Raheem Sterling has released a powerful video with a host of stellar football names on the eve of the Premier League restart to call for change in the way that black people are treated and represented in the game and wider society.

The theme of the 75-second clip, which went out across social media on Tuesday night, is tiredness, with Sterling and the other players talking about how they are tired of the inequality and the lack of social inclusion, of the need to protest, of having their voices ignored and of black men dying – as happened to George Floyd in the United States last month.

Sterling, the Manchester City and England forward who has campaigned tirelessly against racism and discrimination, recruited nine others for the video: Gary Lineker, Jadon Sancho, David Alaba, Vincent Kompany, Jordan Henderson, Lucy Bronze, Kevin De Bruyne, Gaël Clichy and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The camera cuts quickly between them as they deliver their lines before Sterling says at the end: “I will never tire of being black.” The closing slogan is in black and white: “Change needs to happen,” it reads. “And happen now.”

Sterling is most comfortable speaking about football, where there has long been a stark difference between the number of black players and those in coaching, management and executive roles. But he is concerned also at the lack of black representation in the boardrooms of every British sporting association and, more broadly, in decision-making positions across the UK.

“I feel like I speak for most black people – everyone is tired,” Sterling told Sky Sports earlier in the day. “A lot of people who have been in silence are using this opportunity as a moment to be one and try to get not just answers but changes to society.

“I’m not someone with the most ideas in the world, or who knows exactly what to do, but we just have to highlight these things that people are facing in everyday aspects of their lives. It is something that is coming up a lot more which is a good thing. I truly do believe that now is the time that we have to act.”