Liverpool Starlet Rhian Brewster Opens Up on Vile Racial Abuse and Football Authorities' Inaction

Liverpool and England Under-17 star Rhian Brewster has had a sit-down with the Guardian, at his own request, to speak about racial abuse in football.

The 17-year-old, who won the Under-17 World Cup in 2017 as well as the tournament's Golden Boot, has experienced the sort of abuse a teenager should never have to go through, and he's quite eager to speak to the media about it.

Brewster can recall at least seven such incidents, involving both himself and teammates, with five of them taking place in the last seven months.

And fortunately, he's been assured, by Jurgen Klopp, Steven Gerrard and Liverpool co-owner Mike Gordon, that he will have Liverpool's backing through it all.

“I said to them that I wanted to do it,” Brewster said. “They said I should speak to my parents before doing anything and see what my mum and dad think. 

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"My mum and dad are unnerved because this is not the first time. They’re angry and they don’t want it to keep happening. And they’re angry because nothing has been done about it.

He then goes on to describe one of the incidents which took place only three weeks ago during a UEFA Youth League tie against Spartak Moscow at Prenton Park.

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“I got fouled,” he explains. “I was on the floor and I had the ball in my hands. One of their players started saying stuff in Russian to the ref. I said: ‘It’s a foul, man, what you playing at?’ I was still sitting down at this stage. Then their player leaned over me, right down to my face and said: ‘Suck my dick, you n**ger, you negro.’

“I jumped to my feet and the ref came running over because obviously he realised something had been said. He [the referee] said to me he couldn’t do anything because he hadn’t heard it and ‘the only thing I can do is report it’. I said: ‘Come on, then – let’s go and report it.’ 

"He started doing something else and I said: ‘No, now.’ We went over to the fourth official and told him. I told Steven [Gerrard] what had happened and we made a complaint there.”

To date, nothing has been done about any of Brewster's complaints, due to a lack of conclusive evidence, but the youngster seems bent on finding some form of justice for the abuse he has been made to endure and this probably won't be the last we hear on it from him.