In the last five years most parts of the world have felt the effect of a recession, the word has been repeated so many times that you could be forgiven for feeling indifferent to it by now. However, football is one industry where financial difficulties have hardly registered, instead another r word has reared it's ugly head- racism.
The most recent couple of seasons in England have proven that the footballing community were too hasty to pat themselves on the back for eradicating racism in our leagues. We're all aware of the infamous examples in that time, the prominent incidents concerning Luis Suárez and John Terry stirred up a lot of bad publicity and created plenty of acrimony.
Millwall FC, much like the FA, thought that they too had consigned a notorious past to history. Unfortunately this time last year they were in the news twice for episodes involving racially-related abuse. Both concerned Marvin Sordell. Firstly he was abused by a 13 year old Millwall fan during a match with Bolton (the youngster subsequently apologised), one month later 6 'matured' Millwall fans unleashed a banner during another match calling Sordell a c@#t.
Probably more concerning was the moronic Chelsea supporter Gavin Kirkham. During the Blues League Cup tie with Manchester United last season, he was pictured mimicking a monkey in the direction of Danny Welbeck. Clearly football doesn't want or need supporters like this, people stuck in an era when it was acceptable to use race as a point of conflict. However, the fact is that despite these recent set-backs football in England is a reasonably liberal place.
Of course there is much more to be done, regrettably the tackling of homophobia is still several steps behind that of racism, but the cases I've highlighted gained huge publicity because they are no longer the norm but rather anomalies.
Still, whilst football in England has to keep fighting the good fight, there are other nations that are apparently some way from having their own versions of a Kick It Out. On Wednesday evening Manchester City earned a tight win over CSKA Moscow in Russia, but Thursday saw the sports pages back home dominated by alleged racial abuse from some CSKA fans towards Yaya Touré.
The reaction of Manchester City's captain afterwards was widely quoted- "I'm not just disappointed, I'm furious." Questions have since been asked of the referee Ovidiu Hategan, who after being made aware by Touré could have halted the game and appealed to fans via the stadium announcer.
Whilst this option wasn't taken up, it is to Uefa's credit that by Thursday night they had already started proceedings against CSKA Moscow. At this point they have been charged with racist behaviour by their fans (as well as the use of fireworks), although the club itself is denying the allegation. Instead they have wheeled out the defence that no specific player was targeted and that the abuse was the typical baiting that occurs when fans try to distract the opposition.
This explanation hasn't convinced Uefa though, and it should be relatively easy to prove either way through the use of TV footage. If found guilty next Wednesday CSKA will face an immediate partial stadium closure, again this is an improved stance from Uefa as the option of (just) an insignificant fine no longer applies first. Already this season there have been several other European clubs given partial/full stadium closures for fan racism, thus proving that more serious punishment is befalling this behaviour.
Even so, we can only go so far in congratulating football's administrative bodies for taking a harder line now, after all it is something that plenty of people have been requesting for years. Actually Uefa and FIFA are still dragging their heels- why not make the first offence equate to competition expulsion? In some respects the associations are like policeman who have just grasped that if they can be bothered to do the paperwork, then they actually have the power to arrest an offender.
This is why the suggestion made by Yaya Touré on Thursday evening should strike a chord with all those who suspect Uefa and FIFA of continuing to be too soft on racism and homophobia. The Ivorian mooted the idea that black players could boycott the Russian World Cup in 2018 if attitudes do not improve there. In other words, why not use player power as a positive force for change.
Piara Powar has already supported this suggestion, but really this would be a mistake if it was left to just the players of African heritage to undertake. Concerns over anti-homosexual 'propaganda' laws have been raised ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year, and these will apply to the World Cup as well.
And so surely the ultimate, ideal show of solidarity would be for all nations who consider themselves to abhor all prejudice to boycott Russia. Ultimately a World Cup without the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and dare I say England, would along with the African continent make the tournament utterly pointless. This applies even more to the finances of the spectacle, FIFA would be horrified by redundancy!
Russia is by no means alone in having such issues. Italy and Spain have been notorious for racist chants, whilst Germany, France and other leagues have had their own embarrassing flare-ups just like in England. But, if you are a nation that has ambitions to host the biggest global sporting events, then consistent examples of prejudice are not something that should be swept under the carpet- and this is where Russia currently sits.
As with Qatar in 2022, FIFA should have applied at least a little logic and ethics to their decision-making and thought process when regarding the whole package. It isn't Sepp Blatter's role to tell states how to mould their culture, but if they want to host the World Cup it would be nice if a perquisite was not to discriminate based on race, sexuality and religion, etc, etc...