Now it’s time we get serious…
We can all agree the beautiful game we all have come to love and enjoy has heavily been plagued with the presence of one of the most disgusting and awful things known to football and in sports generally and that is Racism. You must have heard it a lot of times over but for people who don’t know much about it you will come to understand this concept a lot more if you stick around. It’s something to always frown on and I’ll give you instances as to why but firstly…
What is Racism?
As a concept, Racism is said to be the belief that one race is better than another race which automatically results to them not really seeing the need to respect their rights which sometimes result to violence, abuse, and in sports; chants, directed insults, online comments and throwing bananas at targeted players as the case may be. I’m sure you wonder what really goes in the head of a racist and what they are trying to achieve with such despicable behavior but you can’t really know and they themselves might not really give a valid answer.
Let me think about a valid reason why….
Nope, I still can’t come up with one but I’ll say people who take a rather racist approach to people who don’t seem of the same ethnicity or color to an extreme degree are fueled by a horrible blend of rage, patriotism and scapegoating the targeted players for reasons that could virtually happen to anyone in sports and also for the fact that they see these people as superior to them and the treat of them superseding them is why they employ underhand tactics to curb this however they can before it gets out of hand. Like I said, It’s not valid but it’s a reason never the less.
I have also come to understand that Racism as a concept is sometimes thought and it’s passed from generation to generation thereby making it a culture that is emulated from the moment an infant is born to when they can actively exhibit these traits.
When we talk on Racism and Racial discrimination we are talking about a phenomenon that has existed since the 20th century and is still very much in existence from the looks of things, It has just merely taken different forms. Malcom X said:
“Racism is like a Cadillac. The 1960s Cadillac doesn’t look like the 1921 Cadillac, but it’s still a Cadillac; it has simply changed form”.
The different forms he was trying to talk about there with regards to modern day racism is the use of social media. You can all agree that the use of social media is one of the main driving forces where horrible things like racism and other forms of ill behavior is easily exhibited cause of the sheer presence of anonymity. It is understood that anonymity brings out the worst in humans in most cases because of the feeling of simply “getting away with it”. Psychologists also proved the fact that hostility towards a person is shown more when you are anonymous.
You will come to understand this better when you look back at incidents like the aftermath of the France v Switzerland in the Last 16 of the Euros in 2020 when France’s Kylian Mbappé missed a penalty that could have further piled the pressure on Switzerland but instead handed the win to the Swiss. He was subjected to numerous racial abuse after the game for that penalty miss, something any person can experience in the sport cause quite frankly it’s part of the sport.
It was also believed that due to the level of racial discrimination Mbappé faced he was also believed to have almost taken the option of quitting the national team. Imagine if that had happened, Imagine Mbappé not playing for les bleus, It just wouldn’t feel right if you ask me.
Mbappé wasn’t the only one who suffered from this plague in that tournament though…
In the finals of the Euros of that same year’s tournament against the eventual champions Italy, Bukayo Saka, Jason Sancho and Marcus Rashford were all subjected to online abuse due to their penalty misses in the finals. This event overshadowed the heroics of the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. It was something that caused so much uproar in their country of England and around the world as people showed their discontent towards the events and asked for the right authorities to put these people to justice.
It was further intensified when a mural of Marcus Rashford in Withington, Manchester was covered with a graffiti of racist comments including numerous swear words directed to Rashford, Sancho and Saka the following morning. The mural which was created in honor of Marcus Rashford because of his mission to end child hunger in England. The graffiti comments were later covered with messages by children and other well wishers with comments like “hero”, “role model”, “amazing human” written in heart shaped cards.
Never forget “love always prevails” always.
There are also numerous cases of online abuse in football and its sad it’s still a reoccurring theme till this very day and age. Rico Henry and Ivan Toney of Brentford, David Alaba and Vini Jr of Real Madrid have all suffered racial abuse one way of the other. It is very sad to say this isn’t being curbed to great effect cause it almost seems to reoccur and what’s more disturbing is the predictability that this thing will happen. At times as a fan you can just have a sick sense knowing when and if a player might receive abuse after a game. It’s insane.
You might think this exists only on social media but I must say you will be shocked that in the stands in stadiums fans make monkey noises, throw bananas and harmful objects onto the pitch at players of color, and also do this through collective chants.
Much recently, Inter’s Romelu Lukaku was subject to racial abuse in a Copa Italia clash against Juventus in Turin. Inter were awarded a penalty in injury time which Lukaku had stepped up to take. The racial chants commenced from the moment he had the ball in hand, placed it on the spot and eventually converting it. It was still going on while he celebrated his goal.
But that wasn’t all in terms of controversy…
Lukaku was shown a second yellow card in the game and was sent off due to the fact that his celebrations after the goal was perceived as “offensive” to the fans, the same fans who started racists chants mind you. This caused a chaotic climax to the game as Inter’s goalkeeper and captain Samir Handanovic was shown red along with Juventus midfielder Juan Cuadrado in the aftermath of Lukaku’s rather unfair dismissal. Lukaku would respond to this event on an Instagram post calling for the right authorities to tackle this issue head on this time which he got so much support for by fans and fellow players.
But are the “right authorities” fighting this?
Campaigns like UEFA’s “NO TO RACISM” and the Premier League’s “NO ROOM FOR RACISM” are put in place to curb this plague in our sport. We can’t say setting up the movement isn’t the right way forward but they also have to always put in the work to tackle this whenever and wherever it is reported and then little by little we can see changes and this can be reduced to a minimality.
In the Premier league, players are to take a knee to show solidarity towards the fight against all forms of discrimination. I think it’s a lovely and powerful gesture although some players have been known for not taking the knee due to the fact they feel the movement isn’t taking the appropriate action.
You can ask Wilf Zaha…
On this final note, it is necessary that we all take a stand to end racism for good and report it whenever it happens around us wether it be in our schools, place of work and on the field playing sports. With togetherness and unity we can all kick racism’s butt and restore the beauty of our game.
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Until next time.
