Pep Guardiola proud of 'incredible' Raheem Sterling and says we have to fight racism which is 'everywhere'

Pep Guardiola has suggested that Raheem Sterling is an “incredible” person in the face of racism that the Manchester City manager believes is a society-wide problem.

Sterling allegedly suffered racist abuse on Saturday during City’s 2-0 Premier League defeat at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, who have suspended four supporters, preventing them from attending matches, while a police investigation into what happened is conducted.

The England winger subsequently wrote, in an Instagram post, that he “had to laugh” when he heard the alleged racist remarks during the game because he does not “expect any better”.

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Sterling also wrote that newspapers are helping to “fuel racism” through their portrayal of young footballers of different backgrounds.

Guardiola said: “The problem is that racism is everywhere, not just in football unfortunately. You think in football we'd be safe, but racism is everywhere.

“It is in what happens today to immigrants and refugees around the world in terms of how we treat them, when once in our lives we were refugees; our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, mothers were refugees.

“That’s why we have to fight it every day. There has to be zero tolerance on this issue.

“I appreciated what Chelsea did. If it happened in my club, we should do the same. We have to fight it for the human rights, to make a better society and future for everyone.

“Today it’s dangerous not just in England, but all across Europe [because] the message for politicians is for them to be tough on human rights. We have to defend democracy in the best way.”

Guardiola said he was proud of Sterling for speaking out against racism.

The City manager added: “He’s an incredible person. Raheem is an incredible human being. It’s tough to understand today what was happened to black people in history. We have to protect how equal we are all together.

“It’s tough in the 21st century to still be in this position. We have to be better.”

Guardiola stressed that society as a whole had to take responsibility for tackling racism, but acknowledged that the media had a key role to play in that.

He said: “The media has responsibility. You can write something and offend, create a conflict, of course. Today the real power is with the media, not politicians, not the governments, it's the media. That's why you have the possibility [to do something].”