We’ve tried taking the knee, coming together... now UEFA
Robertson calls on authorities to ‘throw the book’ at racists after Kamara incident
SCOTLAND’S players are ready to make a stand against racism. Andy Robertson just hopes that UEFA will follow suit.
The Scotland captain will lead his teammates tonight in refusing to take the knee at Hampden. Instead, the players of the national team will stand in a call to action to the footballing authorities to finally take action against the perpetrators of racism within the game.
Actions, he believes speak louder than words, but Robertson also had plenty of those for the organisations who are heavy on rhetoric about encouraging diversity in football, but light on action for those who resent it.
To that end, the Liverpool left-back has urged UEFA to throw the book at Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela following his alleged racist abuse of Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara and show that they are serious about eradicating this sickness from football once and for all.
“The whole of Scottish football stood with Glen Kamara over the weekend and we’ll do the same,” Robertson said. “We’re the head of Scottish football, being the national team. We’ve seen clubs doing it at the weekend, including the Old Firm, which was very powerful. And we’ll do the exact same.
“I hope UEFA do something about it with the Slavia Prague player because I do believe players are trying everything. We’ve tried taking the knee, we’ve tried to stand up, we have come together: and to be honest it doesn’t seem to be making any difference, so we maybe need help from people above us.
“I know the Scottish FA have released something this week which should be extremely positive. They’ve brought Marvin Bartley on board. Things like that can only make a difference.
“Hopefully people follow suit. The likes of UEFA and FIFA could probably help us out and throw the book at these people because getting racially abused in any walk of life, but especially on a football pitch, is just totally unacceptable.
“Unfortunately, racism is still part of football, still part of life. I wish it was a thing of the past and I didn’t have to talk to you about it. Unfortunately, it keeps creeping into our game.
“With social media, there are so many things going on there. In the Premier League and the SPFL, teams are having to come out and say they are standing by a player because they have been racially abused. It’s unacceptable.
“People sit behind keyboards thinking they can just comment anything and do anything. It’s about time the authorities started doing something about it.”
On a personal level, Scotland duty has offered something of a refuge for Robertson after a relatively tumultuous season at club level with Liverpool. After the stunning run of success both he and Liverpool enjoyed over the previous two years or so, the inevitable dip in fortunes was always going to be difficult to stomach for players and fans alike on Merseyside to swallow.
Anyone with but a passing knowledge of Robertson’s well-trampled story of how he reached the very top of the game will know however that he is made of stern stuff, and he is hoping that a positive start to World Cup qualifying against Austria tonight can be a springboard to a positive end of the campaign at Anfield for him too.
“Every season is a test,” he said. “Trying to win a league with the expectations at Liverpool is incredibly difficult.
“Last season and the season before were tests in different ways. But this one has been tough, of course it has.
“Having people fall around you – every game we were going into, we were picking up injuries. Hopefully, touch wood, we have kind of stopped that now.
“In the last six to eight games, we have not picked up
We need the people above us to help us out and throw the book at these people
many and we have started to get boys back. Being a mainstay of that team, keeping myself fit and being able to be relied on, I have enjoyed the responsibility. But I’ve not enjoyed the results on the park.
“We know we can do better but we’ve got a big finish to the season. We’ve got 10 games left in the Premier League to try to push up into a more respectable position. And we are in the last eight of the Champions League.
“Ticking the box for Scotland in November [to qualify for the Euros] was obviously an incredible high. Hopefully we can continue that good feeling in this international break and I can go into the last part of the season flying.”
Robertson is a firm believer in the old adage that pressure forms diamonds, so it is unsurprising to hear that he is already gleaning lessons from that difficult Liverpool campaign which he can
use in the future. And he believes that Scotland can heed them too in order to ensure that qualification for major tournaments becomes a regular occurrence, and not simply a flash in the pan.
“That’s what the boys and the manager and the coaches are all determined to do,” he said.
“It’s OK getting that monkey off your back and qualifying for the first major tournament in 23 years. But it’s about not waiting that long again – or anywhere close to that. It’s about building on that, being successful and trying to push on and qualify for the World Cup, qualify for the next Euros and so on.
“This group of boys are determined; you can see that every day in training. You can see the qualities they have.
“They want to be successful in a Scotland shirt. We’re in control of that. It’s up to us to try and do it to the best of our ability.”