Paul Pogba explains why 'ignorance' made him make a stand on racism in football

Paul Pogba has revealed why he decided to take his own stand on racism in football.

Pogba asked his Manchester United team-mates to wear anti-racism wristbands during the warm-up before their 4-1 Boxing Day win over Newcastle .

United's club record £89million signing said the move was inspired by his dismay at the recent spate of racist abuse directed at players in the Premier League and all over Europe.

Jesse Lingard and Fred claimed they were targeted during United's 2-1 derby win over Manchester City , while Chelsea's Antonio Rudiger suffered a similar experience against Tottenham .

Pogba designed the wristbands, which displayed the slogans 'No to racism' and 'We are one', himself and said he decided to act rather than wait for football's authorities to do something.

Paul Pogba wore anti-racism bracelets against Newcastle (Getty Images)

"I was thinking about doing this for a long time,” said Pogba.

"I remember when I was younger about 'Stand Up, Speak Up', something like this. It just reminded me of that.

"A lot of players in a lot of leagues - not only in Premier League, in Italy, Spain, everywhere - and we keep hearing this.

Recent incidents prompted the Man Utd superstar into action (Getty Images)

"We're 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]. I didn't want to go through UEFA or FIFA. I did it myself.

"The team-mates, we did it. Fred, Andreas, everyone, we're against that. We're just for football, enjoying football. We do what we love.

Pogba encouraged team-mates to wear the wristbands on Boxing Day (paulpogba/Instagram)

"We give joy to the fans, to everyone, to all the spectators and that's all we want to see in the stadium.

"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.”

Pogba showed off the wristbands on social media (paulpogba/Instagram)

Pogba claimed the scourge of racism was down to ignorance and said he hoped his gesture would go some way to tackling the ongoing problem of abuse from the stands.

"I think it's ignorance,” said Pogba. “Ignorance and stuff like that, and [it was] just to show people that you're all one, we're all one."

“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, Chinese or whatever who you are, there is only one race.”