"If you want to create change, you've got to start at the top. There's no one of color in any prominent position at our FA ... you look at UEFA, you look at FIFA" Les Ferdinand urges football's governing bodies to diversify in order to tackle racism. Les Ferdinand began his career as a young footballer in England's amateur leagues in the early 1980s, before being signed by QPR in the top tier of English football..He is the cousin of football-playing brothers Rio and Anton Ferdinand
Racist abuse was a common feature for black footballers in England during his playing days but he is exasperated that players are still forced to confront it in 2019. Ferdinand says the lack of diversity at the very top of the sport is one of the reasons why racists in the stands continue to act with impunity...
"I played non-league football before I made it as a professional footballer and that [racism] was probably a regular occurrence," he says. "Back then, things were said, jokes were made that people thought were acceptable.
"I let people know it wasn't acceptable in whatever way I needed to, but it was part and parcel of playing football back then. We're talking about the late '70s, early '80s, those sorts of times and I went through that sort of thing as a player but I loved playing football, I carried on playing.
"We're sitting here 40 years down the line, 30 years down the line, still talking about the same issues but not just in non-league football, we're talking about professional ranks where things can be done about it and people choose not to do anything about it."
Currently, less than 1% of senior roles involved in the running of football clubs in the UK are held by an individual of a black or minority ethnic background...Ferdinand is one of that small number, holding the position of Director of Football at English second tier club Queens Park Rangers.
UEFA's Executive Committee, there is just one black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) member, Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi...UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body -- the board that decides on the punishments handed out for incidents of racist abuse -- is made up of only white members.
"Our disciplinary committee and other committees should be more and more diverse," ... "We have to bring black members in and we have to bring in more women.
"For me, UEFA, FIFA and all the people involved in this may as well have stood in the stands with those people that were making the Nazi chants, or the Nazi salutes and the monkey chants,"
"If you want to create change, you've got to start at the top. There's no one of color in any prominent position at our FA ... you look at UEFA, you look at FIFA" ..."The people trying to resolve the issues are probably middle class, well-educated, Caucasian people, who've never been racially abused," said Ferdinand.
"So when you're handing out a punishment for something you have no idea about, the punishments become very, very lenient, as we keep seeing time and time and time again.
"They can't [make these decisions] and that's why the punishment is what it is, because they have no idea what being racially abused feels like. So they hand out punishments that are just irrelevant.
"For me, the people in power can solve this problem if they want to but they don't really want to solve it because it doesn't affect them."
Before the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, some fans of the Merseyside club -- 14 of which were found guilty of manslaughter -- caused the deaths of 39 people in a crush.
UEFA banned all English clubs from European competition indefinitely as a result of the tragedy, eventually lifting the ban in 1990, though Liverpool was handed an extra year's ban.
But yet when it comes to handling punishments for clubs that have had their fans repeatedly racially abuse Black player FIFA/UEFA have dealt with them with kiddy gloves.. There hasn't been a stronger message sent to combat racism in Football.
"After the Heysel disaster, we were kicked out of Europe for five years," Ferdinand says. "Now, I know for a fact it wasn't a majority of England supporters that were going and causing problems. It was a minority.
"But the minority got the majority punished and since then -- unfortunately, this hooliganism thing has started to raise it's ugly head again -- we're not seeing anywhere near the problems we used to see before.
"English supporters, people that support their clubs up and down the country, want to see their clubs playing in the Champions League so they don't have the violence that was going on many years ago. So sometimes, you have to punish the majority because of the minority."
Ferdinand made his England debut in February 1993 against San Marino, scoring the final goal in a 6–0 victory at Wembley. He was capped 17 times, scoring five goals. He was part of the Euro 96 and 1998 FIFA World Cup squads.
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