Football and Race Special Newsround

Football, the national sport. We know it as the beautiful game, but

it can have an ugly side. Racism has a long history in the sport,

and after a number of high-profile incidents last season, it is under

the spotlight. I have been speaking to kids, Ex professionals and some

of the most important figures in the game to see it racism still

exists. Last year, the top flight of English football was different.

Manchester City were crowned champion for the first time in 44

years, of the season also made headlines for the wrong reasons.

Luis Suarez has been banned for eight matches and fined �40,000 for

racially abusing another player. October, Liverpool striker, Luis

Suarez was accused of racially abusing a Patrice Evra on the pitch.

The FA have banned him for 80 matches. John Terry was accused of

shouting and racist insult to Anton Ferdinand who plays for QPR. It was

taken to court and John Terry was found innocent. But the FA are

taking the matter further. And then in a cup-tie between a Oldham

Athletic and have a pool, a fan was rested after Tom Adeyemi reported

abuse from the stands. Those incidents puds racist abuse in

football back into the news. Back then, racism in football was a big

problem. Black players regularly abused. They even had bananas

thrown onto the pitch. Until recently, we assumed behaviour like

that was in the past. Paul Elliott played for teams in England, Italy

and Scotland, now he works with the anti- racism campaign, Kick It Out.

As a player, what was it like to be on the pitch and be racially

abused? Football has changed. It was a difficult working place,

because football on the field was my place of work. On many occasions

when I had possession of the ball, there was lots of monkey chanting.

I got racial abuse by supporters, at times by fellow professionals.

Football then and society was a difficult place indeed. How can you

cope with that on the pitch, trying to play the game? It's wasn't nice.

Many people thought it was normal, the regular thing and you have to

accept it. It took years of campaigning by top managers and

players at to make people realise that racism in football was

unacceptable. This story is shocking and it is clear we have

come a long way, but the John Terry and Luis Suarez incidents mean the

colour of a player's skin is something players and the fans used

to abuse each other. Danny Shittu plays for Millwall, and has

represented Nigeria at the World Cup. Do you think racism is still

in football? I have been playing for quite a few years. I personally,

have not experienced it. I have heard of it with a couple of my

friends and a couple of other professional footballers. I have

been in stadiums and the fans don't like you because you are playing

for the other team, but to suffer racial abuse must be hard to deal

with. You try to switch off, as a player. The even though you have

not suffered racial abuse, what goes through your head when you see

the high profile incidents? It is upsetting to see such things going

on. We just have to keep working at it. Players and people running the

game. Is it making strides? Definitely, but a lot of work needs

to be done. The phrases and is still an issue, what effect does it

have on other levels? This is a soccer Tiger made in London and a

train or kids to give them a helping hand of realising their

dream of becoming professional footballers. What did you think

about it? I thought racism had gone out of the game. I thought they

dealt with it a long time ago. that worry you when you see the

bigger stars of the game are doing this? It gives us the impression

that if we make it, it will happen to us. How do experience that?

me. Have you heard any racism? have heard it. We were playing a

tournament and after the game, the other boys were being racist to our

team. Even though it did not happen to you, how did it make you feel?

Angry. Being a Premier League start in itself is a really high place to

be, and if they do something bad it will have influence on a lot of

young children. These guys are not the ones to make the rules that

change attitudes in football. That has to happen at the top. You don't

get any higher than the man who runs FIFA, Sepp Blatter is in

charge of football around the world and I spoke to him. For the

hundreds and millions of people around the world, should they be

worried about the state of racism in the game? We know the game is

also the affected, but not so much by what we call discrimination or

racism. This is bad. It has to be kicked out. Is it a cause for

concern when some of the highest- profile players in the Premier

League, are those involved in alleged cases of racism? Absolutely,

we are worried about that. Players at the highest level, and coaches,

they must be an example. But they must be an example. Therefore, we

expect example of the great players. We also have another matter, which

is very important, a handshake, which is very special. This

handshake, where you have to look into the eyes of the people. This

is also something way you are my friend, we play football, you are

my opponent, but we will shake hands and I will respect you.

do FIFA want to be in terms of racism in football? And how do you

plan on getting there? I want to be in Zero Tolerance, and to be

accepted that zero tolerance is accepted by everybody. But this is

a long way to go. A pleasure talking to you.

It is not every day you get to speak to the most powerful man in

football. After spending time with him I am not sure how he wants to

tackle the problem. There are other organisations that have had to kick

racism out of the game. One man has trying to do that the last 20 years.

I have come to Wembley to meet him. Lord Herman Ouseley is the chairman

of Kick It Out, which he set up in 1993 to challenge discrimination in

football. One of the fundamental things in football like racism,

people who engage in these acts have very little respect for

themselves. These people look in the mirror and don't like

themselves, so they have to hate someone else and be disrespectful.

Iping we have got to get people to think good about themselves. Be

respectful about themselves, so they respect other people. That is

the challenge for all of us. Lord Herman Ouseley believes that to

kick racism out of the game millions of people love, we have to

change the way people think. Racism is a problem in society, not just

sport. But football has a responsibility to set the standard.

Whether what happened in the Premier League last season means