Andros Townsend has applauded Danny Rose’s “bravery” in revealing his true feelings about racism and, following a shameful weekend for English football, is urging other players to exhibit similar honesty.
Four separate reported instances of alleged racial abuse before, during and after Premier League and Football League matches on Saturday appeared to emphasise a problem highlighted only last week by Rose. The England and Tottenham left-back said he could not wait “to see the back of” football because of frustration at the lack of action taken against spectators guilty of racial abuse.
Townsend has never experienced racism during his career and had hoped it was well on the way towards eradication in England but recent events, including the abuse Rose and some teammates experienced during the recent Euro 2020 qualifier in Montenegro, have concerned the Crystal Palace winger.
“Luckily, so far, I haven’t experienced racism but I know Danny has on more than one occasion,” he said. “He’s experienced it with the England Under-21s and the seniors in Montenegro the other day. Danny’s a very brave man for coming out, being so honest and speaking the truth. Obviously I sympathise with him; we all support him.
“We need more players like Danny to come out, be honest and speak the truth, to say what they really feel. Danny’s an incredible person; hopefully the system can help Danny and he can enjoy his football again.”
Townsend, who began his career at Tottenham and has also played for England, is dismayed at the growing need for his peers to “call out” instances of abuse. “Racism’s crept back into our game a little bit, which is not great so we need Danny and the young lad at Juventus [Moise Kean, a victim of racist abuse from Cagliari fans] to speak out because that will force action,” he said.
Townsend, whose father, Troy, is education manager at the anti-racism group Kick It Out, was speaking following a Palace victory at Newcastle secured when Wilfried Zaha cleverly drew a foul from DeAndre Yedlin and won the decisive penalty.
Later on Saturday Zaha used social media to retweet an online message branding him “a diving monkey”. By then a series of parallel allegations regarding racist abuse in English league games on Saturday had also surfaced.
Brentford said a season ticket holder had been arrested at Griffin Park after allegedly racially abusing Derby’s recently substituted Duane Holmes during a 3-3 draw in west London and Wigan’s Nathan Byrne posted an image of an offensive direct message he received on Twitter following a 2-2 draw at Bristol City. Wigan reported the matter to police.
1 A number of Northampton Town players are racially abused on a pre-match walk in Nottingham, the club say
2 Brentford season ticket holder is arrested after allegedly racially abusing Derby’s Duane Holmes
3 Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha retweets a message branding him a ‘diving monkey’
4 Wigan report to police a racist message sent to their wing-back Nathan Byrne which wishes him and his family dead
Meanwhile two Northampton players used social media to report that some of their squad had been racially abused by a young man while on a pre‑match team walk through Nottingham before their League Two draw with Notts County. Northampton later said “a number of the first-team squad were racially abused” and called for anyone with information to get in touch. “We would like to highly commend our players for the professional manner in which they handled the situation,” the club added.
With Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling recently urging the relevant authorities to take “a proper stance” against racism and Kick It Out monitoring the responses of the Football Association, clubs and police, Townsend hopes the landscape will change for the better.
“I don’t know why racism’s still going on,” he said. “We’ve got to move on in football and kick it out as much as we can. Hopefully the relevant organisations will do their best to stamp it out like the one my dad works on. They’re working their very hardest to stamp it out once and for all.”
On Sunday the EFL said it was “saddened” and “disappointed” by the events on Saturday. “It was extremely disappointing that this happened as clubs up and down the country were raising awareness of such incidents as part of Kick It Out’s week of action,” it said. “We cannot and will not accept this type of reprehensible behaviour inside our stadiums.”