Yaya Toure has said FIFA is not doing enough to stamp out racism and that England should have walked off the pitch in the face of monkey chants during their Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria.
The 36-year-old former Barcelona and Manchester City midfielder made the comments to AFP after Qingdao Huanghai clinched promotion to the Chinese Super League at the weekend. England’s 6-0 victory in Sofia earlier this month was marred by racist chants and Nazi salutes from a section of Bulgarian fans.
The game was halted twice during the first half but England players opted to complete the match instead of walking off the pitch.
“This is a shame, why are you playing for England? They are always talking, ‘Blah, blah, blah’, and what? Nothing changes” Toure, who has been outspoken on football’s racism problem, said of the decision.
The four-time African player of the year said: “People from FIFA don’t care anyway because we’ve been talking about this, but it’s still continuing. I don’t want to say that I’m not concerned, I’m concerned”.
“They have to be serious about it, players need to make serious moves about it otherwise they (the racists) will continue to do that. They have to get the players out of the field. They respect nobody’.
Toure was speaking after he played a pivotal role for Qingdao in a 2-0 win on Saturday at Shanghai Shenxin, attended by just a few hundred spectators.