WE’LL WALK OFF, BOSSES TELL BIGOTS
THE managers of the Premier League’s top three clubs spoke out about racism in football yesterday and warned teams could walking off the pitch in protest. MAURICIO POCHETTINO (Tottenham)
“If I feel the abuse and I hear it, then I’m out. Stop! Stop the game! There’s nothing more important than to stop that. You can win the three points or lose the three points. I don’t know. But we can’t be hypocrites about that.
“There’s nothing more important in life than to protect values and principles, and no one deserves to be abused.
“If that happens and I’m conscious of it, I’m the first to say, ‘Stop, we’re not going to play. Come on inside. Go off’. Because football isn’t important.
“I want to show my support to every single person that feels badly and I want to tell the racists, ‘Come on, move on’.”
“We have to stop games, we have to do everything. We have to make clear it’s not allowed.
“That’s too much power for one or two idiots, or three or four idiots. But if the whole stand did it then it’s completely different.
“It’s absolutely disappointing that at the moment in our world something like this is still possible. We can’t ignore it, we have to speak loud about it, we have to finish it.
“It’s very difficult for me to really feel the situation of Raheem or Rose or other players who face something like that, because I never had a situation like it. Whatever I could do, I would do.” PEP GUARDIOLA (Manchester City)
“Of course it’s a concern. We could do that [walk off]. Football is a strong weapon to defend the principles of humanity.
“I remember a long time ago people said you can’t mix politics and football, but that’s not true.
“When the club or the players or the organisation decide to do it, of course we’re going to follow.
“I’d have to involve the club, the chairmen, CEO, my captain and the players, if we all together decide we can signal to do it, why not?
“The situation changes when you do something.”