Klopp prepared to stop games if racism strikes

Jurgen Klopp says he is prepared to call his Liverpool players off if large groups of fans are racially abusing them, but says it should be down to match officials, National Daily gathered.

The Liverpool manager said he “could not believe” England players were subject to racist abuse when he watched Gareth Southgate’s side beat Montenegro 5-1 this week.

England reported the incident after Danny Rose informed staff of chants from the crowd and UEFA are investigating, with European football’s governing body calling the events a “disaster”.

Klopp believes stopping matches for a minority would give “too much power for one or two idiots”, but would be willing to lead his players off if abuse escalated.

“If it’s the whole stand I would do it, 100 per cent,” said Klopp, whose Liverpool side will look to keep their place at the top of the Premier League when they play Tottenham on Sunday.

“But it’s too much power for one or two idiots. We have to find ways to punish these incidents.

“It’s not that the coaches should do that – match officials – because if I take the players off and they say it was not that serious, you lose the game, our job is to win football games.”