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What's the story?
England U-17 and Liverpool striker Rhian Brewster has revealed instances of racial abuse directed at his team-mate during the FIFA U-17 World Cup held in India.
In case you didn't know...
Rhian Brewster is a 17-year-old Liverpool player, who was part of the England squad which won the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and the striker won the Golden Boot award for ending as the tournament's top scorer.
He has appeared in several age categories for the England national team.
The heart of the matter
Brewster recently opened up about several cases of racial abuse he and his team-mates have suffered over the past year in an interview with English newspaper The Guardian. The 17-year-old chronicled seven episodes in which he or a team-mate were abused racially by their opponents.
As per Brewster's revelations, his team-mate, and Wolverhampton Wanderers player Morgan Gibbs-White was racially abused by a Spanish player during the FIFA U-17 World Cup final in October. He was quoted as saying, "As Morgan was running away, he (a Spain player) has called him a monkey."
The Liverpool youngster says he also faced racial abuse during last year's U-17 European Championship in Ukraine. The racial abuse continued in several club games in the UEFA Youth League including one against Spartak Moscow, wherein he had to be restrained by his team-mates at the end of the final whistle.
What's next?
English FA has made representations to UEFA and FIFA regarding the racial abuse allegations. They are still awaiting a response from the world governing body.
Author's take
Rhian Brewster's courage to come out and speak against racial abuse allegations is highly commendable at such a young age. It is distressing to see that such incidents still occur in the world of football. The governing bodies FIFA and UEFA need to be active on complaints and hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions.
