Birmingham City striker Troy Deeney urges all footballers to report every instance of racism to the police; He says: "If I was to react and say the same level of abuse back I'd be on Sky, I'd be everywhere, there'd be punishments for me - but there isn't for these individuals"
Wednesday 22 September 2021 06:26, UK
Troy Deeney has revealed he experiences "30-40 incidents" of online racist abuse every week.
The Birmingham City striker has urged all professional footballers to report every instance of racism to football's authorities and to the police so that the sheer volume of cases cannot be ignored by the government and social media companies.
"Whether it's a picture of me, my wife, the kids - there are no limits to people's anger," he told Sky Sports News, confirming he "easily" receives up to 40 racist messages online every week.
"I'm a marmite individual, some people love me, some people don't. You can talk about my football as much as you want - I just don't understand why you have to talk about the colour of my skin or try to make me feel less for being an individual of colour.
Whether it's a picture of me, my wife, the kids - there's no limits to people's anger.
"There's an angry whole kid inside of me that wants to smash everything, then there's a side of me that gets sad and probably that's the age and the parent in me that's just like 'it's a sad state of affairs when people can go online and say whatever they want, however they want and there are no repercussions for it.
"If I was to react and say the same level of abuse back I'd be on Sky, I'd be everywhere, there'd be punishments for me - but there isn't for these individuals.
"My daughters are very young, they're very aware that being kids of colour - they're different to others. It's very strange conservation to have with a six or seven-year-old to make them feel that they belong, whether that be in schools or whatever capacity that may be in - 'why is my hair not the same as that girl's, why is my skin different?'
"It should just be that we're all different but we all go to the same schools. When you hear these comments online you think it's sad they're coming into that."
Deeney was speaking at a special police event at Birmingham's training ground, where the UK's first football hate crime officer made a presentation about how players can report racist incidents that they experience.
"When you're a young player you're not aware of the amount of support you have," Deeney added.
"In football you're made to feel like your superhuman - 'I'm big, I'm strong' - so you never want to be labelled as a victim.
"You don't want to feel like you're a victim or you're complaining because that's classed as weak so it's about breaking down barriers and understanding that going to speak to a player liaison officer or your agent doesn't mean that you're weak, it just means that you're probably stopping somebody else from feeling that pain you're currently feeling."
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