Racism in Football: A Sleeping Giant Awakens
Racism in sport, particularly football, is acknowledged as a minnow in the vast sporting arena. Over recent years, the media reports ever rising quantities of incidents of this kind. Speaking within a football context, do the senior figures of UEFA, FIFA and similar bodies seriously believe that this is a marginal issue?
Only yesterday, the media reported that Kevin Prince Boateng reacted to racist chanting, fired the ball at the crowd and walked off the pitch and refused to play (in a ‘friendly’ fixture), supported by his AC Milan teammates. In the not so distant past, Serbia U21′s v England U21′s sparked large scale fury at the level of racist chanting and physical gestures made to some England individuals. There are many, many recorded issues over the past 2-3 years, week in, week out.
Do we seriously think that this issue is slowly proceeding to be eradicated using the methods selected by the governing bodies of sport? Personally, the recent experience I have of a Football Association approved anti-racism program is very poor. The organisation of the workshop was poorly organised and contained material from footballers who themselves have been transferred/sacked/released from clubs recently for racist comments on social networking sites (E.G. Mido (Egypt) – Barnsley FC – Racist comments towards Israel, sacked/released from club, features on programme promotional material). The course organisers had no knowledge of this issue, yet it was highly publicised.
Is the problem deep rooted in society? Does this stem from generations passing the football fan mentality down to future generations? Racism stems in many walks of life, not just sport. Another personal perspective, I cannot attend a local football match in my hometown without hearing a racist comment throughout a game. We don’t hear the same amount of occurrences in other mainstream sports within the UK, is this down to the mentality and upbringing of these fans? We see many high profile sportsmen and women on social networking asking many sporting powers to ‘stand up’ and ‘take action’, but how do they do this? Shouldn’t we be looking at the bigger social/economic/psychological picture? Sport generates vast amounts of money, what percent of this is put into protecting the very people that puts the fans in the stands and generates the revenue?
Racism in sport will be here to stay as long as the bigger picture in society is not confronted. Can football and sport in general be the vehicle to tackle this problem? Only time will tell. Personally, lifetime bans, prosecution and similar action will not be enough. This mentality transfers much further than sport. Simply put, UEFA, FIFA, similar bodies…..STAND UP AND BE COUNTED FOR, ITS NOT WORKING!
Phil
Sport, Fitness & Recreation Manager, keen golfer, retired footballer & NFL newbie
What gets me is the inconsistency, why is there not a compulsory ban for anyone found to have used race as a tool for abuse, then depending on the severity add additional punishment such as fines, community service and further game bans. There should also be an independent body within the sporting world to look into these accusations much like UK Anti Doping. Racism is destroying sport just as much as drugs and this needs to be tackled. Do we hold up drug cheats as role models for our youngsters?? Certainly not so why are racists allowed to be shielded by clubs, teammates and the national governing bodies of sport and adorn the bedrooms of youngsters around the world. There are also other areas that need to be looked at more such as homophobia, hooliganism, sexism and the reintroduction good old fair play (diving and abuse to referees). This will take time but we now seem to be going back in time.
It amazes me, how much goes on at the top level. The captain of the England football team, top flight players – behaving like hooligans instead of role models.
I was in complete support of the players who boycotted the anti racism tshirt so soon after the Terry scandal. Absolutely pointless to put on a united front and suggest all is well and being handled appropriately, when people are getting away with despicable acts.
It would help to sell it into the fans, if the so called ‘role models’ would behave like normal human beings first.
I think it’s getting there in the most part, however there will always be the minority who want to provoke. As you suggest, a lot of it must be about the environment you grow up in, and therefore racism will continue to fade out as the years roll on.
Ignoring the cliche, people do need to stand up. It is not acceptable to allow the people you associate/spend time with, to behave in such a way that suggests someone is a lesser person because of the colour of their skin or where they were born.