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5th July 2020
01:58pm BST
Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez in action during a Premier League match. (Credit: Getty Images)[/caption]
"I sat in a dressing room in 2003, I think it was, next to Ashley Cole, having seen him being abused and heard him being abused, playing for England," Gary Neville recalled. "And went and got my shower after the game, got on the coach, went back and never thought of it. And neither did any other player on that team.
"We never mentioned it. It was almost accepted... and I look back now and think how unacceptable that is and how bad that was, that we didn't pay attention to this abuse and discrimination that was going on right around us. And now players are rising up against it, and rightly so."
"The thing with Patrice Evra," Carragher began, "and what I was pleased about - after he came on the show - and when I apologised on behalf of myself and the club... I think the club got in touch with him and the club exchanged contact numbers with him. He was the first to tell me that the club had been in touch with him. He was really pleased about that.
"Going back, I think that's a big issue. There was an issue last season with Manchester City as well, with two players - Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy - where something was going on. And the unfortunate thing - and every club is guilty of this, if you go back into the past - it becomes this tribal thing of 'The Club' rather than what's right or wrong. "It's like, 'We've got to defend our club'. The club can't be seen to do anything wrong, or the club supporting Luis Suarez. Other clubs have been in those situations and, a lot of the time, clubs should come down heavier on their own players. Racism is right at the top of that list, but there's other things and situations. "I think, too often now or certainly in the past, clubs have been too quick to support their own players whether they're right or wrong."Carragher is hopeful that the tide is turning and cites Chelsea's swift response to identify and ban supporters when Manchester City's Raheem Sterling suffered racial abuse during a league encounter, last season.
"But that's where Liverpool got it wrong," Carragher adds. "Luis Suarez got it wrong. He made a big mistake and we, as a club, got it wrong. What we did with the t-shirts and how we came out and supported him at the time."Evra says he forgave Suarez at the time and has since spoken to him on a couple of occasions since. The French international revealed that Suarez got his vote for Footballer of the Year at the end of that 2011/12 season.
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