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Booing blacks in football
Overt racism in the FA is just not on.
If there is one true problem in football, it is not two-footed challenges, bad referees or billionaire owners. No, the real problem has been starkly highlighted in the last month: racism.
At the beginning of September, England faced Croatia in Zagreb, and the locals abused black players throughout. This is not the first time this has happened to England abroad; similar incidents in Slovakia and Spain have happened in the last six years. That’s not to say England have been victimised, though.
However, a more disgusting incident happened last Sunday week at Fratton Park, home of Portsmouth. The visitors were Spurs, and they proceeded to abuse Pompey defender Sol Campbell, the ex-Spurs captain who left to bitter rivals Arsenal in 2001.
Campbell has been abused at every game he’s played against Spurs in the last seven seasons, and in my opinion, rightly so. When Campbell left for Arsenal, as a life-long Spurs fan, he must have known what he was doing, and expected the abuse. The fact that he left for free didn’t help things.
However, I absolutely draw the line at racism. Spurs fans should know the best of all that racism is the lowest form of abuse; with a large amount of their fans being Jewish, they regularly suffer chants of “Gas the Yids!” This is the first time Campbell has been abused for his colour by Spurs fans.
I do think though, that the Spurs’ brand of racism was even more reprehensible than that of Croatia. Croatia has a miniscule percentage of black people, and, without wanting to sound patronising or even racist myself, Croats live in a less multicultural society than London, and perhaps wouldn’t be expected to know as well as Spurs fans.
What’s even more shocking is that if the Spurs fans stopped to think about what they were doing, they’d be disgusted with themselves. Not only is current captain, Ledley King, black, but vice-captain Jermaine Jenas, midfielder Didier Zokora and striker Darren Bent are also black, along with others. Going back, former player, and coach of fourteen years, Chris Hughton was– you guessed it – black!
Ever since John Barnes was assaulted with bananas up and down the country in the late-eighties, the thought that racism in England was finished when Viv Anderson became the first black man to represent England in 1979 was truly finished.
Here are some shocking stats:
- Roughly 300 out of the 2,000 professional players in England and Wales are black.
- There has only been one black English manager in the Premier League’s history.
- Only 56 black players have represented England at Senior Level.
- Only 3 black players have captained England at Senior Level.
But perhaps a corner is being turned: In England’s last two games, a record was set for the most black players starting a competitive match. Six started in Andorra and Croatia, with Jenas a sub in the latter. And of course, it was The Walcott’s hat-trick that won the game for England.
But that makes the attacks on Campbell all the more confusing. If there was a culture of racism running through the club, as there is at Zenit St. Petersburg, who operate with an open no-black policy, it would be disgusting but understandable.
But, as seen above, Spurs have always had black players, and, being based in one of the world’s most multicultural cities, there are many black Spurs fans who were surely at the Pompey game.
Perhaps the incident was just a case of wanting to hit Campbell where they knew it would hurt. The next question is the punishment: it is virtually impossible to accost individuals, and though I would suggest a points deduction, with two points, would Tottenham even notice?
Learn more about racism in football:
Football Against racism in Europe
Football Unites, Racism Divides
Sport Against Racism Ireland
