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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dan Kilpatrick

Thierry Henry urges football to battle racism with ‘same energy’ as Super League opposition

Thierry Henry wants football to fight racism with the same energy seen in opposition to the European Super League but has described the upcoming social media boycott as “a start”.

Standard Sport will join clubs and all English football’s major governing bodies in suspending all social media activity from 3pm today until to 11.59pm on Monday, in response to the ongoing and sustained abuse received online by players and others connected to the game.

Arsenal legend Henry paved the way for the boycott, last month removing himself from all platforms in protest at the abuse.

“A lot of people are – I’m not saying waking up because everyone was aware of it – but now they’re loud about it and the same energy that they put with the Super League,” Henry told CNN Sport.

“It looks like we’re getting brave into trying to make those big companies answer to the question that we have, and I know it’s not easy also on their side, but that’s your job.

“[What] the world of English football is doing it at the minute and what’s going to happen at the weekend, people ask me: ‘Is it enough, the weekend?’ And I’m like: ‘It’s a start.’

“You know, you can’t be too greedy from not having anything to that. It’s a start. But yes, we have a voice, we have a voice altogether.

Henry says the social media boycott is ‘a start’AP

“We can actually make people aware of our disapproval and hope that things can change. If you don’t do anything, nothing would ever change…

“Maybe not this year, maybe not in two years, maybe not in three years. Maybe we might not see it, but you have to do something while you are passing by.”

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