Fejiri Okenabirhie discusses Town's Kick It Out fixture with Scunthorpe United.
Shrewsbury Town will support the ‘Kick It Out’ 25th year anniversary this weekend with the clash against Scunthorpe.
Town will support their Week of Action and will be wearing the Kick It Out jerseys during the warm-up.
Fejiri Okenabirhie highlighted racism issues within football and spoke on his experiences.
“So many things are happening in high profile games,” said Fey. “If you don’t stop it at that level it will filter down – you need to have a solution there really.
“Hopefully that can happen in the top leagues and in international football. There needs to be punishments and things set in place so it can’t happen.
“Those are the games that get seen by a lot of people. If people see it happen with no consequences, they will do it again. If you set a precedent it gets stopped. Hopefully that can happen.
“England has a lot of black players for example. Racism isn’t something they want to be dealing with every time they play for England.
“Hopefully it’s something that can be looked at and definitely stamped out.”
Fejiri spoke of his experiences of racism within football and explained how it can have an impact on a player.
“I remember when I was 10 or 11 I went on tour with Arsenal and I remember playing the game and hearing monkey chants,” said Fejiri.
“At the time I was quite young, so I didn’t realise how serious it was at the time. It’s something that I do remember.
“It didn’t really have an impact on me as I was quite young. I didn’t really know the connotations of it. Looking back now I can clearly remember it.
“I’ve not heard anything since then. Never in England have I had anything like that.
“It’s not a nice thing to hear. Your skin colour and your heritage isn’t something you can change – it’s who you are. I am proud to be who I am.
“I know that if it happened to me I wouldn’t be happy and it would be difficult to play in. It’s important that the authorities make a statement with it.”
This season marks the 25-year anniversary of Kick It Out, and on Saturday Shrewsbury Town dedicate our fixture against Scunthorpe United to their work.
For the last 25 years, the organisation has been at the heart of the drive towards equality, inclusion and cohesion for everyone who plays, watches or works in football. But the high-profile incidents that have marred football this season prove the sport needs an organisation like Kick It Out now more than ever.