ongoing political tensions between the UK and Russia.
There has also been a heavy focus on racism in Russian football following a number of high-profile incidents in recent years, but Southgate pointed to the recent online abuse directed at the U16s, who had seven black players in the starting XI in a game against Brazil two years ago.
"I can give you an example," he said. "I had a really interesting couple of hours with Troy Townsend [education manager of anti-racism group Kick It Out] a couple of weeks ago, speaking to our coaches.
"He showed a picture of our U16s on social media. The comments about that team were disgusting.
"They're a part of our England family. We have a club environment at St George's Park. It's our training ground and 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 [Alexander-Arnold], who I looked at in America with the U17s a few years ago, it's brilliant to see them come through.
"So 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."
Despite the negativity surrounding England's off-field World Cup preparations, Southgate insisted that his squad will be "good ambassadors" in Russia.
"We will go and embrace the local community in the area we stay," he said. "Our approach won't change in that respect.
"We would hope to be good ambassadors for our country when we travel abroad. That's a big part of being an England player. That won't change, whatever the political circumstances."
Southgate, meanwhile, spoke for the first time on the Football Association's intention to appoint Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds to "positions across a range of England and England development teams." Labour MP David Lammy had accused the FA a day earlier of kicking the issue of equality "into the long grass."
While backing the FA's initiative, Southgate made it clear that he will appoint coaches as "I see fit."
"In terms of my own staff, I've only made one full-time appointment in Steve Holland, whose experience and quality is unquestionable," Southgate said. "He's the most decorated English coach in the game.
"But I will appoint the coaching team I see fit. At the moment we don't have a requirement for any extra coaches, but if that changes, of course it would be important to find the right people. I'm open to what that might be."
Southgate added: "The key for me is not visibility. In the last couple of years I've sat on interview panels and we've always interviewed a black candidate for every coaching role.
"We have an issue in terms of the diversity of our teams not being represented by the diversity of our staff generally, but the best way to address that is to do it in a considered programme with the right support and learning experiences for those coaches.
"The pathway of coaches will follow in a similar way to that of players. It took a while for black players to be prevalent on the field, but we have to give it time for coaches.
"We've not had that many qualified coaches to this point, but now there are a lot of good young coaches coming through who will be role models for the next generation. That's more important than visibility."