AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng - lauded for walking off the pitch to protest abuse by fans -- on Thursday called for an end to racism in the sport, likening it to a virulent disease that blighted the game.
The 26-year-old Ghana international told a United Nations anti-discrimination meeting in Geneva that he had repeatedly tried to ignore racism from fans during his career but concluded that the only way to stop it was to tackle it head-on.
“Racism doesn’t go away. If we don’t confront it, it will spread,” he told delegates.
“The big problem with racism is that there is no vaccine for it. There are no antibiotics that you can simply take. It is like an extremely dangerous and contagious virus. It is emboldened by our indifference and inaction.”
Boateng’s stand against racism has been seen as a watershed in how the problem is tackled, amid debate about whether football’s world governing body Fifa and its European counterpart Uefa, as well as clubs, were doing enough to eradicate it.
The Berlin-born playmaker, whose mother is German and father Ghanaian, made headlines worldwide in January when he stormed off the pitch 26 minutes into a friendly against Italian fourth division club Pro Patria.