Ian Wright slams UEFA and heralds moment of change in approach to racism
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Updated 14/10/2019 at 21:04 GMT
Ian Wright has slammed UEFA's handling of racist abuse after Bulgarian fans targeted England players with racist chants in Sofia on Monday evening.
Racism once again marred an England game with Bulgaria
Image credit: Getty Images
The match played out in front of a reduced capacity stadium in Sofia due to restrictions already in place for racist chants last time the two sides met. But a section of Bulgarian fans continued with racist chanting that almost led to the cancellation of the match.
And Wright said the scenes were "showing up UEFA for what they are" and highlighted their poor efforts to tackle racism, before praising the England players for their efforts.
Wright told ITV Sport: "We're looking at a stadium where half of it's closed with banners, that's done nothing.
"That's the extent of what they are doing to tackle racism in this country. What we can see is there's certain people there that have no respect.
At the end of the day, it's showing UEFA up for what they are. They're doing nowhere near enough, and I'm so proud that we're doing what we're doing at the moment.
"What you've got to understand now is you can feel physically sick. You've been on a football pitch, you know what it's like and you have to continue to play through that.
'But you don't now, and that's what's good. It's a great day, whatever anyone says.
"It's a terrible day for Bulgarian people and how they've been represented, but it's a great day with respect of trying to tackle racism.
"You can see from that stand with those banners, which mean nothing. What we're seeing is a set of fans that do not care and they need educating.
As a black player, we've heard it for many years about walking off. It's something you do not want to do. You need the white players to do that for you, so you can go off together because you are a team together. When that can happen, and you see how powerful that is, you can do something.
The first and second steps of UEFA's protocol were enacted - first a stadium announcement calling for a halt to the abusive chanting. A large group of fans were afterwards pictured leaving the stadium.
The stadium announcer said: "This is an important stadium announcement, because of racist behaviour which is interfering with the game, the referee has indicated that he may have to suspend the match.
"Racism in football stadiums will not be tolerated. Please be in no doubt that the game will be suspended and may be abandoned if racist behaviour continues amongst spectators. Help everyone enjoy the game and say no to racism. Thank you."
England went on to win the match 6-0.
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