RAHEEM STERLING wants to spend his summer talking to the football authorities in an attempt to further combat the rise in racism in British football.

Sterling’s brutally honest Instagram post last December, in which he blamed the media’s portrayal of black players for the spike in racist abuse in the sport, opened up a can of worms the Football Association and Premier League are still trying to address.

The Manchester City winger questioned the effectiveness of wearing T-shirts prior to matches and social media boycotts, which even those backing them failed to adhere to, and once again raised the issue of “harder punishments,” something his England teammate Danny Rose called for after the pair were racially abused while representing England in Montenegro. 

Sterling played an integral part to City’s domestic treble season but now that is over said he would love to sit down in person with the decision makers of British football and “see how we can look about doing things better in the future.”

He said: “You can get caught up with training every day, and games every two, three days, so you don’t really have a lot of time to be out speaking to people.

“But in my off time and holidays, if I can get around and speak to the Football Association and the people in the Premier League, and see how we can look about doing things better in the future, for sure I’ll be there in person to try and do that.

“Teams getting [points] deductions, teams getting kicked out … this is when people start taking it seriously,” he said.

“If I go to a football game and I support Manchester United, for example, I don’t want to be the person that lets my team down by saying silly remarks in a stadium.

“If you know your team is going to get deducted nine points and not win the league, you are not going to say these racist remarks even though you shouldn’t have it in your head.

“Fining a club £5,000 or a fan £300 doesn’t do anything.”

Sterling did say that after he was racially abused by a Chelsea fan in December, which led to the social media post, he was approached by football authorities about the media blackout campaign but he disagreed with the concept.

“After the situation at Chelsea they came to me with an idea but I did not agree with the idea,” he said.

“It was a social media blackout. I said I simply don’t agree with what you want to put out. It is a social media post that’s going to happen for one day. In two days’ time it will all be forgotten about.”

Although this season has seen a number of incidents in England and abroad, Sterling believes the situation has improved in the last decade.

“Ten years ago it was a lot, lot worse than it is now,” said Sterling. “It’s starting to get better and people are understanding that they can’t say certain things.”