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Sports News of Friday, 27 December 2019

Source: Fotmob

Pogba moves against 'football ignorance' by launching Anti-Racism Wristbands

Manchester United and France midfielder, Paul Pogba Manchester United and France midfielder, Paul Pogba

Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has moved against football ignorance by launching a selection of anti-racism wristbands to show his support for players from around the world who have faced abuse.

Players such as Kalidou Koulibaly, Jesse Lingard and even Pogba himself, have all been victims of racist abuse from fans inside the stadium and on social media.

Recently, Chelsea's Anthony Rudiger also reportedly faced racial abuse from Tottenham fans after monkey chants were aimed towards him in the premiere league game.



To try and raise awareness, ?Pogba wore black and white wristbands in the warm-up for his side's 4-1 win over ?Newcastle United which read 'No to racism' and 'We are one', and he later gave his to a young fan in the crowd.

"It was my idea to do that," Pogba said (via ?Sky Sports News). "I mean, I've been thinking about doing this but I don't want to go through the UEFA or the FIFA. I [have] done it myself. I think we have the chance to have this power to show things in football, on TV. People see it so I think that will make people understand some things.

"I mean, by hearing things every week. We keep seeing it again and again in a lot of stadiums. It's just to show that, to give support to all the players - I mean, black or white or Chinese or whatever who you are. But there is only one race.

"And just to show respect to everyone. Like I said, we are all one. We all came here to enjoy football, to enjoy ourselves and to do what we love."

Pogba specifically mentioned his support for a number of recent victims of racism, including Koulibaly, Everton's Moise Kean and United teammates Lingard and Fred, while he also stood with Chelsea defender Antonio Rüdiger, who alleged to have been targeted by a Tottenham Hotspur fan.

"I remember when I was younger about 'Stand Up, Speak Up', something like this. It just reminded me of that," Pogba added. "I mean, a lot of players in a lot of leagues - not only in ?Premier League, in Italy, Spain, everywhere - and we keep hearing this [racism].

"I don't want [be] president, I don't want to [be] a politic guy. We are just football players, we want to enjoy that. The fans needs to enjoy coming and seeing some nice football and that's it. So, this is to show that we're against that [racism]."