RIP Laura Buckley Noonan
Search
06 Sept 2025
Search
06 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Former Wales striker Nathan Blake has warned black footballers could form their own players’ union if governing bodies do not tackle the issue of racism.
Blake believes it is no longer enough for abused players to be told to “score a goal and shut them up” and says black footballers could end up boycotting European Championships and World Cups.
“As I get older my thinking has been more and more that one or two things are going to happen,” 49-year-old Blake told a BBC Radio Wales documentary.
“There could be a union for black players and I think it’s going to get to a point where black players are going to say: ‘I don’t want to play in your World Cup, I don’t want to play in the European Championship’.
“You’re not contracted to play international football so my club is either going to have to support me or go against me.
“Now, if there’s seven or eight black players in the team and we’re all on the same page, that’s going to be a real powerful statement.”
Blake, who won 30 caps for Wales, said he encountered racism during a career which saw him make over 500 senior appearances at Cardiff, Sheffield United, Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves, Leicester, Leeds and Newport.
He said: “People still think it’s acceptable. I never understood how it came from your own team-mates and management structure.
“I always said if the coach said to all the players: ‘If you call him a name you’re out’, it stops.”
Robert Earnshaw, another former Wales striker, says he was the subject of monkey noises while playing international football abroad.
Earnshaw said: “FIFA have got a poor way of handling racism, a poor way of acknowledging it even. It’s just tick a box, we’ve got to do something.
“Fine them £10,000, take them out of the stadium for one game and move on because we’ve got a business to run.
“But the players have a lot of power and more influence now, they’ve got more of a voice because of social media.
“Younger players are more aware of their platform and that’s great.”
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
