Rio Ferdinand has claimed players are “tired and disillusioned” with football authorities' lack of action on racism.
Former England defender Ferdinand is one of the most powerful voices in the game and he believes it is time for players to come together to take a stand. Ferdinand was invited to a Premier League board meeting last week to address the issue and warned football is not doing enough - and the players have had enough.
Ex-Manchester United star Ferdinand, who has made a powerful new Amazon documentary on the subject, believes players should set up their own action group and even follow the NBA’s basketball stars in the United States by going on strike.
Ferdinand said: “Players can do more. But the messaging has always been so fragmented and scattergun. The Premier League are doing their messaging, the FA does theirs, the PFA, Kick It Out does theirs, Nike and adidas do theirs and you can go on and on.
“You look and if the players all stand together then there’s no more powerful voice in the game but it’s players. I can understand their scepticism and their cynicism at times because a lot of the players are tired of talking about these issues still.
“I think we need a voice at the table, someone to speak for the players but from the players. All these people sit around and talk for the players - why? How does that happen? We’re the ones that go through it, experience it, walk it and live it.
“I don’t anymore because I’m no longer a player so forget me, I’m just hopefully opening the door for them to all go in. Then take it where it needs to be taken and then someone be the mouthpiece, whoever that is. Without the players who are currently playing, I don’t see how it goes forward or how it works.
“Players are disillusioned with the authorities, the prosecution process is so slow, it’s like walking through treacle and you have to relive the incident as a player multiple times and you end up asking: ‘why am I going to do that?’
“I don’t think that alone will be enough but just look at the NBA players. They stood out a game. I hope it doesn’t have to come to that but I think the players… our generation weren’t brave enough, didn’t have the platforms to execute something like this.”
Ferdinand speaks to players during his three-part documentary series on racism, homophobia and mental health and he says the likes of Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Wilfried Zaha, Jordan Henderson, Troy Deeney and Romelu Lukaku deserve to be heard.
Ferdinand admits that he does not expect to solve the issue - but at least start the conversation. He added: “It’s tiring going over all this the whole time when you see that nothing tangible or concrete happens. That was the whole reason for these documentaries. We want to highlight the issues but also ask: ‘But what can we do now? What action can be put in place?’
Would you like to see players set up an action group to tackle racism? Have your say on how the situation can be improved in the comments.
“We’re not naive enough to think we can eradicate racism or homophobia but we can start a conversation which can start some meaningful and impactful work so the next wave of players and the next wave of fans don’t have to experience this s***.
“There are people who talk well on different issues. Marcus, Raheem at times, Jordan Henderson, Troy Deeney and Romelu. When Romelu speaks, he’s heard. Wilf has an opinion. I could go on.
“But it’s very much a case of he speaks over there, someone else speaks over there. Until that’s brought together, you don’t make real change and long, lasting sustainable impact. You don’t change the dial or change things up if you’re doing it alone.”
Rio Ferdinand’s Tipping Point launches on 11th November exclusively on Prime Video.
