Liverpool Manager Arne Slot says more needs to be done to avoid racism in football following allegations by Real Madrid\u2019s Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr that he was subjected to racist abuse from Benfica\u2019s Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni.<\/p>\n
Real\u2019s 1-0 Champions League playoff first-leg win at Benfica on Tuesday was overshadowed by Vinicius accusing Prestianni of directing a racist slur at him, a charge denied by the Portuguese club, the player and their manager, Jose Mourinho.<\/p>\n
European soccer\u2019s governing body UEFA said it was reviewing the incident, which led to the game being halted for 11 minutes under FIFA\u2019s anti-racism protocol.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn general, you can never do enough, you can always do more to make sure this (racism in football) never happens again,\u201d Slot told reporters ahead of Liverpool\u2019s Premier League visit to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to try as a football community to do more than society does. That\u2019s maybe not so difficult, by the way. Protocol was followed in the game, that\u2019s the first step,\u201d he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hope my players would act in a similar way, immediately address it, and the referee acts in a similar way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding the Forest game, Slot expects a different set-up under the Midlands club\u2019s new manager Vitor Pereira compared to the meeting in November when Liverpool lost 3-0 at Anfield.<\/p>\n
Former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Pereira was appointed last Sunday to replace the sacked Sean Dyche.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only have tonight (Thursday) to see if this new manager changes personnel,\u201d Slot said, referring to Forest\u2019s first game under Pereira at Fenerbahce in a Europa League playoff tie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing is they have that game, and the manager was in the Premier League last season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dutchman said Jeremie Frimpong is still out this weekend but fellow defender Joe Gomez is ready to start if needed.<\/p>\n
Slot said his side have improved over the past few months, with Liverpool sixth in the table on 42 points from 26 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have improved compared to three, four months ago. We are in a much better place than months ago,\u201d the 47-year-old added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are more reasons, but the most simple two are how fit we are and that we\u2019re much better at set-pieces at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forest are languishing in 17th spot, one place and three points above West Ham United in the relegation zone.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23985,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-23984","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"European soccer\u2019s governing body UEFA said it was reviewing the incident.","published_date":null,"news_description":"European soccer\u2019s governing body UEFA said it was reviewing the incident.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26800,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23984\/revisions\/26800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}