Eric DierThe abuse of footballers has become so severe that it is now illegal to play. Tottenham Hotspur defender’s family no longer travel to away games to watch him play.
Dier added that he does not regret jumping into the stands at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in March 2020 to confront a fan who was abusing his brother after Tottenham’s FA CupYou can lose Norwich City.
The centre-back, who is back in Gareth Southgate’s EnglandSquad to play in the Nations League matches. ItalyAnd GermanyAccording to him, abuse of players has become a serious problem in the sport.
“It has definitely got worse,” Dier said at a press conference. “For me, it is a serious problem. There were some friends and family members who helped me. ChelseaTottenham were away in an August game and had some problems. These were not pleasant ones. It’s a big, very huge problem.
“My family would never go to an away game nowadays because of it and that’s a shame that I feel too uncomfortable for them to go to away games.
“This has been (going on) for years. My mum has never been to an away match. She would love to, but I would be worried about it and that’s crazy, isn’t it? All of our (players’) families go through it. Every player’s parents have been watching them since they were kids and have gone through that kind of stuff.
“But I am not dramatic about it — and I don’t think anybody should be. It really is not that big a deal for me.”
Despite a four-game ban and £40,000 fine from the FA for the incident involving his brother, Dier said he would do the same if it happened again.
“I’ve never spoken about that situation in the press before because, to be honest, I wasn’t at all happy with the way it was handled. I don’t know what I can say about it because I don’t know if I’ll get banned or fined again or whatever,” Dier said.
“It wasn’t too dramatic like people make it out to be. But, yeah, I don’t regret it at all and I’d do it again. (For) my family and my team-mates. I consider myself to be extremely loyal.”
However, the 28-year old made it clear that abuse comes often from fans of both teams.
“It was verbal, not physical, but like, bad stuff. One incident was in the Tottenham away end — I am saying it is football fans in general,” he added. “I wanted to emphasise it was both sets of fans — I am not saying it is Chelsea fans or Tottenham fans, it is football fans in general.”
Southgate’s England team play Italy on Friday in Milan before hosting Germany at Wembley on Monday night.
(Photo by Gualter Fatia/Getty Images).
