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As a young primary school dweller who took an active interest in football, and for obvious reasons Arsenal Football Club, I remained relatively ignorant to issues of racism in the English game. That was until in a particularly dower lesson I was introduced to the subject by a television and, more importantly, Rio Ferdinand in a campaign documentary called “show racism the red card.”
As I was ignorant back then I was also caught off-guard somewhat by the recent allegations of racism against John Terry and Luis Suarez. I had seemingly forgotten that racism had not left English football for good. This particular point puzzled me. Racism, something which I had considered practically dead in this country, and football have no business being involved with each other. When one considers that, with the odd exception, almost all football teams from the Premier League right down to the lower leagues have black football players in their squads it is seemingly preposterous that racism lingers.
Moreover, some of the most talented and most prolific players on both club and national level are from other ethnic origins. Perhaps I am alone in this but I for one still find it absolutely nonsensical that the England captain can be accused of racism at all, let alone there be actual evidence of such behaviour. However, upon further examination perhaps I really shouldn’t be that surprised.
Perhaps the main reason why I had always thought of the English top flight as one which was relatively racism-free was because I had always associated racism in football with other leagues in other countries. The infamous incidents involving the likes of World Cup winner Roberto Carlos having a banana thrown at him in Russia in June of this year and Peter Odemwingie’s similar experience in September 2010 always seemed so far away. It is fair to say that spotlight on racism in football has definitely been focused on Russia more recently since they secured the right to host the 2018 World Cup. Other evidence for this comes from Spain, where it has to be said the number of black football players is proportionally a lot lower than in this country.
The event which sticks in my mind most was the monkey chanting that Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips were subjected to by, it must be said, a large number of Spanish fans in Madrid in 2004. This particular episode ended up involving the Prime Minister at the time Tony Blair making a statement and future England games in Spain being moved the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Seville, instead of Madrid.
Nonetheless, for the moment it seems this focus is once again on England. John Terry, who allegedly racially abused Anton Ferdinand on the 23rd of this month, should definitely not be among those accused of such behaviour. Putting aside the obvious stupidity of using such language whilst live on television when it takes very little in the way of lip-reading talent to figure out what he is saying, what on earth was he doing saying what he allegedly said anyway? As England captain and, more importantly, a member of a football club with a number of extremely talented black players (Cole, Essien, Ramires, Sturridge, Drogba to name but a few) he should not be caught expressing such views. Even if, and I still can’t believe this, he may think them.
For one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Europe it is frankly embarrassing for such allegations to still be prominent in the press. Perhaps racism is still a bigger problem elsewhere; Russia still offers one such pocket of resistance where racism remains a central drawback to its development in football. However, for once I find myself agreeing with Sir Alex Ferguson, it is indeed a very rare occurrence for such allegations to be levelled at a player but it is, in his words, “2011 for goodness sake.” He is absolutely right; such allegations should not be occurring in this day and age, especially in England. It seems the cancer that is racism, which infected English football for decades, has not as yet been completely eradicated.
I had always thought of the English top flight as one which was relatively racism-free was because I had always associated racism in football with other leagues in other countries.
haha, ironic
Fantastic article, really good points put across eloquently. I think the problem is that within a sport like football, racism is such a hard thing to stamp out. Huge strides have been made in the last 15 years but clearly we still have some way to go. It's as much about people's attitudes as anything else and I think that as younger generations come through, we will see the back of a lot of prejudices within football, whether that be racism, sexism or homophobia. For me, that can't come soon enough.
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