El Hadji Diouf accuses Steven Gerrard of racism in outrageous response to book claims

 BY BEN BURROWS

 Gerrard criticised Diouf as his worst Reds teammate but he has responded with astonishing claims about him that the former skipper vehemently denies.



Football bad boy El-Hadji Diouf has made the outrageous claim that Steven Gerrard and Liverpool are racist in an astonishing rant. The Senegalese striker was criticised in Gerrard's forthcoming autobiography, with the former Reds captain admitting he has "no respect" for his former team-mate. “I don’t really want to waste time thinking about El Hadji Diouf but it’s worth highlighting his wasted seasons at Liverpool as an example of how it can all go wrong," Gerrard wrote.

 Diouf was no stranger to headlines at Anfield 

Now, in a sensational interview on Senegalese radio station Radio Futurs Media reported by Le 10 Sport, Diouf has accused his former team-mate of prejudice against black people, a claim the former Reds skipper vehemently denies. Diouf claimed: "Liverpool isn't a team that welcomes black people unless they are English. "Gerrard has never liked black people. Every time I passed him, he never dared to look me in the eye.

Campaign: Gerrard has been a vocal anti-racism campaigner

 Diouf then went on to accuse Gerrard of jealousy, claiming that his arrival at Anfield riled the midfielder. "Gerrard is just jealous. What I achieved in football, he never managed," continued Diouf. Former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has since rubbished Diouf's claims saying he "did not get that feeling" from the now LA Galaxy man.

Teammate: Babel played alongside Gerrard at Liverpool

Replying to a query on Twitter, Babel responded to Diouf's reported comments to radio station Radio Future Media. He tweeted: "i did not got that feeling from Steve G so i think he got it wrong." Diouf joined Liverpool following a starring role at the 2002 World Cup but his Reds career was dogged by negative headlines. In 2002 he was infamously accused of spitting at West Ham fans before being charged with a similar offence when he was at Bolton, this time involving an 11-year-old Middlesbrough spectator two years later. Gerrard has made no comment other than to deny the allegations.