Bafana coach speaks out on racist abuse

Stuart Baxter would follow his Bafana Bafana players off the pitch if they elected to abandon a game in response to racist abuse during a match.

Bafana star Bongani Zungu recently experienced the ugly spectre of racism in the game when his Amiens teammate Prince Gouano was racially abused during the French club’s 0-0 draw against Dijon.

The match did continue and was played to a finish, but it once again highlighted the ugly side of the beautiful game.

Baxter‚ who is likely to include Zungu in the Africa Cup of Nations-bound squad in June‚ said he would back his players if they faced a similar situation.

“To start with‚ I cannot comprehend a society that condones that sort of thing‚” Baxter said.

“I think it is a football problem. What football does is polarise and it is very clannish.

“It is not only racial‚ it’s also homophobic.

“I hate it. This is the human race‚ the only race I want is the race for the Afcon.

“I want to talk about that, when people are this badly behaved‚ then we have to talk about it.”

Bafana will face 1992 and 2015 champions Ivory Coast and 1976 winners Morocco in Group D of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Egypt.

Neighbouring country Namibia make up the fourth team pulled from the pot for Group D in last week’s draw in Cairo for the competition that runs from June 21 to July 19.

Baxter said the failure to mete out harsh punishment to abusers at stadiums was one of the reasons football the world over had failed to stop the scourge of racism in the game.

“I think that punishment has to be greater.

“I am not one of those who will say put them against the wall and flog them‚ I don’t think that helps.

“But I certainly think that if someone does that in the name of Chelsea FC‚ for instance‚ and if he sees Chelsea having points taken away or playing behind closed doors‚ it will be a little more self-managed.

“People around the world will be like‚ ‘Hey, you shut up! We had points taken from us’.

“The penalties dished out are not great enough.”

But what would the Bafana players do if they found themselves in this kind of situation?

“I heard a player in England say that everybody should walk off the field in solidarity.

“I don’t think that I would take the lead on that.

“The player would have to tell me what he wants to do.

“If the majority of my players want to walk off the pitch‚ I would walk with them,” Baxter said. –

Baxter said the failure to mete out harsh punishment to abusers at stadiums was one of the reasons football the world over had failed to stop the scourge of racism in the game