I can’t believe I’m writing the article in 2020. Another black man has been brutally murdered by law enforcement in America, the simmering racial tensions, have boiled over in the aftermath with multiple cities experiencing rioting and looting. This, while the US haven’t fully come out of the global Covid19 pandemic. Social distancing has been thrown to the wind as the rage of the nation explodes.
Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned. Trump watched his rocket while America burned
Racism is systemic in the USA, and across the pond in Europe we sit horrified as we see events play out. But the reason for this article is to relate it all to football. We thought we had been doing a good job in eradicating the scourge of discrimination from the game, but in the last 10 years, it has reared its ugly head again. It proves, that we are a long way off from being able to finally sit back and be proud of what we have achieved.
This battle, this game is longer than 90 minutes, it’s something we must be relentless with. We must weed it out, at the roots, before we can ever make progress.
Some figures courtesy of the Guardian:
More than 150 football-related racist incidents were reported to police last season, Home Office figures show, a rise of more than 50% on the year before and more than double the number from three seasons ago.
The figures, revealed by Home Office minister Susan Williams, show three years of increases in reported incidents across England and Wales, with a sharp rise from 98 to 152 between the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
Previously there had been a decline in reported incidents of racially charged non-violent abuse, such as chanting or verbal intimidation, from 99 during the 2013-14 season, to 78 in 2014-15, 68 in 2015-16 and 70 in 2016-17.
But should football be doing more?
In a nutshell, Yes!
This point illustrates it:
Niklas Bendtner was fined £80,000 for pulling his shorts down to reveal some advertising but when Porto fans chanted racist rhetoric from the stands, the club was fined just under £17,000. How is this right? To add to the disgraceful episode, Bendtner was also banned for 1 game. Porto’s fans…were not punished at all.
Again, courtesy of the Guardian, here are some other examples of fines dished out by inept UEFA
• October 2000 Patrick Vieira says Sinisa Mihajlovic called him a black bastard and a fucking black monkey, which Mihajlovic denies. The Serb also claimed that Vieira had started it by calling him a gypsy. Uefa's punishment? Two-match ban for Mihajlovic.
• June 2007 Serbian fans aim racist abuse at England's Nedum Onuoha at the Under-21 European Championship in Holland. Uefa's punishment? Serbian Football Federation is fined £16,500 for "the racist chanting of supporters and the improper conduct of their players".
• June 2008 Some Croatia fans are found guilty by Uefa of "displaying a racist banner and showing racist conduct" during a Euro 2008 quarter-final against Turkey. Uefa's punishment? The Croatian Football Federation is fined nearly £10,000.
• February 2012 Porto fans subject the Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli to prolonged racist abuse in the Europa League tie. Uefa's punishment? Porto are fined £16,700.
In the last 5 years in England we have seen many high-profile incidents of racism, from Raheem Sterling being abused by Chelsea fans to Fred being subjected to a monkey chant from a Man City fan.
I firmly believe, football can do more. But we as fans should be taking on that burden too. Let’s start policing ourselves.
Megan Rapinoe, a brilliant role model within the game, said very publicly that it shouldn’t just fall at the feet of black players to stand up to racism. White players and fans have for too long turned a blind eye to football’s evil.
Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher both apologised on live TV, the latter direct to Patrice Evra, for their ignorance and lack of action during their playing days.
This nicely dovetails into something interesting that Gary Neville said after the increase in racism in the UK. While punditing, he was critical of Boris Johnson (then just an MP) for stoking the flames of racial bigotry with his Brexit campaign, masterminded by Covidiot number 1, Dominic Cummings. It’s true, since the Brexit referendum, the rhetoric that was used, has brought to the surface, some of the casual racism that most people still think is acceptable.
Laurence Fox, actor and nobody, during a TV debate, was applauded for his comments on Meghan Markle, when an audience member called out the national narrative on the issue:
calling Britain ‘the most tolerant, lovely country in Europe’, and adding: ‘It’s so easy to throw the card of racism at everybody and it’s really starting to get boring now. The audience member replied: ‘What worries me about your comment is, you are a white privileged male who has no experience in this’ – at which point Laurence hit back, saying: ‘I can’t help what I am, I was born like this, it’s an immutable characteristic so to call me a white privileged male is to be racist, you’re being racist.’
A white middle classed man, saying the above is laughable. It highlights in a minute, how ignorant many of the nation are. That his comments were applauded is worrying and fully displays the challenge we all have in changing people’s dark age views.
This is where I come back to the point I have made before. Football is a very public sport, the number 1 in the world and it is rightly so in the public eye. But unfortunately, both fans and those ignorant of the game find it too easy to pin societal ills on our sport.
People aren’t born racist, they become racist. We need to put more money into the education system, stop politicising it. Then we need to find equality in all walks of life. Our journalists hold a huge platform, and I don’t believe they, like many industries, in the world are truly representative.
Take the Daily Mail (Daily Fail to most), check out some headline comparisons below. Its shocking when you see them side by side. Laurence Fox’s ignorance is shown starkly for what it is, when you see the below:
Raheem Sterling showed his impressive maturity when he exposed the press’s double standards of the reporting on him, compared to white footballers. It was a watershed moment, a moment which made the press have a long hard look at itself.
This is just the beginning. We all have a part to play, us the fans, the footballing authorities, the players, the press, the education system, politicians, battles have been won and lost, but the war on racism continues, and we at FC7 will be at the forefront for change as one of our core values. This isn’t just about racism, but all forms of discrimination, sexism and homophobia too.
When you “Wear the Black” you represent these core values.
Comments