For soccer fans in the
U.K., it’s been a week to bury your head in the sand out of utter dismay
when it comes to the woeful wave of racism stories roiling the world’s
most popular game. Where to begin? With the guilty verdict and fine
handed out to Chelsea’s John Terry for his remarks to Anton Ferdinand, Serbia’s
alleged abuse toward England during their under-21 game last week and
the controversy over who did and didn’t wear the Kick It Out T-shirts
this past weekend, it’s been difficult to reflect on the actual action
that takes place in the world’s most exhilarating league.
And in the eyes of some high-profile players, the powers that be who
run the sport have been burying their heads in the sand too. To start
with the most recent incident, a debate is raging over the extent of
support literally shown (or not) by the players in the English Premier
League (EPL). While the vast majority sported the Kick It Out T-shirts
in the warm-up to the games this weekend — the Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football
campaign was established in 1993 and has since become Kick It Out — the
headlines were inevitably made by the soccer players who opted out.
Brothers Rio and Anton Ferdinand, who play for Manchester United and
Queens Park Rangers respectively, perhaps unsurprisingly didn’t play
ball as they’re dismayed, one could surmise, with the Football
Association (FA) only handing out a four-match suspension and a
$350,000 fine to Terry for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand (it should
be noted that Terry was cleared of all criminal charges
in July after the Westminster Magistrates’ Court concluded there was
insufficient evidence against the Chelsea captain). But to give a fuller
indication that this wasn’t just one or two names who didn’t pull on
the T-shirt, Ferdinand, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Nedum Onuoha, Sylvain
Distin and Victor Anichebe decided against it before Sunday’s match
between QPR and Everton, and none of the players participating in Saturday’s fixture between Swansea and Wigan got involved.
(MORE: ‘Footballing Reasons’: The Sordid Backstory to Rio Ferdinand’s Euro 2012 Omission)
Rio Ferdinand’s stand didn’t go down well with his manager, Sir Alex
Ferguson, who took it personally, noting that it’s “embarrassing for
me,” as he’d already gone on record saying that his players would wear
the T-shirt. “He’ll be dealt with, don’t worry about that,” Ferguson
went on, which unfortunately steered the conversation in a different
direction, as it resulted in the Professional Footballers’ Association
(PFA) backing the player’s right to the freedom of expression. The PFA
chairman, Clarke Carlisle, was put in the awkward situation of both
agreeing with Ferguson’s position and having to protect his player.
“Everyone has a right to free speech — just like you can’t coerce anyone
into shaking hands, you can’t make somebody wear a T-shirt — although I
do personally believe that joining in with the campaign is the best way
forward,” Carlisle said. Former
Manchester United defender Viv Anderson, who was the first black player
to represent the England senior side in 1978, didn’t “agree with Rio,”
maintaining that Ferguson “expects his senior boys to set an example. He
is the manager. If he says we are all doing it together, it should be
the end of the story. But Rio has gone the other way. I don’t see where
he is coming from, and I don’t know what it is going to achieve.”
To say it’s a complex situation is an understatement, containing
ironies like how a player not wearing the T-shirt can lead to more
publicity for the campaign or Ferguson’s severe stance clouding the good
work he’s undertaken for Kick It Out (on Monday, Ferguson walked back
on his original remarks by saying,
“I’ve spoken to Rio. There is no issue. There was a communication
problem but it has been resolved”). Speaking of resolution, it remains
unclear how Terry will see out his playing days at his beloved Chelsea,
which finally took action of its own against its captain. Chelsea chief
executive Ron Gourlay said a “very, very heavy fine” had been meted out
to the 31-year-old defender, adding that “it was a lapse in judgment and
out of character for John, he did fall below the standards we expect.”
Chairman Bruce Buck confirmed that Russian owner Roman Abramovich was
consulted before “firm disciplinary action” was taken but Gourlay’s
remark that “John Terry apologized to everybody and in my mind that
means an apology to Anton Ferdinand” might not necessarily be taken that
way by Ferdinand. For his part, Terry has been asked by UEFA to wear an
antiracism armband during Chelsea’s Champions League match against
Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday, and it is unthinkable that he’d refuse.
(MORE: QPR vs. Chelsea in the EPL: John Terry Returns to Loftus Road)
While great strides have been achieved by the likes of the Kick It
Out campaign to raise awareness — “the progress we’ve made in the last
20 years has been as a consequence of collective collaboration, rather
than individuals working alone,” stated ex-player Paul Elliott, who was
recently awarded a CBE for services to equality and diversity in
football — isolated incidents are sadly still seen on and off the field.
In England, the Terry and Luis Suárez cases from last season
(Liverpool’s Suárez was handed an eight-match ban by the FA for racially
insulting Manchester United’s Patrice Evra, a further reason Rio
Ferdinand wouldn’t have felt inclined to help the cause) dominated many a
news cycle, but it’s even worse on foreign fields. Last week’s England
under-21 international game in Serbia was overshadowed by the alleged
abuse directed toward England’s black players by their Serbian
counterparts and supporters. England’s Danny Rose was sent off at the
final whistle but clearly indicated that he was racially abused (as
England’s players celebrated their victory, a series of objects were
thrown on the field). It’s not the first time that scenes such as these
have taken place involving the Serbs. In 2007, the Serbian Football
Federation was fined a paltry $26,000 at the European Under-21
Championships in the Netherlands after their fans racially abused
England’s Onuoha.
Onuoha’s club manager soon after that incident and now is Mark
Hughes, as the former Manchester City pair have been reunited at QPR.
And Hughes remains convinced that, depressingly,
soccer may never be fully rid of racism as “there’ll always be some
idiot who feels that it’s something they want to do.” He was speaking
after the other EPL match on Sunday backed his point: the local derby
between Sunderland and Newcastle resulted in a 1-1 tie on the pitch but
the key statistic was that in addition to the 15 arrests related to the
game, a Northumbria police spokesman confirmed that “there was one
report of racist language having been used by a supporter in one area of
the stadium — inquiries into this report are ongoing.” It’s clear that
the battle to educate minds and overcome racism, wherever it takes
place, is also ongoing.
MORE: Racism and Euro 2012: Football’s Ongoing Struggle
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