CLARKE IS SORRY FOR RACE ABUSE
MOTM FROM BACK PAGE more thoroughly. Speaking at the Equal Game conference at Wembley, Clarke admitted English football also needed to put its own house in order.
He said: “None of us can be naive enough to think racism doesn’t happen in all our countries.
“It’s happened in the UK this season and I’m pleased that clubs here have taken swift action to ban fans and we’ve banned a player for on-pitch racism too.
“But we must do more in England, more in Europe, and we must do this together. Now we must put some concrete actions in place.
“When Raheem Sterling (top, reacting to taunts in Montenegro), Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi speak with such maturity and eloquence, we must listen, we must respond – and we must not let them TODAY
Cold with a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers, heavy at times with hail and thunder, giving snow over high ground. Gales in the far north.
THURSDAY-FRIDAY Showers will become confined to the far north and west with drier, brighter conditions developing elsewhere.
MATCH STATS
We’ve got you covered... so let it rain!
Bdown. I am using this match as an example of something that’s happening across all our societies across Europe.
“But the men and women who take the field representing our clubs and countries are entitled to play football in a safe environment free from racial abuse.
“There should be no judgment call on whether something is of a strong magnitude – racism is racism.”
At the same conference, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin insisted referees would be told to be “brave” and halt matches to stamp out racist abuse.
He said: “After a few incidents in recent days and months, we will speak to the referees again and tell them to be confident, not to be afraid to act.
“Because the moment a match is stopped or not played, 90 per cent of normal people in the stadium would kick the asses of those idiots.”