Too much denial over racism

Fa chairman Greg clarke was so busy apologising to england’s players for racial abuse that was nothing to do with him, that it was almost possible to miss the apology from the Montenegrin Fa. Mainly because there wasn’t one.

Instead, general secretary Momir Djurdjevac used the opportunity of a visit to Wembley for a UEFA conference on discrimination, to dismiss mass racist chanting in Podgorica as the work of ‘three or four idiots’.

Djurdjevac pointed out the many people present who had heard nothing bad at all: including Montenegro’s president, Montenegro’s prime minister, Montenegro’s sports minister and the head of Montenegro’s Olympic committee. a broad canvas of independent observers there, we can surely agree.

and perhaps the abuse was not obvious in every part of the ground. clive Tyldesley, commentating, was unaware of it, for instance. That can happen.

noises can also be confusing, particularly in foreign countries. The nature of the chants in Podgorica, however, were unmistakable, both to england’s black players, and the largely white gathering of press photographers surrounding the pitch. They knew what they heard, too.

‘ I’m not saying it didn’t occur…’ Djurdjevac said, while implying exactly that. at best, he would accept the handful of idiots theory. and that is the problem. everyone thinks it’s a handful in their own country.

even Paul Pogba, condemning the treatment of Juventus player Moise Kean at an away fixture against cagliari, spoke of ‘a small racist group’. It wasn’t. It isn’t. Football against racism in europe described the problem in Italy as ‘an epidemic’.

For some reason, though, we tiptoe around this, everyone keen to point out the many people who attend football matches without dehumanising black players, as if this is a badge of honour. and while racism is belittled in this way by those with the power to address it, outrages such as the events in Podgorica and cagliari will continue.