Racism in football

By : Unknown

On : 00:43

In : Social Message

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Racism in football

Racism has always been the biggest unresolved issue in modern day football, although FIFA will claim that they have taken sufficient steps to eradicate it, recent events prove that they have been grossly unsuccessful in doing whatever they claim to have done.

According to a House of Commons report, racism still remains one of the biggest issues, although there has been a lot of progress from the 70’s and 80’s, times when chants of “Go back to your tree, you black B******” used to greet any player brave enough to step out on the pitch.

Here are some of the high profile incidents in the game.

1. 1.      30 years ago, Paul Canoville became the first black footballer to play    for Chelsea. When the team-sheet was announced, with his name as substitute, the National Front held a meeting in a local pub to discuss the outrage. As Canoville warmed up, Chelsea supporters screamed, “Sit down, you black c***”, “You f******g wog”. Then they started to chant: “We don’t want the nigger, we don’t want the nigger, la la la la.”

1. 2.      In 2004, when Ron Atkinson, former English player and manager   was working as a commentator, not realising his microphone was on, said of Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly, “He’s what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy thick nigger.”

1. 3.     When Samuel Eto’o was at Barcelona, he was subject to racist taunts from real Zaragoza fans and even tried to walk of the pitch in the middle of the match. However, his teammates intervened and convinced him to continue playing. Video of the incident captured him saying “No más” (“No more”) as he walked to the side lines.    

Samuel Eto’o

1. 4.     Mario balotelli was subjected to racist taunts by the Juventus fans   who chanted “ When you jump up and down, balotelli dies “ , as a result of which juventus were forced to play their next home game without any of their home fans.

1. 5.     Brazil star Neymar accused Scotland’s fans of racism after a banana skin was thrown at him during his country’s 2-0 friendly win at the Emirates. The Santos forward, scored both goals in the win over Scotland, was tainted by boos and the banana skin thrown at him.

1. 6.     Liverpool’s Luis Suarez was found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United Defender Patrice Evra, he allegedly called Evra “Negro” a number of times during the match. Suarez was banned for 8 matches and fined 40,000 pounds.  

1. 7.     John terry was found guilty of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, even though he was proven not guilty in a court of law, the FA concluded he was guilty and have handed a 4 match ban and a fine of 220,000 pounds as of 27^thSeptember 2012.