Chelsea footballer Romelu Lukaku feels that more should be done against racism in football.
The Belgium striker says that players should adopt “stronger positions” than just taking the knee, calling for a players’ summit with social media companies, governments and stakeholders to help combat online racism.
“I think we can take stronger positions,” says Lukaku.
“We are taking the knee, everybody’s clapping, but sometimes after the game you see another insult.”
“We should just sit around the table and have a big meeting about it – how we can attack it straight away, not only from the men’s game, but also from the women’s game.”
Premier League players are taking the knee before games in a protest against racism and discrimination since the competition restarted in June 2020 after a three-month suspension caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lukaku believes the issue can be more successfully tackled if everybody works together.
“If you want to stop something, you can really do it,” he added.
“We as players, we can say: ‘Yeah, we can boycott social media,’ but I think it’s those companies that have to come and talk to the teams, or to the governments, or to the players themselves and find a way how to stop it because I really think they can.
“The captains of every team, and four or five players, like the big personalities of every team, should have a meeting with the CEOs of Instagram and governments and the FA and the PFA.”
“Football is joy, it is happiness and it shouldn’t be a place where you feel unsafe because of the opinion from some uneducated people.”
The FA and the PFA have approached Chelsea to arrange a dialogue with Lukaku.
“We always welcome conversations on this important subject with players and others across the game, and we have reached out to Chelsea directly to arrange a discussion with Romelu should he wish to,” an FA spokesperson said.
