Raheem Sterling has joined the list of players and managers to stand in solidarity with Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling, after the duo were subjected to Corriere dello Sport's 'Black Friday' front page.
The pair were Manchester United teammates last season but now find themselves at Inter Milan and Roma respectively, and faced each other on Friday night after the publication of the racially insensitive front page.
Corriere dello Sport has since refused to apologise for the headline by insisting that it was published to reflect the 'magnificent wealth of diversity' in football, but Manchester City forward Sterling has stated that it demonstrates how tolerance is becoming an increasing problem in the game.
Speaking to BBC's Football Focus, Sterling said: 'The headline says everything you need to know about that. I don't want to bang on how wrong that is.
'The headline says all we need to know about this day and age. I wouldn't say it has got better, just more instances since then.'
Sterling witnessed first-hand his England teammates suffering racism in their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign after their victory over Bulgaria in Sofia in October.
Retweeting a news article in which Bulgaria coach Krasimir Balakov accused England of having a bigger racism problem than his own country, Sterling commented after that match: ' Mmmmh ... Not sure about this one chief.'
But since then incidents of racism have increased throughout Europe and Corriere dello Sport's Thursday publication was just the latest incident.
Both Lukaku and Smalling have made clear their displeasure with the front page, with the Inter striker describing it as 'the most dumbest of headlines' while the Roma defender said it was 'wrong and highly insensitive'.
AC Milan and AS Roma have also banned the newspaper's reporters from visiting their training centres for the rest of the year.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer echoed the comments of Roma's United loanee, stating that it is 'the worst front page I've ever seen'.