Pep Guardiola Urges Danny Rose Not to Quit Football Over Continued Racism Issues

Pep Guardiola has said that he will try and persuade Danny Rose not to quit football over racism, with the Spurs man giving a hard-hitting interview to the Mirror this week.

Rose said that he 'can't wait to see the back of football' in the interview, criticising the sport's authorities' continued failure to take effective action against racial abuse.

Guardiola told journalists in his pre-match press conference on Friday that he hopes Rose will stay in the sport and continue fight racism as a player.

'I hope he knows he can talk to me in any moment.'@jjenas8 offers his support to Danny Rose after the Spurs defender said he can't wait to walk away from football.

Listen now: 📻📲: https://t.co/0kUniWPgQm pic.twitter.com/3l17s7S0Up
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) April 5, 2019

Quoted by Sky Sports, Guardiola said: "Danny Rose should not do that [retire]. I will tell him the best way to fight, to combat this kind of terrible situation is fighting, being there every day, because he is an extraordinary football player."

Guardiola's Manchester City face Rose's Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League quarter finals on Tuesday night, and the Spaniard said he would look to speak with Rose then. Speaking this week, Rose said that the way racism in football stadiums is dealt with is a 'farce'.

"You see my manager [Mauricio Pochettino] get banned for two games for just being confrontational against Mike Dean at Burnley," 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.

"That's where we're at now in football and until there's a harsh punishment there's not much else we can expect I don't think."

received so much love & support for this ❤️ makes me faithful for our fight #KickRacismOutOfOurStadiums
— Raheem Sterling (@sterling7) March 26, 2019

Rose and his teammate Callum Hudson-Odoi were targeted with racist abuse during England's Euro 2020 qualifier away in Montenegro. Raheem Sterling also spoke out after the game in Montenegro, calling the abuse 'unacceptable'.

"There should be a real punishment for this, not just the two or three people who were doing it - it needs to be a collective thing," he said.