Former Liverpool man John Barnes has often spoken out about racism in football and society many times in the past having been racially abused when he was a player.
This morning, he was a guest appearing on the BBC Breakfast show, where he became involved in a heated discussion with presenter Naga Munchetty, as reported in the Daily Mirror.
Barnes was on the show to give his thoughts after it emerged that campaign group Kick It Out have found the number of racist incidents at football matches has increased by 40% in the Premier League.
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The former England winger has often said this is not a problem that should be thrown at the door of football, though, with society needing to be changed on the whole.
Munchetty questioned whether the high intensity environment of a football ground didn’t increase the amount of racist incidents.
When Barnes said perceptions needed to be changed, she said ‘football can’t do that’, to which Barnes responded: ‘exactly’.
The full transcript can be seen by clicking on the link to the Daily Mirror piece. Many viewers took to Twitter in order to praise Barnes’ stance, including @HHallis, as shown below.
John Barnes speaking absolute sense this morning and always has done when it comes to racism at football 👏👏👏👏#bbcbreakfast
— H 1889 (@HHallis) August 9, 2019