HANDLING WITH KIT GLOVES
My Raheem rant was clumsy, but I’m so focused and want to fight racism with campaigner Sterling
DAVE KITSON has invited Raheem Sterling to discuss any issues the Manchester City striker has about Kitson’s bid to lead the players’ union.
The former Reading and Stoke City striker stepped forward to force change at the Professional Footballers’ Association this week with a public letter to current chief executive Gordon Taylor in which he asked 101 questions of the organisation.
But there have been rumblings in some quarters that his attempt to take control could be derailed because of a row over comments he made after England star Sterling (right) was racially abused during a game at Chelsea in 2018.
Kitson, 40, has set the record straight, asking people to make a judgment after hearing his side of the story.
He said: “The day after my retirement I was kicking my heels, and I saw there was a convention taking place at a hotel close to my house.
“The hotel has been converted from a stately home and it was hosting a Ferrari convention.
“I went up there with my son for a look and said to him, ‘Take a picture, this will be funny’. So he did. I’m standing outside the hotel, in-between two Ferraris.
“I posted it without thinking to my Instagram account, with the caption, ‘Bored on the first day of my retirement’. It was a poor attempt at ironic humour.
“People who know me will know that I have been through the mill financially. People who don’t know me saw it as an expression of a glamorous lifestyle, deserving vilification. “The abuse I took was unreal. There were hundreds of responses. The majority of them included the words, ‘flash,’ ‘ginger’ and far worse. “It really took me by surprise...the anger and nastiness. I didn’t think the world was that harsh. “Two or three years later, I was speaking on Talksport and asked to give my opinion after Raheem had been viciously abused while playing for Manchester City at Chelsea. It was horrific. “I couldn’t help but think back to the episode when I suffered a backlash as a result of posting ‘glamorous lifestyle’ photos online. “I said that I’d looked down
Raheem’s social media feed and that while in the beginning it was about his cars and houses, I was pleased to see he had changed it because there is a lot of jealousy out there and I knew what it was like to have been on the end of unwarranted abuse.
“I said that it gave people a reason to dislike him as a person. Not that he had done anything wrong on his social media account but it gave certain people a platform to vent their ill-informed, ugly views.
“But I’m distressed that this has somehow morphed into a suggestion I condoned the shocking abuse Raheem suffered or that he otherwise ‘asked for it’. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“Perhaps I used clumsy language and for that I apologise. But I never have and never will condone any form of racism.
“I admire Raheem for taking up the fight and saying, ‘No, I’m not having this’. And I agree with him. More needs to be done. And I’m prepared to do it.
“And if he, or anyone, wants to discuss that matter with me, and what I intend to do, I’m more than happy to have that chat and put his mind – and that of other players’ – at rest.”
Kitson is seeking to affect wholesale change in the PFA’S governance. If he fails, he wants it to be for some other reason than criticism of misinterpreted words in the past.
He added: “I have confronted racism on the pitch and I’ve seen kids crying in dressing rooms because of racist abuse from the stands.”
“It’s absolutely intolerable. And what’s happening at the moment isn’t a deterrent. It isn’t working.
“So, we need to come up with one. Hopefully it is something I will get the chance to talk to Raheem about – and seek his help and insight, should he be willing to discuss it.”