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Guest Bilo

Racism in football

By Guest Bilo, in General Football and Sport

Serbia's Penalty  

107 members have voted

  1. 1. What should the penalty be for Serbia?

    • Ban them from one or more tournaments.
      69
    • Play behind closed doors for remainder of qualifiers.
      33
    • A massive fine.
      4
    • A small fine for now, escalating if the incidents are repeated.
      0
    • No punishment.
      1

Recommended Posts

Rusko187

Rusko187

Posted
Posted

It may well be (I don't know if it is or not) but I can completely understand why some black players feel the need to set-up a black union.

If I was black, I would see the situation as follows:

- John Terry used racist language on the field of play (whether he is racist or not is a different debate, but he used racist language).

- We are constantly being told there is a zero tolerance approach to racism and racist language.

- It takes a year to investigate, in which time John Terry is free to win the European Cup and represent his country at the Euro's, so suffering no punishment.

- It turns out that the FA's investigation could have run whilst the criminal investigation was ongoing, so the original statements from the FA that they couldn't investigate and discipline Terry whilst there were criminal proceedings was rubbish. This allowed Terry to play in the Euros, whereas Rio was dropped. If Terry had been banned, would Hodgson have taken Rio for his experience? Quite probably.

- By the time Terry is finally punished, it is a paltry 4 match ban, hardly a deterrent and certainly not much of a punishment as the ban is punctuated by European Cup games, in which he is able to play.

- Throughout the whole year long incident, Terry displays no humility, no apologies, declares his innocence and in the end, it is he who quits England, a rather combative approach resulting in a derisory punishment.

- The punishment of 4 games is set because he only used the term once, whereas Suarez apparently used it more than once. This is not zero tolerance.

- In that time, how have the PFA dealt with the situation? Should they have not pushed for a tougher ban.

- Then there is the issue in Serbia, which shows that racism is still a problem in other countries. At the moment, we don't know what punishment UEFA will hand out, but the track record is weak, giving a larger fine to Bendtner for displaying an unauthorised advertising logo, than for racist behaviour.

So all in all, as a black player you could feel let down by the football authorities and the union that represents you as a player, because you feel no-one is fighting your corner when it comes down to incidents like this (however rare they are) hence you feel the best way is to setup a body that can push for you.

Racism in football has come a long way since the 1970s and 1980s, but I can understand any black player saying that in today's society, they shouldn't have to tolerate any racist language. When there is racist language, they would expect the authorities to fight their corner.

Am I the only one that felt the punishment of John Terry was about right?

  • 4 match ban
  • £220k fine
  • Stripped of captaincy
  • No longer a part of the England team (I know he stepped down but he was made to feel that was the most suitable option)

Super_horns

Super_horns

Posted
Posted

Ofcourse we don't want racisim in the game or any form of life but before the Terry/Ferdinand saga there wasn't any public outcry about the issue mainly because racist abuse certainly isn't used by fans at footballmatches here compared to various others..

Setting up such a group may not resolve the issues but actually create more friction within the game - I know the general feeling is that Terry was let off lightly which is fair enough compared to Suarez for example.

The main idea seem to be to make sure black people in football get a chance to become managers/coaches but again how can it be proved clubs aren't picking them just because of their colour?

purpleronnie

purpleronnie

Posted
Posted

Am I the only one that felt the punishment of John Terry was about right?

  • 4 match ban
  • £220k fine
  • Stripped of captaincy
  • No longer a part of the England team (I know he stepped down but he was made to feel that was the most suitable option)

I think he should have had more punishment from Chelsea, I think they were scared off mainly due to the fact he's such a big influence in the dressing room.

breadandcheese

breadandcheese

Posted
Posted

Am I the only one that felt the punishment of John Terry was about right?

  • 4 match ban
  • £220k fine
  • Stripped of captaincy
  • No longer a part of the England team (I know he stepped down but he was made to feel that was the most suitable option)

If Terry had come out after the event and apologised, then I'd agree with you.

Otherwise, what was his punishment:

- He and his legal team played the system and delayed the magistrates hearing, so he could play a full season with Chelsea. He went on to win the European Cup

- This delay allowed him and the FA to pick him for international duty so he could play in Euro 2012. Meanwhile, Rio was dropped.

- He then resigned from international duty because he was going to be found guilty by the FA's delayed disciplinary procedure. I believe that's called petulance.

- The punishment is set at four games, which is punctuated by European Cup ties, so he will still play on a weekly basis.

ADK

ADK

Posted
Posted

Thought the punishment was too harsh for abit of name calling during the heat of the moment. Should have been 2 match ban there and then. Waste of time.

  • 2 months later...
davieG

davieG

Posted
Posted

Sepp Blatter says AC Milan wrong to walk off in face of racism

Fifa president Sepp Blatter says that players should not leave the field of play if they are faced with racism.

AC Milan players walked off during a friendly on Thursday after Ghana international Kevin-Prince Boateng was subjected to racist abuse from fans of fellow Italian side Pro Patria.

But Fifa president Sepp Blatter said: "Walk off? That's not the solution."

AC Milan's players carried anti-racism messages on their shirts prior to Sunday's match against Siena.

Blatter continued: "I don't think you can run away, because eventually you can run away if you lose a match."

"This is a very touchy subject, but there is zero tolerance of racism in the stadium," Blatter was reported to have said in the Abu Dhabi-based publication The National.

Continue reading the main story

“
If the players feel the referee isn't dealing with it then I can understand why they walk off the pitch”

Alex HorneFA general secretary

The 76-year-old Swiss, who has been the head of world football's governing body since 1998, said there needed to be tougher punishments brought in, such as points deductions in order to deal with the issue of racism.

"The only solution is to be very harsh with the sanctions - and the sanctions must be a deduction of points or something similar."

Former Tottenham and Portsmouth player Boateng picked up the match-ball midway through the first half of the friendly and kicked it towards the crowd after reacting to the abuse from a section of the fans.

The midfielder then removed his shirt and left the pitch with both sets of players and officials.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has announced an immediate inquiry.

The Football Association's Alex Horne said referees should ultimately be the sole person deciding what action to take if there are instances of racist abuse during a match.

"If players are receiving sustained abuse on the pitch they should be reporting it to the referee," he told BBC radio 5 live's Sportsweek programme.

"The players, through the captain, should be reporting it to the referee. The referee should be taking the players off the pitch and warning the crowds that they should desist with their abuse, and ultimately there's a sanction there if the fans don't listen to that.

"If the players feel the referee isn't dealing with it then I can understand why they walk off the pitch. Why should you have to tolerate that in this day and age?"

In June, Uefa president Michel Platini said that any players who walked off the pitch at Euro 2012 because of racist abuse would be booked.

Guest MattP

Guest MattP

Posted
Posted

I actually agree with Blatter for once.

If walk offs start being supported chaos will ensue, these are footballers ffs, they look to gain any edge possible, cheating doesnt bother 90% of them so how easy will it be to pass off some booing as racism when you are 2-0 down?

Very rocky road.

Remember that Oldham player who claimed he was abused at Anfield last year and it turned out to be complete bullshit? Oldham would have walked and refused to play that day now, what happens to the game, the fans who paid, the postponement, the cup?

This could cause more disruption that anyone dares think.

Les-TA-Jon

Les-TA-Jon

Posted
Posted

I posted this in another thread but it also seems appropriate here too:

Racism is one of the biggest challenges in football - and one that is being woefully dealt with - the serbia issue highlights it.

The problems are as follows:

1 - Lack of political will to do anything about it from the people at the top of the game

2 - Lack of pressure from those at the bottom of the game

3 - Totally disproportionate and ineffectual sanctions, and targeted incorrectly

1. For racism to be effectively tackled within the game, first you need to have political will to bring about that change from those at the top of the game – namely the head honchos at FIFA and UEFA – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini.

There’s your first problem. Neither of these has demonstrated that they recognise racism as a problem in football, and most definitely no desire to tackle it.

Examples of their actions that demonstrate it:

Sepp Blatter – “Racism can be solved with a handshakeâ€

Michel Platini – Claimed that whilst racism is a problem in society it will always be a problem in football. Well let’s unpack that statement a bit – firstly, even if that is true, surely he should at least be looking after his own patch? And trying to tackle racism in European football? He can’t just wash his hands of it and claim that it’s society’s fault. Secondly, football and society aren’t two completely disjointed things. They’re not mutally exclusive; it’s not one or the other. Football forms part of society. Therefore if you eradicate racism from football, you have eradicated a part of it from society. You will have promoted more open mindedness and liberal thinking. This will spread into wider society in time.

(To be fair to Platini though he’s just come out saying that he will appeal for stronger sanctions)

If racism is to be effectively tackled those at the top of the game with the most power will have to step up.

2 – Responsibility also lies on those stakeholders towards the bottom of the game too though. And those are fans and clubs. Fans need to do far more to self regulate and self police. Fans need to report those amongst them that participate in abusive and racist behaviour whilst in and around the ground.

Equally clubs need to do far more to engage with their supporters to try and eradicate this sort of behaviour from their fanbase.

3 – And this is where it all ties together. Sanctions, fines and punishments have all been very ineffectual and disproportionately small. They are also very inconsistent:

- £16,700 to Porto for their fans' racist abuse during the Europa League match against Manchester City.

- £32,500 to Lazio following racist chanting during a Europa League game against Tottenham.

- £24,735 to Manchester City for being one minute late back onto the pitch after half-time against Porto.

- £80,000 to Denmark striker Nicklas Bendtner for revealing a sponsor's logo on his underpants during Euro 2012.

- £65,000 to Serbian FA

There is so much money in football now that none of these fines represent anything close to punishment.

But what’s worse is that there is clearly no strategy in place behind the punishments. The governing bodies are merely giving a slap on the wrist in order to be seen to be doing something about it.

Just think about why any such body gives out such punishments in the first place? Surely the ideal behind them should be deterring future discretions? Currently, with these woefully small fines that isn’t happening.

Additionally the sanctions are completely missing their targets:

Who’s being fined? The FAs. Who’s committing the crime? The fans.

They should be aiming to genuinely ‘dis-incentivise’ fans from partaking in racist abuse. The ways you could do this is twofold:

1 – Increase the fines to the extent that the FAs or clubs are themselves incentivised to act and engage with their fans in order to bring about a change in culture, thus reducing the chance of racist activity

2 – Introduce alternative punishments that directly affect the fans – i.e points deductions/games behind closed doors/tournament expulsions

Now the problems here are, that there is so much money in football. Even bigger fines wouldn’t do it, not when you’ve got clubs spending £30m+ on players and £100,000+ on wages per week. Yes there are smaller clubs and FAs out their, with less money, but that only makes the fines even more unsuited, as monetary fines for those will be a more effective deterrent, than those larger clubs/FAs.

But it turns out that there is a single thing in football that means the same no matter where you are in the world, no matter how much money you’ve got, whether you’re in the premier league or the non league – POINTS.

This is why these sorts of punishments from now on should be as described above.

Clubs and FAs care about money, but they really care about points and success – and so do fans. It’s the one thing that everyone, from FAs, Clubs, Managers, Players and Fans all have an equal stake in. Therefore it would really get fans self policing, clubs engaging and working hard to reduce racism and it would get FAs getting serious on tackling the issue.

But unfortunately that’s not the world we live in.

It’s the 21st century, 2012 and 1 man will get a bigger fine for showing his pants, than a whole FA, Team and set of fans will get for violently racially abusing a set of black players.

With regard to the walk out issue and Sepp Blatter's subsequent comments:

- Who's he to comment? Has he lived through/experienced racist abuse? No I think he's lived a very privileged and 'white' life.

- These continued 'off the cuff' remarks are further evidence that there is no hard and fast policy and strategy in place at the top of the game

Yes I agree with MattP that walk offs can be a slippery slope and are potentially ripe for abuse. Additionally you are punishing the majority of fans that aren't abusing, and they've all paid ticket/travel/food/accommodation costs to watch that game.

Also the racist chanting stems from a hatred of that player due to his race. I imagine at least a part of their hatred and desires is for the black players to leave. By walking off you are giving them what they want. The match itself probably plays second fiddle to racist abuse to those most 'hardcore' morons, and so the 'punishment' of the game being cancelled will probably not act as much of a deterrent.

But I think the whole issue of walk offs, and whether they're appropriate or not, again just underlines how bad the situation is and how poorly it's being tackled.

The only reason player's are increasingly more inclined to do it, is because the institutions at the top of the game that should be dealing with the issue and protecting players - simply isn't.

Players are almost completely powerless in this particular issue, and I assume that for many black players they feel that the only power they wield to change the situation is to withdraw from matches.

  • 1 month later...
RonnieTodger

RonnieTodger

Posted
Posted

Well done Millwall for flying the flag for England, thought we were going to left behind by the Eye-Ties for a while there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Plbg7jRKGr0

Bunch of knuckle-dragging morons, not surprising given their track record whenever they come to Leicester.

Saw it last night. I knew a fair few did it, and every club has its morons, but nobody makes any effort to stop that bald twat who must be in his late 30s. I hate that club with a burning passion.

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