Education is the solution for Hilaire

This is the verdict of former Leeds United winger Vince Hilaire in the wake of incessant calls to suspend serial offenders Serbia from international competition after the racist chants and sickening violence which marred England Under-21s’ encounter in Krusevac on Tuesday evening.

Paul Ince, whose son Thomas played for England in Serbia, and Professional Footballers’ Association chairman and York City defender Clarke Carlisle have called on FIFA to ban Serbia from five international tournaments following the deplorable scenes and are two of many demanding severe and far-reaching sanctions.

But Hilaire, one of the first established black players in England in the 1970s, a decade when racism was sadly rife in football – but has, thankfully, largely been eradicated since – is urging everyone not to lose sight of the bigger picture.

He said: “Twenty years ago, people thought racism in football was the norm and it is not. The people in this country should pat themselves on the back as they are educated enough to know it is wrong.

“You can educate people and in my opinion, the education in this country (on racism) is better than anywhere else in the world.

“Leeds United is a a great example. I will not lie, on a lot of occasions when I went up there with (Crystal) Palace, I took a lot of stick, particularly from the Kop.

“But you had the likes of Terry Connor before me and then the likes of Noel Blake, me, Chris Fairclough and Chris Whyte come in and it helped eradicate it.”

Hilaire added: “This country cannot expect a culture change to happen just like that in Serbia. I think banning them from competitions will not make any difference to ignorant people. It is a cultural thing.

“I am not that ignorant to say that every Serbian is racist. If a few thousand Serbians want to act like that out of a population of millions, that is a problem with the minority.

“I would be very surprised if a thousand black people lived in Serbia.

“I have absolutely no doubt those Serbian supporters making the monkey chants thought they were not doing anything wrong.

“They are probably thinking ‘What is the fuss?’. In their opinion, they were probably thinking they were sticking up for their country.

“But it is an education thing for me. I would be more upset if it had happened in a country like say, France, where they are a lot more used to multi-cultural things.

“Then I would have had more of a problem with it as societies like those should know you should just get along.”