WHERE
IT ALL BEGAN:
Ever
seen the inscription in the caption below prior to/during a football match? I
bet your answer would be on the affirmative.
But your affirmative response has in a very little way shown the strength of these words (Say No to Racism) at fighting the ugly part of the beautiful game.
Once upon a time was a period in
the colonial era when racism was the order of the day, with slavery and other
indices of racist act entailing the perception of a human race as being inferior
to another freely displayed.
Football, widely referred to as
the beautiful game has over the years had a stain that has long refused to wash
off from the beauty it has long epitomised. Though not restricted to only
football but other sports, this stain which indeed can be traced back to the
days when slavery was not considered to be wrong by its perpetuators, notably
the colonial era, is a virus that has diffused to the global sports climate.
These said, the stain in this regards is RACISM.
However, this work should not be
mistaken to be one of history nor flashing back to the days when notably the
blacks were subjected to all sorts of ill-human treatment from their colonial
masters but a work aimed at contributing its quota to putting an end to this
ugly side of sports (football will be the major highlight of this work).
With the in-home television
coverage of the FIFA 2010 football tourney in South Africa reaching over 3.2
billion people around the world, or 46.4 per cent of the global population
(7.084 billion people in the world), based on viewers watching a minimum of
over one minute of coverage of the beautiful game and the London 2012 Olympics
which had around 4 billion people spellbound on the various sporting activities
in offering by the multi-sports centred event, it is evident that sports have a
growing fan-base, entailing the need and urgency to ensure that the issue of
racism is not treated with kid gloves, as its growing existence in the sports
world could turn off the passion exuded by fans and interested followers of the
respective sports, thereby having an adverse multiplier effect on the revenue
generated.
In the course of this work, major
cases of player to player and spectators to player(s) cases that
took the sports world by storm would be highlighted, with a touch down at ways
to give the beautiful game a facelift from racism.
THE
UGLY INCIDENTS
With the cases of racism in
sports being widespread, a handful of notable cases which consistently
triggered the dailies would be brought to the fore.
Kicking off this discuss is that of Greek triple jumper,
Voula Papachristou, whom following an insulting tweet about Africans prior to
the London 2012 Olympics which reads “With so many Africans in Greece… At least
the West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food!!!”, got evicted from the
multi-sports event by the Greek Olympic delegation. For this frown at
Papachristou’s act, the Greek Olympic delegation deserve a pat on the back as
this is an athlete whom might have had a significant contribution to the Greek
medal stand in the final medal table.
The tweet by her was insulting to Africans, as it was referring to
reports of mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus in her home country, Greece.
Asides this, is the regular occurrence in football with the Italian
football league across the board enmeshed in spectators to player(s) centred racist abuse. A notable incident in
this respect is the victimisation of Kevin-Prince Boateng
during the January 2013 friendly football match between his club, AC Milan and fourth
tier Italian club, Pro Patria. This wildfire headliner across the football world though
ugly made it time for FIFA (Fédétion Internationale de Football
Association) to be left
with only one choice, riddling the blemish of racism off the beauty football
has long EXEMPLIFIED, as far as sports is concerned.
Kevin Prince-Boateng reacts to racist acts by fans of Italian fourth tier football club, Pro Patria.
Calming him down is his teammate Mathieu Flamini and a player of Pro Patria.
Another similar incident, is AC Milan’s Italian striker,
Mario Balotelli's experience in the match against AS Roma on 12 May, 2013.
Away from the Serie A is the Dutch league (Netherland) which
had American and AZ Alkamaar player, Jozy Altidore, at the receiving end of
racist chants drumming in his ears from fans of Dutch club FC Den Bosch.
Also is the case of the Serbian spectators, U-21 players and
officials’ “racism missiles” on the England U-21 squad, in the Euro 2013
qualifying match between both national sides in the last quarter of 2012.
Infact, the list is endless.
Asides these spectators generated
racism antics, is the player to player.
Two notable incidents are Liverpool’s
Luis Suarez racist invective at Patrice Evra of Manchester United in a premier
league game between both sides and that of Chelsea’s John Terry’s on Queens
Park Rangers’ (QPR) Anthon Ferdinand. Both incidents made headlines and got
every football lover spellbound as the incidents reached their crescendo, which
had both players banned
for eight matches plus £40,000 fine and four matches plus a fine of £220,000 on
them respectively.
These mentioned are a tip of the icebergs, as far as Racism in football
is concerned.
‘RACING’ RACISM
OUT OF SPORTS: Football as a yardstick
With the growing outcry from
different quarters to kick racism out of sports, the recent activity by the
world football governing body, FIFA, has indeed taken the lead to have a stern
frown at the scourge which will no doubt put clubs on their heels to ensure
that its players and supporters do not get involved in activities that could
jeopardize their revenue and performance in the course of embarking in their
season long football activities.
This section would be treated
from three broad perspectives, namely:
·
What
could be done...entailing my views and recommendations;
·
What
is being done...entailing the recent pronouncement by FIFA and UEFA; and
·
What
was done...entailing how racism was lightly frowned at in time past which
indeed contributed to the fight against racism being a lost battle.
What could be done?
This perspective entails my
thoughtful proposition on the penalties to be employed by FIFA, UEFA and other
continental and national football/sports governing bodies where racism is the
order of the day. I opine that in tackling racism, it is imperative to have a
broad distinction of racism with respect to its perpetuators. In this regards,
2 broad-perpetuators categories would be identified, with the necessary
sanctions/penalties recommended.
These categories are Spectators
centred racist acts and player centred racist acts.
The spectators centred racist
acts would be further discussed at the club level and international level/ events.
Spectators centred racist acts (at
the club level)…
Prior to implementing the
following points as stated below, it is imperative to note that as the various
football bodies employ giant strides to defeat racism, it is expedient to
ensure that an intense campaign at all quarters must be implemented to educate
the fans, players, staff and followers of the sports in its entirety on the
need to desist from intolerable act. In educating/orientating all concerned and
involved in football at all levels and in one way or the other, the penalty factor I opine would be the
biggest tool, as stressing the penalties one’s favourite team would suffer if
directly or indirectly found guilty of perpetuating racial act(s) would go a
long way in curbing the racial scourge.
Sequel to educating the fans, the
following penalties should be implemented:
At the club level...
·
To
a first time offender, any fan/group of fans found guilty of any act of racism,
would have the team hit with a 3 match stadium freeze, as well as a £100,000
fine imposed on them;
NB: By Stadium freeze, I mean a
deliberate act by the respective sport regulatory body to which a team belongs
to, at the local and international level (eg the Football Association of the
English Premier League, UEFA & FIFA), to impose sanctions/punishments on
erring teams with a view to deterring unwelcoming activities and actions by
fans/the team involved in the sporting activity in question. These unwelcome
activities include fracas, melees, racism and disrespect for a player/the whole
of an opposing team…
·
To
a second time offender, any fan/group of fans found guilty of any racist chants
would have the team (to which he/she supports) hit with a 6match stadium
freeze, 6 points deduction and £100,000 fine imposed on the team;
·
To
the third time offender, any fan/group of fans found guilty of behavior considered
to be racially inclined would have the team hit with 15points deduction, a
12match stadium freeze and £150,000 imposed on the team;
·
To
a fourth time offender, the team would be docked with a season long stadium
freeze (home matches), 25 points deduction and £300,000 imposed on them; and
·
To
a fifth time and beyond offenders (Unrepentant clubs), relegation to the lower
tier football league, a season long stadium freeze and £500,000 sanction.
At the international/national
level...
Since international tourneys are
usually short termed, compared to club centred events, the following should be
considered:
·
In
the case of a qualifying match for a tourney, the first time offender should be
docked with a fine of £50,000, a 3
points deduction, a stadium freeze in its next home match and its fans should
not be allowed in its next 2 away matches, thus only the home team would have
its fans in the stadium. It is imperative to note that the various football
bodies at the local and international measures should ensure that it comes up
with measures deemed effective to identify its supporters.
·
Also
in the case of qualifying matches, the second time offender should be docked
with £75,000, a 9 points deduction, stadium freezes in its next 3 home matches
and its fans should be prohibited from attending the next 4 away matches.
·
Lastly,
a third time offender should be docked with £100,000, a disqualification from
taking part in the tourney to which it is qualifying for and a 9 point
deduction in the next tournament to contest for qualification place.
Failure to adhere to the
sanctions stated would entail tougher sanctions and if deemed necessary,
disqualification from the international football regulatory body, e.g. FIFA
& UEFA and all international football activities for a minimum of 2 years.
On the other hand, racial acts
committed in the course of the main tourney, e.g. FIFA World Cup/UEFA Euro
tourneys should entail the offender fined £100,000 and eviction from the
tournament in view.
Player centred racists…
- A first time offender should have a 10match ban and a fine of £60,000 imposed on him, an apology to be published at 2 different times on 5 dailies. These must be paid for apologies in the form of an advertorial. Failure to fulfill the monetary penalty and published apologies at the given timeline could attract an extended match ban;
NB: It is important to note that
such penalties are transferable, in the sense that a player leaving the club
for another club/league would not lead to a stoppage in the implementation of
such penalties.
- A second time offender should have a 15match ban, a fine of £100,000 fine and an apology to be published at 3 different times on 5 dailies;
- A third time offender should be banned for 25 matches and fined £150,000 pounds with an apology to be published on 5 dailies;
- A 4th time offender should be banned for the next 30 matches or the whole of the season, as deemed expedient, a £200,000 fine imposed on him/her and an apology to be published at 3 different times on 5 dailies. At the international stage, the player should be prevented from embarking in the tournament to which he is engaged in at the point of committing the racist offence.
- A fifth time offender should be banned from embarking on all football activities for 2yrs sequel to the conclusion of investigations and the pronouncement of verdict and a fine of £300,000 with an apology to be published on 5 dailies.
NB: Player centred display of
racism at the international scene, for example FIFA World Cup and EURO national
tourneys should have the penalties continued at the club levels (if the player
is based in any of the European leagues) and the above penalties effected.
What is being done?
Though it is paramount to stress
that before now, FIFA had always had a stand against racism but sadly the stand
has never been tall and fast enough to outpace racism from football.
Following FIFA’s stand is that of
Union of
European Football Associations (UEFA) which have at different times
or the other, sanctioned erring clubs guilty of racist activities.
Incidentally, majority of the
racial abuse are from a meagre section of club supporters, whom due to them
inherently being racist or having a dislike for a player who most times is a
different race/not their colour or the fact that their team is being flogged by
the opposing teams, employ racist smear of different measures and kinds
(ranging from monkey chants to throwing bananas and various dangerous objects
like coins etc to the victim of such slurs) to demoralize the winning team/player(s).
But guess what, even if such
worked, the points earlier highlighted in the section “What should be done?” would
have such perpetuators having a second thought as their ill-acts would boomerang. I opine that combating racism is beyond fines
and a few stadium freezes, as a month wage of many players, especially
those in the big clubs would pay for the fines and still have lots of change
left.
With this in mind, something
sterner has long been missing in riddling off this ugly side and until this is
done, football and sports in general will never have the facelift to attract
more people to the beauty it has long exuded.
According
to CNN, “FIFA's anti-racism Task Force chaired by
FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, who presides over the continental CONCACAF
body, suggested the possibility of points deductions and/or relegation for
"re-offenders or for serious incidents”. The inaugural meeting by the Task
Force was held on Monday, May 6, 2013. CNN further revealed that the Task Force
will present a draft resolution at the FIFA Congress in Mauritius at the end of
the month whereupon member associations will vote on the measures culminating
in its full implementation throughout FIFA’s 209 member associations. It is noteworthy
to note that the Task Force was announced in March 2013 after a series of
racial incidents affecting the sport, notably the Kevin Prince-Boateng. In
having a fair outcome, with respect to penalties and sanctions, the Task Force
suggested that officials attend games to identify discriminatory acts
"with the aim of easing the pressure on referees and facilitating the
availability of evidence, which is not always easy to obtain".
CNN also revealed that the Task Force suggested the application of
sanctions in two stages, with the threat of "a warning, a fine or the
playing of a match behind closed doors" for "a first or minor offence".
For more serious incidents and those who reoffended, the Task
Force spoke of " points deduction, expulsion from a competition, or
relegation". Following this brilliant stand by FIFA is UEFA which
according to CNN has announced that players and officials will face a 10-match ban
if found guilty of racist abuse.
This was agreed upon
during the meeting of UEFA's executive committee in London, in late May, 2013.
The European governing body confirmed the bans would apply to its own
competitions, while other national associations remain free to decide on their
own punishments.
Though commendable, I
opine that having a widespread imposition of a minimum standard, as far as the
penalties/sanctions on racism is concerned across member nations of UEFA would be
more practical in racing racism out of football, not forgetting other
sports. It is imperative to note that
wining this fight is rooted in racism not being treated with kid gloves and in
a similar fashion, not imposing this penalty on member nations may ultimately
not achieve the objective of riddling racism out of football across the board.
What was done?
The aforementioned stated let us
have a look at the measures taken by UEFA to combat racism in time past.
Apparently, if these measures were effective racism would have long been
prevented from seeing the light of the day in football.
The
Italian FA €50,000 fine on AS Roma towards the close of the 2012/13 Italian
Serie A season, after a section of supporters racially abused three AC Milan
players in the game at the San Siro between both clubs, added to the October 2012 £32,500 fine on Italian club, Lazio
for the improper conduct of their fans during the Europa League tie against
Tottenham Hotspur of England. In this match, loud monkey chants were directed
at Jermaine Defoe, Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend of the latter club. Also, December 2012 had Serbia fined £65,000 for racist chants from the crowd, added to the violence on the pitch which marred the
game between Serbia and England Under-21teams in a European Championships
qualification play-off. Incidentally, five years down the line, precisely June 2007 - Serbian FA were fined £16,500 for racism
against England. (This unrepentant act exuded by Serbia later in 2012, only
shows how light the financial punishments are and the need for something very
very heavy to be implemented).
The Fracas between English and Serbian U21 National sides, as a result of racial accusation by the former to the latter.
Another incident is the fine of £40,340 for racism
by UEFA's disciplinary panel on Russia (£24,203 fine) and Spain
(£16,137) in June 2012, resulting from
“improper conduct of its fans”.
Also, in April 2013 Ukraine club, Dynamo Kiev having being found guilty of acts of
racism conducted by its supporters at the Olympic National
Sports Complex during games against Paris Saint-Germain and Bordeaux were ordered to play
behind closed doors.
The
Bulgarian and Croatian FA, in 2011 and 2008 respectively were fined £34,230 and
£10,000 for varying degrees of racism. From this mentioned, it is pivotal to STRESS
that the list is endless necessitating the urgency for a turnaround in the
light punishments imposed, as heavy and very ugly sanctions is key to making
football utterly beautiful.
These all said, it is
imperative to note that having very ugly sanctions and punishment employed to
fight racism in sports is the sole solution to fighting racism, as clubs and
teams would be left with no choice but to consistently echo the punishments and
repercurssions for engaging in the act to their officials, players and
spectators.
REFERENCES
“Almost half the world tuned in at home to watch 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa” FIFA.COM 11 Jul. 2011. 12 May 2013 <http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/southafrica2010/organisation/media/newsid=1473143/index.html>
“England victory over Serbia marred by racism and violence” BBC 16 Oct. 2013 19 May 2013 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19971417>
“FIFA Task Force
outlines anti-racism fight” CNN 6 May 2013 7 Jun. 2013
“How Uefa has dealt with racism compared to other issues” Telegraph 27 May 2013
“John Terry found guilty of racially abusing QPR's Anton Ferdinand in FA hearing and handed four match ban” Telegraph 25 May 2013
Joe Mewis “Fined: Italian chiefs hit Roma with €50,000 punishment
for racist chants directed at Balotelli” Mirror 13 May 2013 7 Jun. 2013
Katherine Faulkner et. al “Kicked out for a racist tweet: Greek triple jumper is banned from the Games after her African 'joke'” Dailymail 25 Jul. 2012 19 May 2013 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178836/London-2012-Olympics-Greek-athlete-Voula-Papachristou-banned-racist-joke-Twitter.html>
Lateef Mungin “The London Olympics: 4 billion people; 4 billion reasons to watch” CNN 26 Jul. 2012. 12 May 2013 <http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/25/sport/olympic-world-watches>
“London Olympics 2012
Ratings: Most Watched Event In TV History” Huffingtonpost 13 Aug. 13. 12 May
2013 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/london-olympics-2012-ratings-most-watched-ever_n_1774032.html>
“Milan friendly abandoned after players protest against racist chants” The Guardian 3 Jan. 2013 19 May 2013 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/03/milan-friendly-abandoned-racist-chants?INTCMP=SRCH>
“No Luis Suarez appeal from Liverpool over racism ban” BBC Sport 3 Jan. 2012 25 May 2013 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16402384>
Paul Collins “Racism shames everyone in football, says US striker Altidore after abuse in Holland” Dailymail 31 Jan. 2013 19 May 2013 Dailymail <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2271130/Jozy-Altidore-racism-shames-football.html>
“Serie A match briefly halted due to fans' racism” Sportsillustrated 12 May 2013. 27 May 2013
“Serbia bans two players following England Under-21s brawl” BBC 25 Oct. 2013 19 May 2013 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20088750>
“The Suarez punishment was a mistake” Dailymail 23 Dec. 2013 19 May 2013 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2077101/John-Terry-racist-charge-Luis-Suarez-racism-punishment-mistake.html>
“UEFA steps up racism fight with tougher sanctions” CNN
23 May 2013 7 Jun. 2013
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