Ronaldo: 'Footballers must scream about racism'

| 10 July 2020

Sports stars have taken the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ronaldo says the battle against racism is everyone's fight and called on his fellow footballers to use their voice to "scream" about the issue.

The Brazilian discussed Black Lives Matter with FIFA president Gianni Infantino during the World Football Summit on Friday, a movement which has gained a great deal of support among sports stars who have taken the knee before matches.

The Premier League gave its backing to what its chief executive Richard Masters sees as the "moral cause" of achieving equality between people regardless of colour, and World Cup winner Ronaldo made it clear that can only be achieved if everyone works towards that goal.

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Os FIFA Legends dizem não ao racismo e a qualquer forma de discriminação. Também dizemos não a toda forma de violência . . FIFA Legends say no to racism and any form of discrimination. We also say no to violence in all its forms #stopracism #stopdiscrimination #stopviolence

A post shared by Ronaldo (@ronaldo) on Jun 4, 2020 at 11:11am PDT

"The fight against racism is not a fight for black people – it is everybody's fight," the 43-year-old said.

"We have to fight it every day. No one is born a racist, somehow they learn to be racist. We have to fight when they are kids. We have to fight every day and every time.

"Black people follow (footballers) in this fight. We have a voice, a loud voice, we have to scream to the people about that.

"I was very glad to participate in the (FIFA Legends) campaign against racism because I suffered in the past too.

"We have to continue to fight and as former football players with a big audience on social media we have to continue to fight every day."

Infantino added: "It is important to make the voice of football heard and to show tolerance. It is a simple message that everybody should understand."