Racism in Football - The Not So Beautiful Game

Article by e-Football Correspondent David Naylor

Racism in any walk of life is deplorable, but it is particularly sickening to see racism rear its ugly head in our Beautiful game. Most of us go to football games to enjoy great players and stadiums, and be a part of fabulous matches and occasions, however a small minority of those attending football matches see games as a chance to be racially abusive. Whether these individuals truly mean to cause offence or just find themselves caught in 'the spur of the moment', the increasing coverage and awareness of what happens on the terraces at football grounds means that in the vast majority of cases, those that are guilty of racially abusing another human being are caught and dealt with appropriately. The increase of public awareness towards racism in football over the last few years has resulted in more severe punishments, and thankfully racists are almost always banned from attending football matches, often for life.

Whilst an increasing number of racists are being banned from our sacred football grounds, matters of racial abuse are becoming more frequent on our front pages and across expanding social media networks. October alone has seen at least three high profile cases hit the headlines. Roy Hodgson, for example, experienced something of a hounding from the media after making a joke at half-time in the England-Poland game. It is worth researching the nature of the joke in order to form your own opinions however the gaffe basically emphasises the importance of Andros Townsend's role in the match, with Townsend's significance being measured alongside that of a Monkey on a space mission who is given the majority of the tasks to do whilst the human is left with the most important role of feeding the monkey. Hodgson has been almost unanimously backed by those that have offered their opinions on the matter however there are cases where a racism-related issue causes more controversy.

These controversies are often about interpretations of a matter- in the previous paragraph, for example, I tried to be careful not to suggest that Roy Hodgson told the joke with the intention of being racist, however one case that is currently sparking off a more divided deliberation is the incident from Manchester City's game against CSKA Moscow on Wednesday regarding alleged racist abuse from CKSA fans towards Yaya Toure. No one of sound mind will try to suggest that any potential abuse was warranted however further debate has been caused after Toure suggested, perhaps in the heat of the moment, that black players may boycott the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Toure has since commented that football's governing bodies should be given the chance to make more progress regarding the problems of racism before any decisions regarding Russia are made which I think is a fair comment.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has shrugged off any suggestions that black players should boycott the 2018 World Cup, arguing that this would be unfair on the 'billions' of fans who want to watch black players play their part. Ex-pro Garth Crooks has also offered his view, claiming that the likes of Mourinho do not know what it's like to be a black player in a hostile and racist environment and that black players should not have to experience it. For me black players should be allowed to deal with these situations in a way that is comfortable to them, whether that be to walk off the pitch or perhaps stay on it and shout louder than any racist through their performances. For this approach to work our footballing authorities must continue to work hard on making as much progress as possible to eradicate racism and whilst Patrice Evra's recent comment that racism will never be fully removed from our beautiful game may be sadly true, we can at least hope for a more positive and harmonious footballing climate come 2018. (England bringing home the trophy would be bordering on ludocracy though, right?)

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