Pep Guardiola believes education can solve the problem of racism in football: “Pay teachers better!”
Article by Tudor Belivacă – Published Friday, February 20, 2026 9:12 p.m. / Updated Friday, February 20, 2026 9:19 p.m.
Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, held the press conference ahead of the game with Newcastle, scheduled for Saturday, February 21, from 22:00.
In the press conference, Pep Guardiola spoke about the title chances of the “citizens”, but also addressed the topic of racism, as the Benfica – Real Madrid match, score 0-1, was interrupted for 10 minutes after Vincius accused the Portuguese player, Gianluca Prestianni, of racist insults.
Pep Guardiola discussed this topic and believes that better education in schools could stop the phenomenon of racism.
Pep Guardiola reacted after the Benfica – Real Madrid racism scandal: “There's still a lot of work to do. It's a societal problem”
“Neither being born in one place nor the color of your skin makes you better or worse. There's still a lot of work to do. It's a societal problem, not just football. Racism exists everywhere. What matters is how you act, if you claim to be better than someone else for some reason…
The problem must be solved in schools. Pay teachers better! We will solve it there. In schools, not in football. Teachers and doctors are the most important people in society, not a football coach“, Pep Guardiola said at the press conference, according to AS.
Doku is not ready but Savinho is. Arsenal were nine points ahead because we had a game in hand, then we ended up with the same number of games. But a lot will still happen in the coming weeks until the end of the season. Seventy percent of the batch is new, they have never been in a situation like this before. What matters now is to win.
-Pep Guardiola at the press conference
On the chances of winning the Premier League, Pep Guardiola said that he is not concerned about the ranking.
“Twelve games to go, that's a lot. What matters now is to win with Newcastle, I'm not thinking about the League Cup or anything else. That's how it always works. I understand that as journalists you want to anticipate what might happen, but that doesn't matter. What matters is Newcastle. I don't know if we have more chances to win now, I don't know what's going to happen. I haven't even spoken to the players about it. Just about Newcastle. Not the standings, not about our position, nothing. I don't care,” Pep Guardiola said, according to the quoted source.
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