 'When I was growing up, there was racist stuff said but you just had to deal with it, let stuff slide. My dad was a black man who went out with a white lady and that was almost seen as criminal. 'He got spat at. I've got kids and I don't want them to have to deal with this. We should have evolved past this. Why am I having to explain this stuff to my kids?' The documentary laid out the cold, hard facts. Football-related arrests for racist and indecent chanting were at their highest level for five years in the 2019/20 season, and there was a 48% increase in online racist abuse for the 2020/21 season. When Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final shootout, their social media pages were flooded with racism. 'Colour meant nothing when){kind=link}
Rio Ferdinand’s Tipping Point docuseries on Amazon Prime shows the former footballer as a man worn down by shocking racist abuse, but ending racism is a goal worth battling for, writes Sara Wallis
There’s an ugly side to the Beautiful Game and football legend Rio Ferdinand has clearly reached crisis point.
Who can blame him? Racism is rife in the sport and Rio has been racially abused his whole life.
His dad was spat at for being black and the former England defender and hundreds of other players face constant online abuse, such as messages with monkey and banana emojis and the awful N-word.
Now Rio wants to know why football authorities and social media companies aren’t doing more to shut it all down â and in his new heavy-hearted Amazon Prime docuseries, which launched on Friday, he called for serious measures.