Published: March 2, 2021
Cited by: Urdu Point
MOSCOW, March 2 (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson – Social media platforms and the UK government should take stronger action to prevent non-white soccer professionals from being subjected to racist abuse after several Premier League players were targeted online over recent weeks, a prominent charity chief executive and a former top-flight player told Sputnik.
Non-white English players, such as John Barnes and Viv Anderson, have spoken about the abuse they faced from the stands in the 1970s and 1980s, and while the Football Association (FA), the sport’s governing body in England, has taken steps to stamp out racism at soccer grounds, Black and mixed-race players continue to be targeted on social media.
In late January, three non-white players from Manchester United, Marcus Rashford, Axel Tuanzebe, and Anthony Martial, Chelsea’s Reece James, and West Bromwich Albion’s Romaine Sawyers were all subjected to racist abuse online in the space of a week, prompting government officials such as Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Oliver Dowden to make a pledge to take greater action.
Speakers
Ged Grebby, the chief executive of anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card.
“It’s great that players like Marcus Rashford are speaking out, and it’s great that players are getting involved in Show Racism the Red Card and the education work, so that’s the positive of this, that players aren’t remaining silent. They’re actually making a stand, and certainly, that’s what Show Racism the Red Card would want them to do,” Grebby said.
Ken Monkou, former professional footballer.
“We couldn’t speak our mind, we had to swallow the bitter pill because there was no infrastructure, there was no proper platform or structure for us to complain or to say ‘listen, this is the situation, what can we do about it?’ It wasn’t there, so we had to deal with it,” he said.
Jonathan Rowson 