Image by abc7mm on Flickr
After the verdict in the John Terry racism case, I’m sure a lot of football fans were hoping for the whole ‘racism in football‘ issue to calm down, even just for a little while. Sadly, following the Under-21 match between Serbia and England, and this weekend’s “Kick It Out” furor, it’s only getting more heated.
In a way, this is a good thing. Racism does still exist amongst football fans and players, and as such there is no harm in continuing to look for ways to improve the situation. However, it feels to me a little like there are two simultaneous races going on – one to the top, to see who can be the most holier than thou, and the race to the bottom, where something happens to finally make everyone realize that racism really has no place in football and society.
Obviously Serbian supporters and officials are leading the race to the bottom. After being involved in some ugly racial abuse against the full England team in 2007, they decided the decent and fair thing to do would be to repeat the performance for the English U21 side. The proliferation of African and Brazillian players throughout Europe is so complete, that there cannot be a professional league that does not have a black player appearing in it – but still in Serbia, it is considered ok by some (a minority I’m sure, but not a tiny minority) to make monkey chants when a black player touches the ball.
The race to the top is a more interesting one. There is a small English charity called ‘Kick It Out’. They have been in existence only since 1993. Their main purpose is to remove racism from football, but their brief actually covers all forms of prejudice: homophobia, sexism and so on. They have succeeded in becoming very well known and are generally the go-to people when it comes to ideas about removing prejudice from football. On Saturday, every Premier League player was to wear a ‘Kick It Out’ t-shirt to show solidarity with the movement and the idea. Most did, but a noticeable minority did not – all black players who presumably feel that not enough is being done to properly kick it out.
You have to wonder what it is they think a charity can do. Kick It Out is not the FA, and it’s not the government. What was most telling from these ‘rebels’ was that they had no cohesive reason for what it was Kick It Out failed to do, or what their alternative plan was. Rio Ferdinand has been a prominent campaigner against racism through the years, and as a BBC pundit, Jason Roberts has proven himself to be thoughtful and articulate. It was therefore disappointing that the main bone of contention is with John Terry only receiving a 4 match ban. Players, fans and pundits need to understand the difference between the FA and Kick It Out, it would seem.
I’ve talked before about how racism in English football is actually in far better shape than in a lot of other European countries. No charity or governing body can control what is in someone’s head, but we can all do something when we hear it coming out of someone’s mouth.
Follow Mark on Twitter – @chiefhairyman #rantsoccer
