Racism: Chelsea’s Rudiger wants ‘justice’ over abuse

Enough of football’s racists. Enough of being told to stay calm in the face of it and enough of the game’s inability to do anything about it.

New Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has claimed to have been subjected to abuse from the stands in Italy, while Lazio’s Senad Lulic was suspended for 20 days last December for “harmful and offensive” comments aimed at Rudiger.

Rudiger says his treatment left him feeling “alone” and the 24-year-old wants to see harsher sanctions taken against those found guilty.

“I just want justice,” he said. “I want Fifa or the FA in Italy just to suspend those people who do that.

“It is not all the people in Italy who are like that. If we always talk about racism in Italy, people think that all Italians are racist people and it is not like that.

“I just mean those specific people who do it. Those people need to be banned from the stadium or fined.

“You feel alone. People love to say ‘stay calm’ or ‘don’t do anything’. It is easy for you to say those things when you are not black and you never feel what it is like.

“You cannot even put yourself in my position of how that feels. In that moment, it is like this. You are alone. You have to be strong. But each human is different. Someone takes it and doesn’t react. Others react. I can understand both.”