Miles Robinson: "When players stand together, anything can be changed"

As the current FIFPRO Global Player Council marks its first anniversary, USA international Miles Robinson has a clear view of why players need a collective voice: they know what happens in football, and they should have a say in changing it.

"Any time players can come together and share their authentic thoughts and experiences, and people listen authentically and try to create change, the leverage of unity is very strong," Robinson says.

Robinson, a defender for FC Cincinnati, joined the council after the MLS Players Association suggested he could bring his willingness to challenge the way the game is run to a global forum. 

The moment Robinson recognised the reach of his platform came in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd sparked protests across the United States. Robinson joined those protests and shared them online.

"Posting about those authentic actions of people offers a model for the rest of the country that may be lacking empathy," he says. "Empathy is a massive emotion that I think the world is lacking."

That same year, Robinson became an ambassador for Black Players for Change, the coalition of Black players in MLS. "Their leadership allowed me to step into that and use my voice and leverage for good."

'The opposite of how it should go'

Robinson is clear that racist abuse in football should never be treated as part of the job. "We shouldn't have to deal with racism while we're supposedly entertaining the people who are being racist towards us," he says. "As a player you have a lot of power, especially when you're united with your team-mates, with the league, with something bigger than the league.

"If the players stand on something, anything can be changed."

He points to Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior, whose reactions to repeated racist abuse have often drawn more scrutiny than the abuse itself.

"People tend to hate him as a player because he’s expressing himself, which is the opposite of how it should go," Robinson said. "It comes down to a lack of empathy, and to narratives that can be spread unjustly through social media and misinformation."

Robinson, who represented USA at this summer’s FIFA World Cup on home soil, believes anti-discrimination campaigns still have a role, provided they are backed by action.

"Repeating those messages can ingrain some understanding at a subconscious level, so it’s important they continue," he says. "But whether it's FIFA or national associations, it's one thing to talk about it and another to act on it. If you say it and don't act on it, it's not authentic."

Lasting progress, he argues, also requires change in who holds power in the game. "There's a demographic of players, and then there's a demographic of owners and front-office members, and they are very skewed," he says. "Until that changes, it won't be authentic."

Giving back where it started

Robinson’s own foundation, Miles of Change, is his vehicle for acting on those beliefs. He describes it as something he always wanted to build, allowing him to explore how sport can serve communities, as well as wider issues such as income-based housing and equal opportunity.

"I feel like I had opportunities that maybe some people of my ethnicity around me did not," he says. "That understanding made me always want to help people."

One of the foundation's first projects is the renovation of courts at the Boys & Girls Club in Arlington, Massachusetts, where Robinson grew up.

"That’s where I learned how to swim and how to play so many sports," he says. "It’s right to start where you’re from, then where you’re living, and keep giving back wherever you live. It's about giving back to those who allowed me to be in this position in the first place."

Investing in the whole player

Asked how football institutions can better support players' work off the pitch, Robinson says the starting point is recognising athletes as people.

"If you invest in your players, not just physically but mentally and spiritually, you naturally invest in how they operate off the field as well," he says. "Most players are successful on the pitch when they're feeling joyous and happy off it."

He draws inspiration from athletes remembered as much for their impact off the field, naming Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, LeBron James and Jaylen Brown.

"Those are the people who always inspired me," he says. "My idea is to emulate them and inspire the next generation: young people who want to do right by one another, create positive change and be a source of energy for others."

The power of the collective 

For Robinson, football's greatest strength may be its ability to remind people of their shared humanity. He says the World Cup offered a glimpse of that.

"When all these different cultures come together to watch a single game, there's a collective consciousness that people almost remember they have," he says. "With all these new advancements, we have to remember what it means to be human. That collective hope, all moving in the same direction, is transcending.

"The strongest teams really know what they're playing for."