Hearts striker Steven Naismith calls for '˜embarrassing' racism to be stamped out

Steven Naismith has called for collective action to stamp out racism in football after admitting to being 'embarrassed' by events at Tynecastle on Saturday.
Hearts' Steven Naismith teams up with Glasgow charity Loaves & Fishes to help the city's homeless.

 He is pictured with Linda and John. Picture: Ross Brownlee/SNSHearts' Steven Naismith teams up with Glasgow charity Loaves & Fishes to help the city's homeless.

 He is pictured with Linda and John. Picture: Ross Brownlee/SNS
Hearts' Steven Naismith teams up with Glasgow charity Loaves & Fishes to help the city's homeless. He is pictured with Linda and John. Picture: Ross Brownlee/SNS

The Hearts striker condemned the “stone age” behaviour of some football supporters following a weekend scarred by apparent xenophobia.

The Edinburgh club have issued indefinite bans to two fans following reports of alleged racist abuse being directed towards the Motherwell player Christian Mbulu before their match against Hearts.

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The incident came on the same day that Manchester City’s Raheem Stirling appeared to be racially abused by a group of Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge, which came a week after a banana skin was thrown at the Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when he scored against Tottenham. Naismith believes football needs to come together to rid the game of its racism which, disturbingly, appears to be on the rise.

“Everyone moving forward as a unit is the only way it’s going to stamp this stuff out,” said the Scotland striker, who praised Hearts owner Ann Budge for her swift action.

“[What happened at Tynecastle] is embarrassing for the club as a whole because you know the people inside the club want the best for it. Someone said it’s the dinosaur age.

“It is. It’s shocking. The world is moving so far and so fast and yet you still have idiots who act [as if] back in the stone age.

“But at Hearts under Ann Budge, with any issue, it’s never a case of hiding anything. It is a case of ‘Right, there is a problem. Fix it’.

“They have taken as big measures as they can as a club. You even see [the same] down south. The clubs are not standing for it.”

Naismith, 32, who is on his way back to fitness following a month out with a knee injury, praised Sterling for the way he has dealt with the abuse.

The England player issued a statement accusing the media of fuelling racism in the way it reports certain stories about black players.

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Raheem Sterling has been a very brave person who has had enough and decided he is not going to stand for it,” Naismith said.

“Fair play to him. He needs everyone in the football world, even fans at games, to stamp it out. Because it is ridiculous.

“What’s happened recently shouldn’t be a tipping point, because it shouldn’t need to be a tipping point, if I’m honest.”