The Nigeria-born-Newcastle-raised striker was on the receiving end of racist abuse with both club and country, most notably when England Under-21s travelled to Albania in March 2001.
Shola "Racist Abuse Worse In Europe Than Here"
The Nigeria-born-Newcastle-raised striker was on the receiving end of racist abuse with both club and country, most notably when England Under-21s travelled to Albania in March 2001.
"I've definitely experienced it," he said. "Like when I was playing for England in Albania. It just drove me on all the more because I'm not going to let narrow-minded people know it's going in some way to affect me. It drives me on to prove despite the colour of my skin, despite where I'm from, I can be a good footballer, no matter what they say."
In Holland, referees were instructed last season to take players off the field if they heard racist abuse, but Ameobi does not feel that is the answer.
"That won't make the problem go away," he argued. "It could give them the fuel to do even more because they know every time it happens you're going to walk off. The best thing you can do, even if it falls on deaf ears, is go out there and preach the word that racism's wrong.
"You get more when you go away in Europe. The incidents in Spain were some of the worst and the fact they got off so lightly just shows you they don't really care about what they're doing to the game. But it's tough to say teams should be deducted points."