MY ACCOUNT
Rio Ferdinand called on football federations to take more action against racism after a banana was thrown at Richarlison during Brazil’s 5-1 friendly victory over Tunisia on Tuesday.
A banana appeared to land near Richarlison as the Tottenham forward celebrated scoring Brazil’s second goal near the corner flag at Parc des Princes in Paris.
The incident comes after Vinicius Junior, Richarlison’s international team-mate, was told by a Spanish agent to “stop playing the monkey” in relation to his goal celebrations.
Richarlison himself received criticism last month when he started doing kick-ups late in Spurs’ 2-0 away win at Nottingham Forest.
And former England international Ferdinand believes it is wrong that, in his view, Richarlison received as much condemnation for his showboating against Forest as Tuesday’s incident with the banana has.
“You’ve got your own kids waking up and saying: ‘Dad, have you seen that banana thrown on the pitch at Richarlison?’ It’s madness,” Ferdinand said on his FIVE YouTube channel.
“There was probably as much vitriol and hysteria on social media and in the media in general as there were with this banana incident, racism incident, as there was when Richarlison was doing kick-ups.”
The Manchester United legend also believes more should be done by footballing powers, adding: “I’m not saying football can change or cure racism because I would be an idiot to think that.
“Football can play a good part in highlighting issues and standing together, standing strong and standing unified to make the authorities and powers that be put things in place to protect people, but it ain’t happening. It’s disheartening.
“Another day racism is okay and welcomed in football. Look at the reaction to the stuff with Vinicius Jr. I don’t see the federations coming out and absolutely backing these players and going absolutely against it or a big press conference being called and saying ‘we ain’t having this’.”
