Guardiola, Klopp and Pochettino back tougher racism action
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Updated 30/03/2019 at 11:01 GMT
Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino have joined a growing number of Premier League managers to voice concern over racism in football, and have called for tougher action to be taken.
Dele Alli, Callum Hudson-Odoi und Danny Rose (v.l.) bei Montenegro - England
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Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of Tottenham's match against Liverpool on Sunday, Pochettino told reporters that if his players receive racist abuse: “I am the first to say. ‘Stop, we are not going to play.’
“There is nothing more important in this life than to protect the values and principles and no-one can abuse.
“The most important thing is that you cannot make someone feel and treat them like that.”
This approach was backed by Liverpool manager Klopp, who said he would do whatever necessary to protect his players.
He said: “Whatever I could do, I would do. We have to stop games, we have to do everything.”
However, he felt the situation could be assessed depending on the severity of the abuse, adding: “If it’s the whole stand, then I would do it 100%, but that’s too much power for one or two or three or four idiots.”
The comments follow racist abuse directed at England players including Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi during their Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro last week.
Players and England manager Gareth Southgate reported hearing monkey chants during the match, which England won 5-1.
Speaking on Friday Guardiola backed City player Sterling, who celebrated scoring during the match by holding his hands to his ears and later tweeting: “Best way to silence the haters (and yeah I mean racists).”
Sterling later spoke of his disappointment, and called for tougher sanctions – including stadium bans – for teams whose fans are found to have racially abused players.
Guardiola, who said he believed racism in Europe was “getting worse” added: “The situation only changes when you do something…That is why when people like Raheem [Sterling] expressed what he did it is better for our society.”
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