Gareth Southgate on racism: 'Some people will end up being dinosaurs as world is modernising'

England manager Gareth Southgatehas condemned the racist chants directed towards Raheem Sterling and some other English players during a qualification match for the 2022 World Cup against Hungary. Southgate said that the players shouldn't have to be subjected to "any form of racism".

While interacting with the media after the match, Southgate further said thatsome people are stuck in their ways of thinking and in their prejudices and they are going to be the "dinosaurs" in the end because the "world is modernising".

England players were targeted with racial abuse by some Hungary supporters during the match in Budapest on Thursday (September 2). Some British media portals reported that their pitchside reporters heard racist 'monkey chants' aimed at Sterling and Jude Bellingham.

England's Football Association have asked FIFA to investigate the matter as players were also booed when they took the knee against racial injustice before the match began.

Southgate said, "I can only go back to what I said at the start. I don't think our players can do anything more than they have done over the last two or three years in trying to get the right messages out, take the right stands, and it's for other people to protect them. It's for me to protect them in the main but for the authorities to protect them as well. They shouldn't have to be subjected to any form of racism."

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Here's what happened:

Declan Rice. What a lad 😂 pic.twitter.com/glEjQPxYD6 — Khairil Anuar (@KhairilAnuar) September 3, 2021

"I have to say there's a balance in the crowd. As we know at home, not everybody at home causes problems. And tonight our national anthem was really respected remarkably well. So it's not fair to criticise all the Hungarian fans. A lot of the Hungarian fans were very generous and behaved themselves extremely well. So that's a very similar situation to the one we find at home I think," he added.

"The individuals that are responsible, they need to be dealt with. I think there is some evidence that people have been filmed and we've got to hope that the authorities deal with that in the right way," he further said.

Southgate said, "Although some people are stuck in their ways of thinking and in their prejudices, they're going to be the dinosaurs in the end because the world is modernising. Hungary isn't anywhere near as diverse in its population as our country is. Inevitably it's still taking us a long long time to get to where we need to get to and inevitably if other counties don't have the same level of diversity it's probably not been in their thinking in the same way that it has in our country."

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"So, we will continue to do what we do. We will continue to try to set the right example for young people in our own country who will be more influenced by us than perhaps people will be elsewhere.

"I'm always conscious that whenever I speak about this I don't know if I get exactly the right tone or the right words and I never want to be dismissive of it, but our intentions are good and we hope that people understand that and respect that," he added.

England is currently five points clear at the top of World Cup qualifying Group I after registering a comfortable 4-0 win over Hungary in Budapest on Thursday (September 2) at the Puskas Arena. Apart from Sterling, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire also scores and a late strike by Declan Rice sealed the win.