The brazen public showings of racism in football are down to one thing, according to longtime Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure.
“Fans, people, now are more stupid than before.”
[ MORE: Premier League schedule ]
Toure poke out Thursday, saying he’s approached FIFA about combatting the problem. He played for Chinese Super League side Qingdao Huanghai this season, scoring twice with three assists in 14 matches.
He’s says it’s going to be a long road to the erasure of such heinous incidents. Despite the commonplace nature of racism, Toure says the incidents don’t fail to stun him.
“Of course it is shocking because we are in 2019. In 2020, 2025 we have the kids coming through – what are we going to do? You can’t continue like that.”
The incidents have been many:
- A Burnley fan was investigated for alleged abuse of Spurs’ Heung-min Son.
- Brescia’s Mario Balotelli has suffered abuse multiple times.
- A Man City fan was caught abusing Manchester United mid Fred.
- Paul Pogba was abused by his own club’s fans after missing a penalty kick.
- Lazio fans chanted racial abuse at Chelsea loanee Tiemoue Bakayoko.
We could go on.
It doesn’t help that Serie A attempted to combat increasing incidents in Italy by using monkeys in its anti-racism campaign. That came after all 20 clubs in the league united to call racism “a serious problem.”
Follow @NicholasMendola