Let me put it in black and white: racism has no place in football

events in Sofia last week and the players black experience "in Russia show international football still has a problem with racism

had a childhood dream. It was very simple: I wanted to grow as fast as possible and play football with my friends for a team of professionals. None of us cared about the team, so we were all playing together.

players from India, Pakistan, Africa, Ireland and England have represented our team, but of course did not happen. There were only eight

grew up in a multicultural city council, we were blessed with a healthy dose of color blindness. In fact, the first time that one of us has encountered racism was a big surprise, because, very often, which would be directed to the friend who had grown up.

sure that all friends of Theo Walcott, Ashley Cole and Ashley Young are, who stayed home to watch England play in Bulgaria for eight days with exactly the same knot in my stomach, feelings as he had then.

How

players must be eager to return to the sanctuary of the Premier League this weekend. Since the 1970s a huge amount of work has been done to eradicate racism from the terraces of the English game, and with great success.

remains strange incident. Dwight Yorke was subjected to monkey imitations of two Blackburn fans as he prepared to Birmingham at Ewood Park in 2004 and Ian Holloway Stoke fans accused of abusing Jason Euell race two seasons ago.

years I played in many a well-known hostility to the clubs away. Our team had a number of black players after the game three or four of us walked toward the team bus on the other side of the parking lot and saw three men coming the other way intimidating.

It was his son in tow, it must have been six or seven, jogging from time to time to hang out with adults. It reminded me of myself with my father and I used to walk twice as fast outside the stadiums, as the adrenaline take over.

As we approached, we felt they were looking for us. As we saw in the field, one of the black players looked up and drew the attention of the child, who just looked back and said, "Black".

remember absolutely horrified. The player in question laughed somewhere between disbelief and shock. No one says anything and everyone stopped. I do not know what is worse, listening to a child or his father did not move

My education and work done in football than men Brendan Batson great, it's easy for me to see the ugliness of racism.

In other countries with less of an ethnic mix, there is a long way to go. An African player is a good friend once played football in Russia. When a group of us go to lunch, we enjoy with stories of skinheads waiting for him and other black players out of training camp, and having to run home when he was persecuted. Keep in mind these are the fans of the team. He said he had asked the club to hire a security guard on his own - a request which was rejected because, in fact, the club would admit that I had a problem

I can not imagine what the player himself must have felt when he learned of the flag held by fans of Lokomotiv Moscow after the club sold the Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie. His farewell message was focused on an image of a banana with the words "Thank you West Brom."

The explanation of this flag by Alexei Sorokin, CEO of Russia's successful 2018 World Cup, was so ridiculous that it's not worth repeating.

Find best price for : --Peter----Lokomotiv----League----Premier--