Lilian Thuram: It’s time to speak out and denounce every act of racism

Former World Cup winner, Lilian Thuram believes players should be brave in the fight against one of the most significant and recurring issues in football, racism.

In the latest edition of FOOTBALL NOW, Euronews speaks exclusively to France’s most capped player of all-time. The French legend has regularly spoken out against abuse and prejudice against players. It is a subject that is personal to Lilian as he experienced it himself during his professional career.

“I arrived in Italy in 1996 and even then, unfortunately, there were fans who made the monkey noise. I was already lucky enough to understand the mechanism of racism so I didn't suffer from that.”

Since hanging up his boots, Thuram has been trying to contribute to social change and released a book, 'White Thinking', drawing on personal experience and activist literature. He believes it’s important to educate society about the origins of racism and to encourage people, particularly white people, into thinking about societal structures and race.

“White people think that they are neutral in the history of racism. That is to say because they don't experience racism they think that in fact, they have nothing to do with it. And that's why, again, I'm trying to say that there is no neutrality.”

There is no denying that football has been rocked by racism on many occasions, including in 1988 when John Barnes famously backheeled a banana thrown onto the pitch in a match between Liverpool and Everton. Barcelona’s Samuel Eto'o said “No mas” [No more] and left the pitch, along with his teammates before returning after facing abuse against Real Zaragoza in 2006. Fast forward to 2011, one of the most controversial moments in the Premier League was when Luis Suarez racially abused