Players Views

Ugo Ehiogu

England

Can you tell us a bit about where you were born and brought up?
I was born in east London, Hackney. I spent the first 16 years of my life there and then I moved to Birmingham.

When you were growing up in Hackney did you ever come across racism?
Yes, my mum and dad's house got broken in to and it took four hours for the police to come. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back if it had been in a slightly different area or somebody else calling, I'm sure it wouldn't have taken four hours for the police to arrive.

What about as a young kid growing up in that area, did you come across racism from other pupils?
No, it was quite a multicultural mix where I grew up. It wasn't done, everyone got on with everyone else.

Have you ever experienced racism playing for your club or England abroad?
Yes, I played against Steaua Bucharest in the UEFA cup for Aston Villa, and myself, Dwight Yorke and Ian Taylor were getting monkey taunts, and this was in the warm-up. It was quite hard at the time, but when we scored we did the monkey taunts back at the crowd and rammed it straight back down their throats. I also experienced it a little bit as a YTS at West Brom, and I found it strange as it come from another player. I was 16 years of age at the time, and I was marking this centre-forward. Because I won the ball in front of him, he started giving it 'black-this' and black-that'. That was really my first encounter of it and then I learned to get tough and deal with it. I nearly lost it then, but I chose the other route.

Players like Cyril Regis and Brendon Batson at West Brom and other black players of that era were in a small minority, but now there are many black players in the British leagues. Does it help being able to speak to other black players if you encounter problems?

I think it's definitely helped. I spoke to Cyril about the taunts and the jibes he got. He used to get bananas thrown at him on the pitch. It's not as bad now as it was then, and it's players like that who have smoothed the way for us, they made things a lot easier. These days, there are so many players coming from different countries, all speaking different languages, and that helps.

Cyril Regis once received a bullet in the post when he first played for England, a threat on his life. We also interviewed Shaka Hislop who said he had received death threats. Have you ever had any problems like that?
No, I've been fortunate, I've not experienced that. I guess it can be quite worrying because at the end of the day, you just want to play football like anybody else. It's unnecessary. Its when you see the hate from opposing fans, it is unbelievable how people can get so worked up. And yet you take them out of that situation and I would say the majority would completely change their personalities around their families. It's unbelievable how a football match can change a person.

What is your advice to young people who are suffering from racism, how would you advise them to deal with it?
I feel they need to confront it -- I don't feel you should walk away from it. There are times where you turn a blind eye or a deaf ear. If it comes back again, you have deal with it. You have to do it in a positive way. The worst thing to do is lash out, but sometimes you have to be a little bit aggressive to confront this. But if you actually talk to the people you find that you actually end up feeling sorry for them, because they don't know why they're saying it. It's a very negative, uneducated way of voicing their opinions.

In the 70s and 80s there would have been a 'jokey' kind of racism in the game. Do you think that's gone now?
It depends on what is said and how you say it. Most players have a laugh in games now, I don't feel that there is any need to be racist, for it to come across as funny, sarcastic, there's just no need.

Our previous material has looked at the Stephen Lawrence case - Rio Ferdinand went to school with him. What do you think of that particular campaign?
I just think it goes to show what most people thought. There is still a fair sized element of racism in the police force. It has maybe got marginally better over the years, but to me that just highlighted it, how a group of guys could get away with a blatant disregard for another man's life. And literally be laughing and joking about it. It doesn't even bear thinking about because you could switch that and turn it around and say that if it was a 15 year old white girl who was murdered, lived in a middle-class area, there would have been absolute uproar. It's a shame its come to that, because it seems to have just been brushed under the carpet. That needs to be seriously looked at, I think.

Trivia

Favourite Book: Long Walk Home - Nelson Mandela
Favourite TV: Eastenders
Favourite Actor: Samuel L. Jackson
Person you most admire: Nelson Mandela
Favourite Player: In the past, John Barnes, and presently, Thierry Henry