Recently, while playing for Birmingham, Troy Deeney and Neil Etheridge encountered racist incidents from the stands. The two have called for more definite rules and harsher penalties for anyone who engages in racist abuse.
Troy Deeney and Neil Etheridge have called for more to be done surrounding racism in football, with the striker comparing the culture inside stadiums to the film ‘The Purge’.Last month, a Birmingham fan racially taunted Deeney, and goalkeeper Etheridge also encountered bigotry while watching a recent game against Blackburn.
According to Deeney, when supporters gather inside stadiums, they feel as though they can do whatever they want, similar to the movie ‘The Purge’, a movie in which people are able to commit crimes for a 12-hour period without being punished.
Deeney told Sky Sports News: “I think the reason it’s so important and the reason that we partnered up in terms of what we’re trying to do to shed light, it’s a problem of discrimination across the board. It’s not a black issue, it’s not an Asian issue.
“We also attempt to marginalize it. Speaking about race, everyone believes that it only affects black players, but this is untrue. People of many backgrounds are experiencing it, and it is also happening to women in the workforce, among other things.” He added that “because we strive to segregate so many small issues, we never really address the underlying problem. In light of this, the reason we feel so strongly about it is because, if we band together and create the same noises now more people are involved, more eyes and ears about it and also different ethnicities are being registered just as much, it can bring about the proper attention toward racism and institute the proper changes”
