Quotes from John Barnes

If you believe you always have to sign players and the players start to believe that, that's when you lose matches.

I'm a real meat eater.

Football can do nothing about getting rid of racism. Society can.

The truth is that those at the top of British football do not care about getting rid of racism, they just don't want to hear it or see it.

I don't have to manage a big club. That won't fulfil me. I will get more satisfaction from the work that I put in than where I am.

Football is all about scoring goals.

Just passing laws saying you are not allowed to be racist won't work. You need an educational system in place.

Until we get rid of racial bias, sexism, homophobia in society, it will exist in all walks of society.

The racism I am really interested in stamping out is in everyday life. Joe Bloggs, who nobody knows, walks down the street and gets racially abused. He goes into a shop and people think he is going to steal something. He cannot get a job.

Until we change our perception of a BAME person's capabilities, in all walks of life, we will be given less opportunities and less time to succeed.

I don't really eat biscuits.

I used to go to the school plays my kids were in, and who were the angels at Christmas time? The blonde, blue-eyed girls. Who was Mary? And the shepherds were all the black and Indian kids in the background.

We are the first on the frontline to go into countries to liberate people in the name of freedom - that's what we've claimed. And now, all of a sudden, they need our help and we turn them away. Yet the rest of Europe stands ready to help. Why are we the first to jump ship?

While we have to take personal responsibility for our actions, I have a great deal of empathy for people who are unconsciously racially biased, and indeed count myself among their number.

No, I never drink beer. I've never had a pint of lager in my life.

I've never bought a pint of milk in my life.

You have to give 100 per cent in every game and you cannot give more than 100 per cent.

Most people would accept that we are, to a certain extent, products of our environment.

Racism is never personal - it's about someone saying the group I am part of is superior to the group you are part of.

People have been taught not just to have a negative perception of black people, but to have a belief in the superiority of white people. Their behaviour is the result of centuries of indoctrination.

The teams which embrace the socialist ideology rather than having superstars, are the teams that are successful. Or if there are superstars they don't perceive themselves to be that. That's why I use Messi as an example. As much as he's a superstar he respects his team-mates and their collective efforts.

I got racist abuse at Liverpool when I played for Watford. Then I played for Liverpool and didn't get it. If I had played for Everton against Liverpool then maybe the Liverpool fans would have racially abused me.

There are so many intelligent former black players, guys like Luther Blissett and Cyrille Regis, who never got a chance to become a top manager or a top coach because of the perception that surrounds people who look like them. They are black - which, for many, means they are good athletes but incapable of being anything above and beyond that.

Mass migration and the refugee crisis is one of the biggest problems facing the world. In this country we assume that everyone just wants to come to the U.K. - but it's an issue in Germany, Greece, Sweden, all across the E.U. Why should we be the first to turn our backs on the problem?