Ian Wright says black players still get racially abused in Europe and reveals why he lost respect for Sir Alex Ferguson

IN my 30 years in the game, there’s been a great deal said and written about racism in English football. The question is, “Have things got better?”

Yes and no.

Black English players get racially abused in Europe and Uefa hands out fines of a few thousand euros.

When that sporting director at Crystal Palace was caught exchanging racist and homophobic texts with Malky Mackay, the League Managers’ Association’s reaction was it was just banter.

Then when the chairman of Port Vale said he would not consider Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for the manager’s job because some of their supporters wouldn’t want a black man, nobody said a word.

And I’ve got no time for the Kick It Out organisation.

They give out some T-shirts and get involved with conflicts that have happened on the pitch, which to me comes across as distracting from the real issues.

I sometimes wonder if it’s just there as a showpiece for the FA and PFA and not expected to achieve anything that would really change things.

That business with me and Manchester United’s Peter Schmeichel was a case in point.

In November 1996 during a game he yelled at me, “You f***ing black b*****d.” It turned out to be a blatant case of sweeping it  under the carpet. (Schmeichel has always denied saying it.)

The following February, I did go in hard on Schmeichel, but he made a meal of it.

After the second game, I met then Old Trafford chief Alex Ferguson.

He said: “I never had you as a race card player.”

That particularly upset me. I told him I wasn’t, but I don’t know if he believed me.

I lost a bit of respect for him that day.

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