Liverpool star admits club “got it wrong” over Luis Suarez racially abusing Patrice Evra

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Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has admitted that he and the club handled the Luis Suarez incident with Patrice Evra badly back in 2011.

The England international was not afraid to own up to that as he spoke to Anton Ferdinand in a BBC documentary about racism, as reported by the Daily Mail.

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At the time, Liverpool players wore ‘Suarez 7’ shirts in support of the Uruguayan striker, despite the player receiving an eight-game ban from the Football Association after having been found to call Evra “negro” during a row on the pitch.

Liverpool didn’t come out of the whole row well at all as they stood up for Suarez despite this damning evidence against him, and Henderson now admits everyone involved got it wrong.

“You learn a lot from experiences. I was a young player at the time so it was something I’d never really experienced before,” Henderson said.

“Looking back on it now, I am not sure the club or everybody deal with it in the best way.

“From a player point of view, our mindset was on Luis and how to protect him, but really we didn’t really think about Patrice.

“I think that’s where we got it wrong from top to bottom. If people want to point me out then I’ll take full responsibility as well as a player.

“People will say, ‘That’s a bit late’, but I suppose it’s better late than never.”

Fair play to Henderson for owning up to it now, and we just have to hope that everyone in football and indeed society as a whole can learn from this when dealing with racism in football in future.

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