Patrice Evra criticises culture of ‘toxic masculinity’ in men’s football

Patrice Evra has criticised a culture of “toxic masculinity” in men’s football as he called on sporting institutions to face up to the endemic violence experienced by athletes at all levels.

The former Manchester United and France captain is a survivor of sexual abuse and was speaking at a gathering of European politicians and sporting bodies on the problem of violence – sexual, physical and psychological – in sport.

“When you get abused, for whatever reason, you don’t talk,” Evra told a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) in London. “It’s not easy to talk because you feel guilty, you feel shame about yourself and also you don’t know if people will believe you.

“That’s why it’s difficult to talk. Especially in football where there is such toxic masculinity. If a player came and said, ‘This happened to me’, you don’t want to play with that player. Even crying in football is not allowed. If I had spoken out when I was a player I don’t think I would have been treated with the same respect.

“I was sexually abused at the age of 13 by my headteacher. Something I survived, but at what price? It cost me a lot. It was only when I was 38 that I was able to tell my story, to my wife. One in two children will experience some kind of violence in their childhood. It might happen in a football team, in school or out of school. But we never talk. And communication is the key. We need to break the taboo [around] talking about child sexual abuse.”

Experts spoke of the need to join the dots between all forms of violence perpetrated against children and young athletes, with estimates of millions of victims of abuse across the world. There is no global framework for reporting and monitoring abuse, and