It’s long been thought that Football is ahead of the curve when it comes to tackling racism. Whilst this is an idea that has been fuelled by those within the game, on the surface there does appear to be some truth in it.
The improvements that football has made are so visible that they are hard to ignore. The racist chanting that literally surrounded games up and down the country in the 70’s and 80’s is now just taken up by a very small minority, if at all. The furore around Viv Anderson becoming the first black player to represent England in 1978 would seem foreign to the younger generation of fans who are used to a mixed race England team. But maybe we’ve been spoilt in this country?
Sepp Blatter, the most powerful man in football lest we forget, made the front and back pages in the UK after his outrageous comments undermining the significance of racism in football. Press coverage was intense, lasted for days and covered every medium. Numerous fans, journalists and players popped up on twitter voicing their outrage.
However, just as common on Twitter were Brits living abroad stating that Blatter had not even made the news where they were. This wasn’t the issue worldwide that it was here. And maybe that shouldn’t surprise us. There could have been a backlash from the rest of FIFA over their leader’s comments. There wasn’t.
In the same month that UEFA fined the Bulgarian FA £34,000 for their fans racist chanting towards England’s players, Barcelona were fined £95,000 due to their fans using flairs in a European game against Porto. If this were to give an indication of the leaders of world football’s priorities, then it would appear that dealing with racism is a long way down the pecking order.
Sadly Bulgaria isn’t alone in their vocal condemnation of England’s black players. Similar fair has been suffered in Croatia, Spain, Turkey and others too numerous to mention. But perhaps even more worrying is that they can expect to receive similar treatment next time they visit. This is due, in no small part, to FIFA’s lack of a major deterrent.
But before England can sort out the footballing world’s racism epidemic, we have problems of our own to sort out a little closer to home. Our moral high ground has been demolished by our own indiscretions. Very publicly John Terry, the England captain no less, is being investigated by the FA and the police over a racist comment he is alleged to have made towards Anton Ferdinand.
And there is more evidence to suggest that there is still an underlying racism issue within the game in this country. Currently Chris Hughton of Birmingham City and Chris Powell of Charlton Athletic hold the dubious distinction of being the only two black managers in the football league. That’s just two out of 92 clubs, none of which are in the Premier League. It’s this sort of stat that makes our own racism issues hard to ignore.
Even so, it may not be so easy to define football fans simply as being racist or not, rather it may be a case of unacceptable ignorance.
Tottenham were accused of racist chanting during last season’s Champions League, directed at then Real Madrid loanee Emmanuel Adebayor. The same player has since quickly developed a huge following at Spurs this season, now he is on the other side of the fence. Thus proving, perhaps, that the majority of English football fans aren’t necessarily racist, but rather naïve about how they voice their disapproval of an opposition player.
If this were truly an issue of race then Spurs fans would still have the same problem with Adebayor now as they had when he played for Madrid or for Arsenal. His origins haven’t changed since he signed for Spurs, just his allegiances.
Whether or not football has a problem with racists or a problem with people who aren’t necessarily racist using racism, ultimately action still needs to be taken by those in charge. Football has lost its spot as a shining example in the fight against racism. Could you get away with making obviously racist remarks in your workplace? Sepp Blatter did.