Gareth Southgate is being praised for his comments on the 'racial undertones' of Brexit

In a documentary aired on ITV 4 on Thursday, England manager Gareth Southgate spoke frankly about his opinion on Brexit which he felt had 'racial undertones'.

Southgate, who led the Three Lions to the semi-final of the football World Cup this summer and became a national hero, commented on the 2016 referendum in Out of Their Skin a documentary about the history of black footballers in the UK and prejudices that they faced.

During the World Cup, the England squad were praised for presenting a positive and diverse representation of the country which might not have seemed apparent in the build-up to the tournament in Russia.

That was something that Southgate confirmed that this sentiment was something that they tried to channel as he felt the rhetoric surrounding Brexit didn't truly reflect modern day England.

The 48-year-old said:

I didn't like the connotations around Brexit there were some generational opinions about what modern Britain should look like.

We felt that young people, in particular, would connect with our guys because they must have been confused after Brexit because for me a lot of the undertones of the voting on Brexit were racial undertones.

Along with his take on Brexit, a short clip of Southgate's quote from the documentary has been shared on Twitter and people are showering praise on the England boss.

Not everyone agreed with what Southgate had to say and told him to stick to football and stay out of politics.

Others then came to Southgate's defence.