Raheem Sterling wants to eradicate racism in the UK… but Man City star concedes he can only do so much

Sterling celebrates in front of the Montenegro fans after scoring England's fifth goal
Michael Regan/Getty Images

Raheem Sterling is determined to help eradicate racism in the UK but warned there is a limit to what he can do to solve the problem.

The Manchester City forward was part of the England side who won 5-1 in Montenegro last night, but the Euro 2020 qualifier was marred by racist abuse aimed at the visitors’ black players by the home supporters.

Sterling called for Uefa to force Montenegro to play behind closed doors but also wants to raise awareness about the issue of discrimination in England.

Earlier this season, Sterling was allegedly abused at Chelsea during a Premier League match, while a banana skin was thrown towards Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after he had scored against Tottenham.

Addressing the presence of racism in wider society, Sterling said: “We can only bring awareness to the situation. It is not just young black men I want to reach out to, it is young kids growing up in diverse cities.

“We have a diverse country, it is 2019 and there are a lot of different phases [in our history]. It is bringing awareness to let people know that because these are new times, it is different. I can only, we can only, the FA can only do so much. We have got to leave this to the people in charge to really try and make a proper stance on it. Just banning one or two people is not going to change anything. If it was our fans, I would say exactly the same thing.”

Sterling celebrated scoring England’s fifth goal by cupping his ears in defiance at the Montenegrin Ultras who had also chanted “F*** you, England” during the game.

Uefa are set to launch an investigation after the organisation’s matchday delegate was made aware of several incidents by Football Association staff. Anti-discrimination partner FARE also had an official in attendance and have compiled evidence which is likely to be used in the case. And Sterling urged Uefa to take firm action to stamp out the problem in the stands.

“It wasn’t just one or two people that heard it,” said the 24-year-old. “I think the whole bench heard it and some of the families heard it.

“It is a shame we are talking about this. It is 2019 and I think there should be a real punishment for this, not just for the few people being banned.

“It needs to be a collective thing. This stadium holds 15,000 and I think the punishment should be that as a nation your fans are chanting racist abuse so I think it should be the whole stadium can’t watch it.

In Pictures | Montenegro vs England | 25/03/2019

1/60

“Then when that ban is lifted your fans will think twice not to do anything silly like that because they all love football, they all want to be there to support their nation so it will make them think twice to do something silly like that.

“It is a shame really because it was a massive team performance at a difficult ground, a difficult place to come.

“We knew how difficult it would be, we knew it would be hard at times but we stuck together as a team and there were some great performances in there today but then a couple idiots, mind my language, but a couple of idiots ruin a great night.

“I just wanted to let them know that they need to tell me more than that we are black and what we resemble to affect us really. That was the message really, I was happy to score and give them something to talk about.”

Initial reports suggested Rose was abused midway through the first half and photographers stationed to the side of the pitch closest to where Rose was playing at left-back reported that he was consistently targeted throughout.

The loudest monkey chants came at the end of the game as Rose was booked for a late tackle which sparked a melee. Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, who made his first senior start as did West Ham midfielder Declan Rice, confirmed he heard what he described as “ooh, ahh, ahh monkey stuff”.

A spokesman for the Montenegro FA claimed during coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic’s post-match press conference that “nobody heard any racist chanting” but Southgate insisted: “There’s no doubt in my mind that happened and we’ll report it to Uefa.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in