Man Utd's Paul Pogba makes a stand against racism with wristband movement

Manchester United star Paul Pogba has revealed how he took the fight against racism into his own hands.

The France international asked teammates to wear specially designed wristbands ahead of the 4-1 Boxing Day win against Newcastle in response to racist incidents across football in recent months.

During the warm up United’s players wore rubber bands with the message “No to racism" and "We are one" written on them.

Just this month United players Fred and Jesse Lingard were subject to alleged racist abuse during the 2-1 win at Manchester City, but Pogba said the move was in support of footballers across the globe.

He explained: “Basically 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 reminded me of that.

"I mean, a lot of players in a lot of leagues - not only in Premier League, in Italy, Spain, everywhere - we keep hearing this.

"I don't want to be president, I don't want to be a politic 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 don't want to go and make interviews, but just I know that it will make people talk.

"The team-mates, we done 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."

Pogba was determined to make a stand that he opted against trying approaching football’s authorities before wearing the bands.

"It was my idea to do that,” he added. "I mean, I've been thinking about doing this, but I don't want to go through the Uefa or the Fifa. I 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."