Super Eagles and Celtic striker Kelechi Iheanacho has called for stronger measures to be taken in the fight to completely eradicate racism and racial abuse from football, Footynaija.com reports.
Throughout the weekend of October 17th to 19th, Scottish Premier Football League teams stood in solidarity and support for the anti-racism message promoted by the charity Show Racism the Red Card.
As part of the campaign, Nigeria international Iheanacho, who has spent virtually all of his senior career in Europe, shared his thoughts on the sad phenomenon that has plagued the beautiful game for ages in an interview with Sky Sports.
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“I understand in this world, there are different cultures, different types of people. But we all have one colour of blood and that makes all of us the same,” Iheanacho began.
“People have different languages and how they think and all that. Maybe something happens and people start to racially abuse some other people and some of us footballers can handle it while others, to be fair cannot handle it.
“ So it’s a good movement to do [taking a stance against racism] and hopefully, the government body can obviously try and do something about it.”
Social media abuse and how Kelechi Iheanacho handles it
Iheanacho is no stranger to racism and abuse, having been targeted by fans on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in 2019. The former Leicester City forward explained how he copes with such situations.
“To be fair, I don’t know the owners of these social media and how they are handling it. Obviously people can put messages on whatever social media platform, abusing people and all that.
“If someone abuses somebody in the stadium, the person is physically present so they can take him or something but on social media you cannot get hold of the person.
“As a football player in terms of you playing in a team and all that you might get your stick when it is not going really well. I don’t really look too much into social media. But not that you cannot see some things that people put on social media about you.
“But it doesn’t affect me in any way because I choose to concentrate on my football and what I am doing because it is the most important thing. But don’t get me wrong, we are human beings so everyone’s got feelings.”
The English Premier League also joined their Scottish counterparts in echoing the “no room for racism” message over the weekend with players taking the knee just before kick-off across every match center in England.
Meanwhile, Iheanacho has enjoyed a decent start to his time Celtic but the Nigerian forward was unable to help the Hoops as they slipped to that disappointing 2-0 defeat to Dundee FC over the weekend.
