Wednesday 6 June 2018 22:41, UK
England boss Southgate has called racism "completely unacceptable" and says his team has a plan in place if his players suffer abuse at the World Cup in Russia.
Danny Rose revealed earlier this week that his family will not travel to Russia for the tournament over fears they would be subject to abuse.
FIFA fined Russia's football union £22,000 for racist chanting aimed at France players during a game in March, and Rose himself has been the target of abuse while on England U21 duty in Serbia in October 2012.
Southgate insists his side will not walk off the pitch if any of the England players are racially abused during the tournament, and says the team will know how to conduct themselves should such an incident occur in Russia.
"It's completely unacceptable," said Southgate,
"People in an idealistic world will say 'you should do that' but it seems the realities of that are you'd be thrown out of the tournament and some people will say we should do that.
"I don't think the players want that in actual fact. They've worked all their lives to get to a World Cup. So the idea is that we're able to raise the issues, confront the issues, but they want to play in the tournament.
"It's a very difficult and delicate balance for us to get right.
"One of the things we mentioned is that for all of the players, a lot of them have children, and I'm the same, and our kids don't think anything of who they talk to, who they sit with, how they interact with people of all race, colour, religion.
"They are born into this world with no prejudice at all. It's only as people force their own opinions and insights and education on them that they might alter those opinions.
"So we're victims in this world of prejudices - thinking that comes from others - and that's very sad. Because there's no way that people should be treated differently because of the colour of their skin or the religion that they believe in.
"You treat people as individuals and you treat them respectfully at all times.
"The players know my thinking. Clearly, within football, the landscape has changed enormously in the 25-30 years I've been involved in the game. It's not perfect, but huge strides have been made so we can make some differences through football.
"We can't affect everything, because most problems are societal and football ends up being a reflection of society. But the point I make to the players - and I know Danny in his quote has said 'we can't change the world' - but maybe we can have a small impact by the way that we conduct ourselves."
