Swaby expects football to respond in right way to recent protests

Swaby, 23, highlighted the everyday racism she has experienced during her life in a powerful post on Instagram last week – calling on everyone to confront their own behaviour, or do more to confront those who express prejudice in their presence.

The Jamaica international believes the recent worldwide Black Lives Matter protests should force football to reconsider how it deals with racist incidents in stadiums, adopting a far more hard-line approach.

"This should have been a conversation that happened a long time ago, especially in sports," Swaby told Sky Sports.

"We're in a really interesting position because now moving forward, these things are not going to be tolerated and it'll show the true colours of clubs and administrations about how they respond to these things.

"A little slap on the wrists isn't going to do it anymore, this is why the conversations are super important. What kind of protocols will be in place when there are racial incidents, what is going to happen? People like myself won't tolerate [less than a zero-tolerance approach], there needs to be action in place."

Asked about her post on Instagram, Swaby revealed that her aim was to show that racism, especially in the United States, can present itself in so many forms.

"A lot of people think racism is obvious and it's in your face all of the time, people disregard how covert it can be,” Swaby said.

“A lot of the things I put in my post are things that happened to me with team-mates.

"They have no idea how deep they can cut. 'I have a black friend' and 'I know black people' isn't enough to make yourself exempt from what's going on.

"I was happy I was able to open the door to conversations with people to show it isn't always so obvious."

Swaby believes real progress is on the verge of being made, citing the example of the NFL’s recent apology – after quarterback Colin Kaepernick was seemingly blackballed from the league for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality.

"You see the NFL saying they were wrong on the stance they took, that's a huge step, but moving forward people want to see plans of action, they don't want to hear 'I'm sorry' any more,” Swaby added.

"We've gotten the apologies out of the way, now it's about how we can move forward to create and stimulate change."

With the 2019-20 Women’s Serie A campaign halted earlier this week, Swaby hopes to see progress continue to be made up until she can return to the Italian capital for the new campaign.

"I want to see these things continue," she said.

"We're on the 15th night of protests and people are freaking out and wondering 'will this momentum continue?' so for me, the rest of 2020 looks like we need to make sure these conversations are still happening.

"As for football, I see 2020 back in Rome and we're picking things up where we left off."

On the cancellation of the season, she added: "You can see there are still discrepancies in us not being able to complete the season and the men being able to complete the season and that's something that's super disappointing.

"We thought we'd taken steps forward but again our eyes are opened to how there's inequity amongst the men and female players and we see there's a long way to go with that.

"I don't know how long it will take, how many seasons, if I'll still be playing when we feel like we've reached parity - but I just feel I've seen great growth during my time as a professional athlete and my time prior to college.

"The growth in the last three or four years has been tremendous but, obviously, coronavirus has put a delay the positive things that have been happening."