Pogba reveals anti-racism wristbands were plan to 'make people talk'

Paul Pogba says he asked his Manchester United teammates to wear anti-racism wristbands on Boxing Day to combat the 'ignorance' in football around Europe.

The United players wore 'Not to Racism' and 'We Are One' rubber bands during the warm-up before their 4-1 win over Newcastle at Old Trafford and Pogba made a point of giving his to a fan.

'It was my idea to do that,' said Pogba. 'I mean, I've been thinking about doing this but I don't want to go through the UEFA or the FIFA. I've done it myself.

'I think we have the chance to have this power to show things in football, on TV. People see it so I think that will make people understand some things.

'I think it's ignorance. Ignorance and stuff like that, and just to show people that you are all one. We are all one.

'We keep seeing it again and again in a lot of stadiums. It's just to show that, to give support to all the players - I mean, black or white or Chinese or whatever who you are. But there is only one race. And just to show respect to everyone.

'Like I said, we are all one. We all came here to enjoy football, to enjoy ourselves and to do what we love.

'I was thinking about doing this for a long time. I remember when I was younger about "Stand Up, Speak Up", something like this. It just reminds me of that.

'A lot of players in a lot of leagues – not only in Premier League, in Italy, Spain, everywhere... keep hearing this.

'I don't want to be the president, I don't want to be a political guy. We are just football players – we want to enjoy that. The fans need to enjoy coming and seeing some nice football and that's it. So this is to show that we're against that (racism). I know that it will make people talk.

'The team-mates, we did it. Fred, Andreas (Pereira), I mean everyone, we are against that. We are just for football, enjoying football. We do what we love.

'We give joy to the fans, to everyone, to all the spectators and that's all we want to see in the stadium.