Stayaway Toon fans dent gate

EMMERSON BOYCE

and fighting in his own country. But some of the messages our politicians and leaders are sending out make me feel they are only throwing more fuel on the fire.

“Boris Johnson said he was only joking when he called black people piccanninies and compared muslim women to letterboxes.

“That’s a bit like those fans in Italy who claimed that when they made monkey noises at Romelu Lukaku they weren’t being racist.

“These people try to justify their actions when there is no justification. They are being racist.”

Boyce, 40, admits that the bigotry he suffered as a youngster gave him “a bit of an attitude at school”.

Bodies like Kick it Out and Show Racism the Red Card continue to fight discrimination in football.

But the speed of enlightenment has been slow – in both the sport and society in general. Boyce is worried that messages conveyed by politicians do serious damage to the battle to beat racism.

He shook his head wearily as he revealed: “About six or seven years ago, my son had to move schools because he was getting bullied and abused because of his colour.

“He would come home and cover his eyes and his hair because he was different. Have things changed since then? Have things changed since I was a kid?

“Not really because these things keep getting swept under the carpet. Football is under the spotlight this week because of what happened in Sofia, but my sister Stephanie has just become the first ethnic minority leader of the Law Society. In two years, she’ll move up to become president. Our family is very proud of her.

“But should it have really taken until 2019 for this kind of appointment to be made?”

Boyce added: “Some people have said what happened in Sofia will be a watershed moment. I hope so.

“Ian Wright said on TV that racism used to be a black player’s problem, now it’s a problem for everyone – and he was right.

“But my worry is that it will all be forgotten about for two or three months. Then there’ll be another racist incident and we will all be talking about the same old things.”

Boyce has plans in place to open his own academy in the town of Altrincham, near Manchester.

Kids will not only be coached on how to master the basics of the game he loves. They will also be taught about respect.

HYPOCRIsY Johnson’s tweet (right) belied his own racist words dIVIsIVE duO: Johnson and Trump DISILLUSIONED Newcastle fans are turning their backs on St James’ Park in their thousands, attendance figures show. An average of just 46,577 people have attended the Magpies’ home league games so far this season, according to worldfootball.net, as supporters protest against Mike Ashley’s ownership. That’s down from an average of 51,121 last season and 51,992 in 2017/18. They drew bigger average crowds when they were in the Championship – 51,106 in 2016/17. It means that St James’ Park has only been 89 per cent full on average this season. No other top-flight club is operating at such a low percentage of capacity. Burnley have the next worst at 91 per cent. Arsenal and West Ham have the best records – just short of 100 per cent on average. Newcastle still have one of the largest average attendances in the country though – 46,577 is the seventh best in the top four divisions behind Liverpool (52,846), Manchester City (54,399), Tottenham (59,777), West Ham (59,917), Arsenal (60,301) and Manchester United (73,491).

TARGET Owner Ashley is unpopular with supporters