Patrice Evra has called on football to keep using its voice in the protest against racism after George Floyd’s death sparked a global outcry.
‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstrations have taken place across the world since Floyd was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin last month.
Ex-Manchester United left back Evra has joined a string of famous faces from the sporting world demanding an end to racial injustice.
Evra said: "Staying silent is a crime. Saying I am not racist is not good enough, because we know to be racist. We know to pretend to be not racist, but let's learn to be anti-racist because enough is enough.
"And like I always say, racism comes from education. No babies are born as a racist, no human being is born as a racist. So we know it is from education. I experienced racists all my life.
"But now let's talk about the actuality, the Floyd case. When I saw that video, I just felt lucky to be alive.
"We are all the same colour, we are all human beings but I will have the same speech if it was someone with a different colour skin to mine, because we are talking about killing people.
"I am not a politician, I am just talking with my heart. It is burning inside.
"So now, we need to change it. I know many people have lost lives. For them, we will have to keep fighting and to make that world a better place."
The former France international also revealed that he used to tell his black team-mates that 'we have to work harder than anyone else'.
"Some of my team-mates when we played games, they didn't understand some racist comments. And before the game I'd tell them: 'Make sure you give everything you've got, always remember the colour of your skin.
"'We have to work harder than anyone. And I say now we are on the pitch so make sure we give everything'.
"That was a motivation speech. But now, you can just die."
