Sterling defends Bernardo Silva over controversial tweet

Raheem Sterling has come to the defence of Manchester City team-mate Bernardo Silva after the Portuguese faced accusations of racism this week.Midfielder Silva came under fire over a controversial tweet to City colleague Benjamin Mendy in which he posted pictures comparing the Frenchman, with whom he also played at Monaco, to the character on a packet of Conguitos chocolates.Anti-discrimination body Kick It Out called on the Football Association to take action, referring to the contents of the post as a racist stereotype, while the governing body has been in contact with City requesting their observations.Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy were both on the bench at Everton on Saturday (Peter Byrne/PA)Silva has since written to the FA expressing regret at any unintentional offence his tweet caused and, in the wake of Citys 3-1 win over Everton on Saturday night, Sterling showed his support for the Portugal international.Its a situation that no one needs at this moment in time. Its a situation between two friends, Bernardo and Mendy as everyone knows, the England forward told Sky Sports.I can see exactly the point where some people can get touchy-feely on it, but I feel in that situation Bernardo made a joke to his friend.Hes not referred to his skin colour, hes not referred to his lips in both pictures, theyve both got small heads and the most important thing for me is that he didnt refer to a colour.Raheem Sterling has defended Bernardo Silva (Peter Byrne/PA)Silva could face a ban if found guilty of discriminatory behaviour, but Sterling does not believe that is the case.He said: We all know, Benjamin knows, everyone can see that Mendy is a black lad. Weve got to be proud to be black as well. If someone refers to our skin colour with an image, Id be upset about that we know what skin colour we are.But he hasnt referred to his skin colour, thats the most important thing I feel about the situation. Its really sad to see someone like Bernardo, the whole week, be kind of down about it because hes not that way inclined.Theyre two really good friends, its sad to see. I can understand where the criticism has come, but I dont feel it was intentional of trying to be racist and thats not because theyre my team-mates, its just how I view them. Bernardos deeply sorry about it. Hes not in the wrong for me, but at the same time I can see why people think its wrong and weve got to be smarter on social media. In this day and age anything you say can be judged and its a really sad situation.I havent really been looking into the newspapers. Ive seen the situation but the club, as I always would believe, would handle the situation right and I feel the sooner the better the FA can understand there was no intent to be discriminatory, theres not one moment he uses a negative term to talk about his skin colour.He tried to make a joke, it wasnt the best one but weve got to move on and understand that it wasnt intentional.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){

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