Danny Rose ‘can’t wait’ to retire because of football racism

published 5 April 2019

Tottenham and England defender Danny Rose says he “can’t wait to see the back of football” because of the lack of action over fans’ racism.

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“I’ve had enough,” he told the Daily Mirror. “How I programme myself is that I think I've got five or six more years left in football, and I just can't wait to see the back of it.

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He added: “Seeing how things are done in the game at the minute… It’s just – whatever, isn’t it? I just want to get out of it.

“That’s how I feel. I feel I’ve got five or six more years left and I just want to enjoy football as much as I can. There is so much politics and whatever in football and I just can’t wait to see the back of it, to be honest.”

To highlight his frustration with the lack of action on racism, Rose compared it to how Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino was given a two-match touchline ban after confronting the referee Mike Dean at the end of the 2-1 defeat at Burnley in February.

“You see my manager get banned for two games for just being confrontational against Mike Dean,” he said. “But yet a country can only get fined a little bit of money for being racist. It’s just a bit of a farce at the minute.”

Earlier this week, Juventus’ 19-year-old Moise Kean suffered racist abuse from the stands during a match at Cagliari. His team-mate Leonardo Bonucci suggested that Kean was partly to blame, drawing a chorus of criticism.

Raheem Sterling, Rose’s England team-mate, has previously hinted that players’ patience has run out. Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has said he will ask referees to be “brave” and stop matches when there is racial abuse from supporters.