STERLING EFFORT
Brave stance earns praise of Southgate
ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate has spoken for the first time about the spate of racist incidents in football and commended Raheem Sterling for being brave enough to speak up about it.
Sterling was allegedly racially abused during Manchester City’s defeat at Chelsea in early December and afterwards posted a statement on social media about the treatment of black players by the media, including the Daily Mail and MailOnline.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Southgate hailed 24-year- old Sterling, saying: ‘It’s easier for me to talk about what I feel about what Raheem’s done and how brave he’s been in speaking up.
‘We’ve seen incidents of racism in the last few months that have always been unacceptable, remain unacceptable and will be unacceptable if they happen in the future. We have to hope they don’t. Football is a mirror of society and unfortunately racism exists in society and so there are times when people seem to use the opportunity at a football ground to fuel that. ‘We have to stand strong as a game to make sure that does not happen.’ English football has found itself under the spotlight recently. Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a banana skin thrown towards him during their 4-2 win against Tottenham at the Emirates Stadium earlier this month. The Spurs fan was given a four-year football ban and fined £500 after magistrates ruled there was a racial element to the incident. ‘I think Raheem commented about what happens in stadiums, but also the unconscious bias that maybe exists,’ continued Southgate. ‘I think that’s a huge topic for everyone to think about and how we might do things differently. ‘I really commend what he did and I think he should be very proud of being brave enough to stand up.’