Gareth Bale: Wales captain would support team-mates walking off pitch if racially abused | Football News
Gareth Bale says he would support his Wales team-mates walking off the pitch if they were to suffer racist abuse during a game.
FIFA have opened disciplinary proceedings in relation to England’s World Cup qualifier in Hungary on Thursday after England pair Jude Bellingham and Raheem Sterling were racially abused and targeted with monkey chants.
“If things don’t get sorted, that will happen,” Bale said about the possibility of players walking off the pitch.
“If anything happens to any of our players and they wanted to walk off the pitch, I’d be fully for it.
“Football qualifiers are important but these matters come way above football.
Sunday 5th September 1:30pm
Kick off 2:00pm
“If we felt we weren’t getting protection and being treated the right way by the governing bodies and the only way to get the best response was to walk off, I’d be fully for it.
“At the end of the day, it’s the right thing to do and it’s more important than football.
“We haven’t discussed it. But we’d have that discussion if it happened and we’d all agree on it as we’re a team that sticks together and if anyone is being targeted, we’ll do the right thing.”
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Raheem Sterling was racially abused by a Hungarian fan during England’s 4-0 World Cup qualifying win in Budapest on Thursday (warning: this footage contains a racist gesture)
Welsh duo Rabbi Matondo and Ben Cabango are among a large number of professional footballers who were targeted with racist abuse online last season.
Bale said countries with supporters that are guilty of committing multiple racism offences could be punished by being banned from international competitions.
He added: “It’s frustrating. I don’t know why they launch these investigations that take so long when it is clear to see. Action should be taken to stop it.
“I don’t know the severity of what to do to but the easiest thing is… whether you ban the fans from the stadium or if they keep repeatedly doing it, which seems to be what is happening, then you ban the country from the competition.
“If that country keeps making these horrible gestures, then maybe the best thing to do is to get rid of them, give them a suspension, and hopefully they will learn their lesson that way.”
Wales are in World Cup qualifying Group E action against Belarus in the Russian city of Kazan on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Football from 1.30pm (kick-off 2pm).
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