Antonio Rudiger: Ashley Cole admits not speaking out about racism as a player because of a lack of support
The former Chelsea was speaking after Rudiger alleged to have received racist abuse at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
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Your support makes all the difference.Ashley Cole has revealed he did not speak out about racist abuse suffered as a player because there was not “enough support” and his belief that “no-one cares”.
The former Chelsea and Arsenal defender was speaking after Antonio Rudiger alleged to have received racist abuse from home sections of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Blues’ win against Spurs.
Cole has recalled his own experience as a player and revealed his admiration for Raheem Sterling for publicly fighting against racism in a way he felt he could not.
“I praise Raheem for when he stood up and was brace enough to do it,” Cole said on Sky Sports. “Because I couldn’t do it because I thought no-one cares, and no-one’s going to listen.
“Again, it is kind of my fault because when I got abused, I didn’t come out, but I just didn’t feel like I had enough support. I think Raheem has changed it and he’s got the people at his side, where I didn’t think I had that.
“I’ve had a lot said to me. My job is to play football, I’m paid to play football, I love the game of football, so I’d rather show them in a different way and play football.
“I’m not going to start the drama again, but of course it’s happened.”
Gary Neville also recalled the abuse Cole suffered while playing together for England in Spain at the Bernabeu in 2004, admitting he did not think about it afterwards, while also urging the Premier League to take action and not wait on The FA.
“We’re talking about a micro-level, about an individual behind the goal, but it’s far deeper than that in the sense that, ultimately, Ashley was abused at the Bernabeu 15 years ago in a game I played in,” Neville added. “I sat in the dressing room at the end of that game and probably didn’t even give it a moment’s thought in the sense that we’re thinking of it as football players.
“You’re sat there in the changing room and you ultimately hear about it, there’s a media storm, the English media are calling for Uefa, for Fifa, for the Spanish authorities to deal with it, similarly recently with Bulgaria, but we have a racism problem in the Premier League in England, and the Premier League have got to stand up. They hide behind the FA on this issue in my opinion.
“They push the disciplinary and other issues over to the FA, yes we heard the announcements at the end, but I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. We’ve just seen a general election in this country where both main parties, and the leaders of both main parties, are accused constantly over the last month of fuelling racism and accepting racism in their parties.
“If it’s accepted in the highest office in the country, we’re not talking about it at a micro-level, we’re talking about it at an absolutely enormous level, the highest office in the country, and it’s the same here today. We’ve seen an incident, which to be fair we could say is down to one individual person, but it’s a far bigger problem than that. I think there has to be something that happens quickly. We maybe have to empower the players to walk off the pitch and stop the entertainment while it’s happening, because that’s the only way I can see it happening.
“Ultimately, I didn’t walk off the pitch when Ashely was abused 15 years ago, and ultimately he might argue that it’s now okay for me to sit here in my ivory tower and suggest that players should walk off the pitch. But I think ultimately, I would be ashamed of myself for not doing it 15 years ago as I would be absolutely proud of players now to empower them to think ‘do something about it, take it into your own hands’.
“The PFA have got to act, because ultimately the PFA are there to protect football players in this country, and football players in this country are receiving abuse while they’re playing football and doing their jobs. That is unacceptable, so the PFA might have to take it into their own hands if the Premier League and FA don’t, and stop pointing the finger towards the Bulgarian FA and the Spanish FA, because we have to deal with our own ship here.”
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