‘Terriers must bite’
IT was a blast at UEFA but the English authorities should take heed too.
Both are still in denial over the scale of the line being drawn by football’s black players. Danny Rose, however, has had enough. Tottenham’s England defender now wants to finish playing, hang up his boots and leave the game to tie itself up in knots trying to find reasons why it can’t implement points deductions and zero tolerance for racial abuse. No wonder so many leading stars are now ready to walk off the pitch.
Rose said: “There is so much politics and whatever in football and I just can’t wait to see the back of it, to be honest.” The full-back revealed he had to psych himself up last week to go to Montenegro after being racially abused in Serbia in 2012. Monkey chanting came as no surprise. “Obviously it is a bit sad,” he said. “But when countries only get fined what I’d probably spend on a night out in London, what do you expect?
“When the punishment is not as harsh as it should be, what do you expect?
“I played in Serbia seven years ago with the England Under-21s and it happened there. So I thought it would be a possibility that it might happen again in Montenegro – and it did
“I looked up straight away in the first half and I know the exact time it happened. “It didn’t affect my game. I’m a big boy now and I know that three points are obviously not the most important thing when you’re going through something like that. “But I just wanted the team to get them so that we could get out of Montenegro as quickly as possible.” The 28-year-old was booked late on for a reckless challenge born out of frustration during the 5-1 win.
He admitted: “Had we not been winning, the yellow card that I got might have been a red one.
“But yes, I’m fine. Now we just wait for whatever punishment, if any punishment happens.
“I spoke to Gareth Southgate after the game and he wasn’t aware of what had gone on.
“I didn’t mention it at half-time so he wasn’t aware until he heard it right at the end.
“He was a bit upset to be fair because he told us it was the first time he’d been involved with something like that and he said he didn’t know what the right course of action was.
“He said he was fully behind me if we wanted to walk off.” The fine for Serbia in 2012 was just £65,000 with a game played behind closed doors.
That same year, Nicklas Bendtner was fined £80,000 by UEFA for pulling down his shorts to reveal the name of a bookmaker.
Referring to a punishment received by his Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino last month, Rose added: “You see my manager get banned for two games for just being confrontational against the ref Mike Dean at Burnley.
“But yet a country can only get fined a little bit of money for being racist.
“It’s just a bit of a farce at the minute.
“That’s where we are at in football and until there’s a harsh punishment there’s not much else we can expect.” ENGLAND’S Harry Maguire might have to take baby steps back into the Leicester team.
The central defender looks set to miss out on an instant return to the side after a hectic week with the birth of his first child.
Daughter Lillie Saint arrived early, disrupting Maguire’s training schedule.
He was hoping to return after sitting out last week’s game with Bournemouth while serving a one-match suspension.
But boss Brendan Rodgers has one daddy of a dilemma because Maguire’s stand-in, Wes Morgan, scored in the 2-0 win.
Rodgers said: “It’s been a tough week for Harry because his partner went in early and it’s not easy.
“It’s great news and a great time for Harry. He came into the season on the back of his World Cup experience and now this.”
But Rodgers is mindful of Maguire’s domestic disruption, adding: “I will have to factor in the week he’s had.” JAN SIEWERT has told his Huddersfield players not to feel sorry for themselves and show some “passion”.
The Terriers have suffered the second fastest relegation in Premier League history, going down with six games to go.
But with over a month of the season left, manager Siewert (above) said: “This has to be a personal thing as each player deals with it in a different way.
“Every one of them has to look in their mirror and ask if they did everything to stay in the Premier League.
“I have to do the same – that is normal in football.
“But we must take our last games on with passion about winning them.”