Gary Neville has called for footballers to take compulsory diversity training after Edinson Cavani’s Instagram post that has sparked an FA investigation.
Manchester United striker Cavani apologised on Monday after deleting an Instagram post which replied to a friend ‘Gracias n*grito.’
Cavani’s Spanish message directly translates to ‘Thanks, little black’, but the post was taken down after three hours and the Uruguayan striker released a statement noting that no offence was meant to be caused.
Cavani told ManUtd.com: “The message I posted after the match on Sunday was intended as an affectionate greeting to a friend, thanking him for his congratulations after the game. The last thing I wanted to do was cause offence to anyone. I am completely opposed to racism and deleted the message as soon as it was explained that it can be interpreted differently. I would like to sincerely apologise for this.”
However, as per the Guardian, Cavani will face a minimum three-game ban if found guilty for posting discriminatory or racist language.
United great Neville was asked about Cavani’s post on Monday Night Football after the 33-year-old’s decisive impact in Sunday’s win over Southampton, and believes it could have been easily avoided.
Neville pointed to the wider issues around a lack of diversity training in sport and believes incidents like this will continue to happen without intervention.
He strongly suggests there should be compulsory diversity and inclusion for everyone involved in the sport on a regular basis.
Listen to Neville’s thoughts below, via Sky Sports:
🗣 "It will continue to happen until there is education put in to place"@GNev2 thinks Edinson Cavani's Instagram post incident could've easily been avoided pic.twitter.com/3uqebYcSHe
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 30, 2020
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