God created man in his own image
Footballers
are not bothered with having integrated football clubs (or maybe they are just not showing it), they
continue to play with black players (with the
exception of Luis Suarez). It’s the supporters who are the cause
of such discrimination.
People
making monkey sounds and acting like monkeys is similar to the loser sign. When
somebody calls you a loser, and puts the loser sign up against their forehead,
think about it ... They have the loser sign on their forehead, so the same
thing applies with the monkey chants and body language ... The person who is
doing the action and making the sound, is the loser or the monkey.
We
are a long way away from ridding football of racism. Recently, Sky
Sports News uncovered horrific racism in professional football and heard from
players and staff who have suffered.
Although
racism in football started a long time ago, the most recent racism acts have
captured the attention of the world.
EURO2012
Black
Holland players were racially abused by
spectators during their open practice session at Stadion Miejski when Nigel de Jong
and Gregory van der Wiel were subjected to monkey chants. In response, they
moved their training drills to the other side of the ground.
"It
is a real disgrace especially after getting back from Auschwitz that you are
confronted with this," Van Bommel said. "We will take it up with
UEFA and if it happens at a match we will talk to the referee and ask him to
take us off the field."
UEFA
tried to deny that it was racially motivated, saying they had checked with the
Dutch squad and had been told it was not thought to be of that nature.
Apparently, the crowd was protesting that Krakow had not been made one of the
host cities. In addition, Wisla's supporters did not want their stadium being
used by anyone but their own club and were simply booing the Dutch players.
Instead of addressing the issue ... Excuses
... Excuses ... Excuses!!!
There
was more racist chanting during the Euro 2012 matches between Spain and Italy
and Russia and Czech Republic.
DANNY WELBECK
An
astonishing discovery was made about this photograph, looking at the
background; a lot of people can easily miss the second man on the bottom left
hand side. The football fan raises his hands up under his armpits to imitate a
monkey while appearing to chant animal sounds.
Police
launched an investigation and arrested the 28 year old Chelsea fan who made monkey
gestures during a Capital One Cup match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford
Bridge. The monkey gesture was directed towards United footballer Danny Welbeck.
In
the meantime, Chelsea
players said referee Mark Clattenburg told John Mikel Obi to 'shut it, monkey'.
It seems Chelsea
can dish it out but they cannot take it.
KEVIN-PRINCE BOATENG
Kevin-Prince
Boateng alongside Captain Massimo Ambrosini and the rest of his team mates left
the pitch, leading to the suspension of their friendly with Pro Patria in Busto
Arsizio in the 26th minute after he was racially abused by fans. When Boateng
had heard enough, he grabbed the ball and kicked it against a barrier that
separated him and the racist abusers.
Boateng
and other black players, Urby Emanuelson, Sulley Muntari and M'Baye Niang, had
been subjected to racist abuse from a section of the Carlo Speroni stadium.
Milan tried to get the referee to intervene, but the referee dismissed their
complaints. In walking off, Milan was taking a step against racism.
The
incident happened a few hours after AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi stated
that his players will always walk off the pitch in future in protest at racist
abuse. Little did he know that ‘in future’ was just a few hours away.
Ruud
Gullit was also fed up with the racist abuse he had received. Milan backed him
then as they did Boateng now.
"Shame
that these things still happen. Stop racism for ever" - was what Boateng
wrote on Twitter.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter
Sepp
Blatter did not think that walking off was the solution. “The only solution is
to be very harsh with the sanctions — and the sanctions must be a deduction of
points or something similar,” said Blatter.
Blatter
seems to forget that we all deal with race differently. There is no right or
wrong way. It's the right decision for the abused person and not anyone else,
all you can do, is support them.
JOZY ALTIDORE
Referee
Reinold Wiedemeijer stopped the KNVB Cup tie twice, between AZ Alkmaar and FC Den
Bosch. Although AZ Alkmaar won the tie 5-0 it was difficult due to fans with
racist chanting towards Jozy Altidore, the only black player on the team, and
throwing snowballs at an assistant referee. Although the match was stopped a
couple of times, Altidore insisted that the match went on. Director Den Bosch
asked the crowd to stop the abuse, but to no avail.
After
the match, Altidore said, 'I feel like I have an obligation as a football
player, to my club, to my family, to not react to things like this and to show
that the club stands better than that, that I was raised better than to respond
to such ridiculous behaviour.' Altidore also said it was the first time he had
experienced racism like this, on or off the field.
"I
didn't want to give them the satisfaction and I thought the best way to respond
was to keep playing and to try and win the game," he added. "I'm
proud of the club, you know, for the way they responded, and my team mates. We
kept playing the game."
UEFA ANTI-RACISM
UEFA
has reinforced its stand against racism and, together with the players' body
FIFPro, supports the cause to eradicate racism from football and society.
Annually
in October, UEFA uses premier club competitions to make a stand against racism
by giving its support to the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) Action
Weeks. At all 40 UEFA club competition matches, teams are accompanied onto the
pitch by children wearing Unite Against Racism T-shirts and team captains are
asked to wear Unite Against Racism armbands. This was also seen during the 2010
Soccer World Cup in South Africa.
The
fight against racism in football began a long time ago, but its effects are yet
to be seen. Hopefully FIFA can eradicate it, even though at times it seems like
a never ending struggle. With the help of footballers and supporters who should
put their differences aside for the sake of the future of football.
