In 2012, England's Tottenham soccer defender Danny Rose had "monkey" chants and stones hurled at him while playing in a championship with Serbia. Now, he's worried his family will go through the same thing.
In an interview with Evening Standard, Rose opened up about playing in the upcoming World Cup in Russia and how racial abuse will affect his family's ability to watch him play in the biggest game in the sport. This would be his first World Cup.
“I’m not worried for myself,” Rose said. “But I’ve told my family I don’t want them going out there because of racism and anything else that may happen. I don’t want to be worrying when I’m trying to prepare for games for my family’s safety. If anything happens to me, it wouldn’t affect me like it would if my family had been abused. I’m fine with whatever may or may not happen, and I like to think I’ll be able to deal with it in the right way."
Rose's personal experience with racism is documented as he had to face monkey chants and stones being thrown at him under England U-21 duty in Serbia in October 2012.
"My dad's really upset. I could hear it in his voice. He said he may never get a chance again to come and watch me in a World Cup,” Rose continued.
Russia's racism issue, in particular, was recently thrust in the spotlight when FIFA fined their football union £22,000 for racist chanting lobbed at France players during their game back in March.
Rose wasn't really impressed with the slap-on-the-wrist reprimanding.
“A £22,000 fine is disgusting,” noted Rose. “What do they [Fifa] expect? I don’t want to sound arrogant but if I had been fined £22,000 – without sounding big-headed – it wouldn’t make a difference. A country being fined £22,000 is just laughable.”
“I’m just numb to it now. If I’m racially abused out there, I’m abused. Nothing is going to change. I just get on with it. It shouldn’t be like that but it is," he added.
Fans came together to commend Rose for using his platform to speak out against a longtime issue in the soccer industry.
This is just horrible…Danny Rose told family not to come to Russia because of threat of racial abuse.
"My dad's really upset. I could hear it in his voice. He said he may never get a chance again to come and watch me in a World Cup.”https://t.co/wLDWu4vGQj— Zachary Roth (@zackroth) June 6, 2018
This is so, so bleak: "I’m just numb to it now. If I’m racially abused out there, I’m abused. Nothing is going to change." https://t.co/6K4AsjHScL— James Maw (@JamesMawFFT) June 6, 2018
Heartbreaking to hear Danny Rose told his family not to come watch him play coz of racism. Once in a lifetime achievement, doing the fam proud n they can't see it for something shit like racism. Sickening #threelions— Suraj Grewal (@lfcsurajg69) June 6, 2018
Good to see Danny Rose coming forward & being brutally honest about racial abuse in football. Big names need to do this to eradicate it once & for all.— Harry Crawford (@THEMOVIEGUVNOR) June 6, 2018
If we know anything about Danny Rose is that he is not shy from speaking his mind so the @standardsport piece is not surprising in the slightest, especially considering his previous run in with racism in international football. Excellent write up by @Dan_KP— Chicago Spurs (@chicagospurs) June 6, 2018
Danny Rose using his platform the right way— Marco Polo (@KennMarco) June 6, 2018
