STEVEN Gerrard has revealed he will give his unequivocal backing to his Rangers players if they decide they want to walk off the park in protest at being subjected to racial abuse in future.
Gerrard admitted yesterday he was still in shock at the alleged slur directed at Glen Kamara in the Europa League last 16 game with Slavia Prague at Ibrox on Thursday night.
The Liverpool and England midfielder asked the Finnish internationalist if he wanted to leave the field after he was targeted by rival defender Ondrej Kudela towards the end of a game.
The former Arsenal man, who was accused of physically attacking Kudela “with his fists” in the presence of Gerrard in a Slavia statement that was released following the match, stayed on the park until the final whistle.
However, the Rangers manager stressed he will have no problem with any member of his team, or even his entire side, choosing to come off if it happens again and stated they would have his full backing if they did so.
England players vowed to flout UEFA protocols – European football’s governing body has a three step process for dealing with racist abuse - and walk off if they were subjected to offensive chanting from fans before a Euro 2020 qualifier with Bulgaria in Sofia in 2019.
Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir players walked off in the first-half of a Champions League game in December after the fourth official allegedly made a racist remark about a member of the Turkish club’s coaching staff.
“I think as a manager in this situation your natural instinct is to speak to the player involved and get a gauge or a guide from him what he wants me to do,” said Gerrard.
“But whatever Glen wanted to do I would have given him 100 per cent support and backing for him in that decision.
“Having spoken to him after the game he said he wasn’t thinking right in terms of making that type of decision. He wanted to continue and see the game out. We decided to go with that.
“If I was put in the other situation, where the player didn’t want to carry on or my team didn’t want to carry on I would give them the same level of support. In terms of how much power each decision makes I think it is difficult to gauge.
“It is an unfortunate situation, really frustrating. I am shocked by it still now. But moving forward I will continue to be whatever support I can be to my players.”
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