Saturday, July 28, 2018
Racism will never be kicked out of football
Racism will never be kicked out of football
The global game has a problem. Abuse pervades virtually every aspect of the game, and in recent times blacks, gays, Muslims and Jews have all been on the receiving end of this disease. Although the present situation is an improvement on the darker days in football (bananas are no longer thrown onto pitches at black players) this seems to be a problem that will not go away.
Racism was brought to the forefront in England this week as during the England � Germany under 21-game, Anton Ferdinand and Micah Richards claimed they were called "monkeys" by the German players during the second half of the match.
An FA spokesman said after the game "We have raised it with the UEFA delegate after the game and will be formally communicating with UEFA in the next couple of days." A statement like this does not suggest that this will be dealt with in a timely or satisfactory manner.
Virtually all the organizations running the game (FIFA, UEFA, each individual countries FA) seem to run on the United Nations model of governance: an inability to act clearly and decisively, with a cumbersome and excessive bureaucracy that leads to waste and inefficiency.
Lord Ouseley, chairman of the Kick It Out anti-racism campaign said this week that "UEFA has been weak and FIFA has been weak... [Sepp] Blatter is always babbling about it without producing any real action, but with UEFA it is happening right in front of their faces all the time... UEFA has got to get after the clubs and national associations that routinely do this and punish them."
The Kick Racism Out of Football campaign launched its annual week of action on Tuesday. Yet the English FA contributed just �75,000. The Premier League, the Football Foundation, and the Professional Footballers Association all provided donations of �110,000 respectively. These sums are laughable when one considers that the average England player earns this money in a week.
When Slaven Bilic, the Croatia manager, was asked this week about the likelihood that black players would be targeted during last nights game with England, he replied "My country and my people are friendly, peace-loving people but in a stadium, one fan can go off his rocker and create an incident. If one person decides to shoot his mouth off in the wrong way, even the police cannot stop him. What can you do? Cut his tongue out?."
Well actually Slaven, this "one fan" can be barred from going to football matches for the rest of his life. The football authorities have managed to stamp a large amount of racist abuse from the game but attitudes such as this mean that the good work that has been done cannot be improved upon.
Last year Barcelona striker Samuel Etoo threatened to leave the pitch after being subjected to racial abuse by Real Zaragoza supporters, clear proof that Bilic is in fact wrong. And you dont have to be Samuel Etoo to make a difference, last year a Dutch multicultural group organized a football tournament between gays and Muslims to counter a rising fear of Muslims among Dutch gays.
One could fill an encyclopaedia with examples of racism in football. Last year Mido, the Tottenham forward, was subjected to chants labeling him "a suicide bomber" as he is Muslim.
Graeme Le Saux and Sol Campbell are two footballers who have been subjected to chants about their sexuality even though there is no proof that either is anything but heterosexual. (How sad that the clearly numerous gay footballers out there can not come out the closet.)
Unfortunately high-profile players and managers have sometimes been responsible for adding fuel to this fire. Last year Paolo Di Canio was unrepentant about giving a fascist salute to Lazio fans who need no invitation to be fascist. Whilst the recent defeats for Spain in Northern Ireland and Sweden were welcomed as Luis Aragones moved closer to the sack. It is quite incredible that a man who described Thierry Henry as "a black shit" still has a job and was fined the equivalent of one days wages.
The media also have a role to play; The Sun this week had an "exclusive" photo of a human swastika created by Croatia fans during a friendly with Italy two months ago. Kudos to The Sun for highlighting the picture but why was this not in all the newspapers in Europe two months ago.
Similarly this week Sky News had a report on Betar Jerusalem, a team now managed by Ossie Ardiles, who refuse to pick Arab players. Sky News should be praised for this report as it is a clear negative on the ever-improving Israeli game but why have they only featured Israel, they could feature racism in football in any one of the 200 countries that play the game for hours on end since it is so widespread.
Ironically the motto for the recent World Cup was "A time to make friends". However, the football authorities, those within the game (both players and managers) and the media seem continually unable to deal with these issues and there are increasing signs that the game loved by billions will be blighted by this sickness for many years to come. Currently it is impossible to see a time when racism is kicked out of football for good.
