Gary Neville believes that training courses on inclusiveness and diversity are needed to avoid situations like the one Edinson Cavani has found himself in.
The Uruguayan footballer landed himself in hot water after Manchester United’s win over Southampton for using a racially insensitive term in his Instagram story.
Neville believes that Cavani likely meant no harm and that systems should be in place so that similar situations can be avoided in the future.
“We hear the words education, we hear the words training and still football is incapable of putting a curriculum in place for its players, for its members and for its fans – that is compulsory.
“Why is Edinson Cavani not subjected to diversity and inclusion training and education the minute he comes into this country? Not to remind him of his duties, but to educate him.
“If we’re truly going to root out discrimination in this country it has to become part of a curriculum at school, it has to become part of a curriculum within sport.
“Still to this day in football, we have banners being held, we have players taking the knee, we only flags in the air, we have badges on our chest – where is the education and training?
? “It will continue to happen until there is education put in to place”@GNev2 thinks Edinson Cavani’s Instagram post incident could’ve easily been avoided pic.twitter.com/3uqebYcSHe
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 30, 2020
“This could have been prevented. We’re going to still continue to see incidents like this, where Edinson Cavani, when he posted that Instagram story, probably didn’t have a clue he was doing anything wrong,” Neville said.
The former Manchester United player believes that English football’s regulatory bodies are largely responsible for players’ ignorance when it comes to racial sensitivity.
The Sky Sports pundit called for the governing bodies to work together in an effort to stamp out racism from English football.
“The Premier League, the FA, the EFL, the League Managers Association and the PFA [are responsible]. There’s five of them!
“They’re all funded, they’ve all got lots of money. Put a diversion and inclusiveness set of protocols and processes in place that are fixed that all five buy up to.
“We’ve got five different slogans. Black Lives Matter – that’s been applied in football. We’ve got Show Racism the Red Card, we’ve got No Room For Racism, we’ve got Players Together.
“They can’t even come together on a singular campaign on something they should be one on.
“At least collaborate on important issues that are societal. Drive it out of the game. Root out discrimination. It’s got to be done by education and training,” Neville stated.