Gareth Bale says he would support a WALKOUT if Wales were subjected to racist abuse in a match… days after England players were targeted by vile chants in victory over Hungary
- Gareth Bale would back his team-mates in a walk-out if they were racially abused
- It comes after England players were subjected to racial abuse against Hungary
- Wales take on Belarus in Russia on Sunday in Group E of World Cup qualification
Wales captain Gareth Bale says he would support his players walking off the pitch were they to suffer racial abuse.
FIFA have opened disciplinary proceedings in relation to England’s World Cup qualifier in Hungary after England pair Jude Bellingham and Raheem Sterling were racially abused and targeted with monkey chants on Thursday.
‘If things don’t get sorted that will happen,’ Bale said about the possibility of players walking off the pitch.
Gareth Bale says he would back his Wales team-mates in a walk-out if they are racially abused
Raheem Sterling was among those who was racially abused by Hungary supporters this week
‘If anything happens to any of our players and they wanted to walk off the pitch I’d be fully for it.
‘Football qualifiers are important but these matters come way above football.’
Wales are in World Cup qualifying action against Belarus in the Russian city of Kazan on Sunday.
Bale added: ‘If we felt we weren’t getting protection and being treated the right way by the governing bodies and the only way to get the best response was to walk off, I’d be fully for it.
‘At the end of the day it’s the right thing to do and it’s more important than football.
‘We haven’t discussed it. But we’d have that discussion if it happened and we’d all agree on it as we’re a team that sticks together and if anyone is being targeted we’ll do the right thing.’
Bale said repeat racism offenders should be banned from international competition.
Bottles and flares were thrown at the England team as they cruised to a comfortable 4-0 win
He said: ‘It’s frustrating. I don’t know why they launch these investigations that take so long when it is clear to see. Action should be taken to stop it.
‘I don’t know the severity of what to do to but the easiest thing is … whether you ban the fans from the stadium or if they keep repeatedly doing it, which seems to be what is happening, then you ban the country from the competition.
‘If that country keeps making these horrible gestures, then maybe the best thing to do is to get rid of them, give them a suspension and hopefully they will learn their lesson that way.’
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