Dear UEFA,
It was in December of last year when I first began writing for this website. My first article documented the problems that our game still faces from racists. Since then 10 months have passed and, if last night’s Under-21 game between Serbia and England is anything to go by, zero progress has been made.
That could seem like an unfair criticism at first, it has only been 10 months after all. But maybe the most alarming thing, UEFA, is not that you haven’t made any progress but more so that you seemingly haven’t taken any action in the first place.
Let us rewind to the European Championships this summer. Denmark striker Nicklas Bendtner fined heavily for the truly heinous crime of exposing the name of a well known bookmakers on the waistband of his underwear. Truly shocking, certainly far worse than the racial abuse of any player.
I should stress at this point that that’s not my opinion, it’s yours UEFA. That’s if we can read anything into the fines you recouped for race based offences. Bendtner was fined just over £80,000 for his indiscretion. In the same tournament the Croatian FA were hit with a fine for just £65,000 for the racist behaviour of their fans.
For similar offences you fined the Spanish £45,000 in 2004, then £16,500 for Serbia in 2007 and £10,000 again for Croatia in 2008. If my research has somehow thrown up the wrong figures then please UEFA, correct me.
How much progress should we expect when this is the example we are set from the top?
So, on to last night’s Under-21 game in Serbia. The footage that we have seen in our news coverage today seems to make it quite clear that England’s Danny Rose was subjected to a torrent of abuse. Rose has stated in interviews today that he was also struck with stones when he was off the pitch to take a throw in. Although I have no reason to doubt Danny I cannot confirm this happened for certain as I didn’t see it for myself. But, the verbal abuse he sustained was all too clear for me to hear, indisputable.
Just to add to the rough night that Danny Rose suffered he was inexplicably sent off for kicking a ball away after the final whistle was blown. His frustration with the abuse he received was then further highlighted when he sarcastically clapped the Serbian fans for their racist taunting as he exited the pitch.
This seemed to anger the Serbian FA who claimed that Rose acted in an ‘inappropriate and vulgar’ manner and that they “absolutely reject and deny that there were any occurrences of racism”. They may be happy to stick their heads in the sand in the face of overwhelming evidence but that doesn’t mean we all are.
The racist abuse, the fact that our players were struck by missiles whilst celebrating their goal, these to me seem to be things that UEFA should be punishing quite severely. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, I want to believe that you will hit Serbia with a serious sanction which will make them sit up and take notice. But your previous approach to circumstances like this leads me to believe that you won’t.
I couldn’t find any reference of the incident on the UEFA website I must admit, even after reading through the Serbia U21 v England U21 match report. The only reference to Danny Rose I found came in the below paragraph:
“Stuart Pearce, who saw Danny Rose receive a second booking after the final whistle along with Serbia's Slobodan Medojević as players and staff from both teams took to the pitch, will lead England in Israel next summer in his fourth consecutive U21 finals”.
Players and staff from both teams ‘took to the pitch’!? I can only presume that your reporter didn’t see the mass brawl borne out of frustration that I saw on TV.
In England we’re not perfect, we have isolated incidents involving racism and we deal with them as best we can, much better than we would have done in years gone by. Progress.
It’s similar to the progress we have made with a serious hooliganism problem which blighted our game for decades. But we battled it and we improved. We had no choice really, our clubs were given an indefinite ban from European competition for the part our hooligans played in the Heysel Stadium Disaster in 1985.
Could a blanket ban such as this be a tool in the fight against racism in football? Why not? The improvement in the behaviour of English fans travelling away in Europe would suggest that banning offending nations from competitions such as these can have a positive effect.
All that is left to be seen is if UEFA deem racism to be a serious enough issue to warrant something more substantial than a ‘slap on the wrist’ fine.
I’m hoping that should a situation like this rear its ugly head again that the referee or the players will have the conviction to simply walk off the pitch, unwilling to play in this kind of intolerant environment. But what I’d much rather see is our governing body step in so that it doesn’t come to that.
UEFA, we wait with baited breath.
Kindest Regards
James Palmer