UK HAS HATE CRIME, BUT WE’RE NOT IN THE SAME LEAGUE AS SERIAL RACISTS BULGARIA

THE PROBLEM with constantly broadening the argument about racism in football is that only inertia results. Stan Collymore pertinently contrasted the outrage over events in Sofia last week with statistics from this country. He said 78,473 arrests were made in the UK last year for racism and hate crimes. That is not the same as guilty verdicts but it’s still a staggering number. He compared the mild acceptance of this with the outcry over 40 people in a stadium in Sofia. And 40 versus 78,473 is a mismatch. Maybe Bulgaria’s offended officials were right: Britain is the more racist society.

Yet that probably isn’t true, if we consider that Bulgaria’s federation president, their manager, their goalkeeper, their media, all found ways to dismiss the very obvious presence of racists in the ground, whereas the same event on these shores would have been universally condemned.

For Bulgaria’s racists do not number 40. That was just the few that made their presence felt that night. To compare this tiny group to a giant societal statistic is misleading and if we do, maybe we should then consider how hard it is to get arrested for a hate crime in

Bulgaria, compared to Britain. Consider this report from The Guardian about the treatment of Roma people in Sofia, quoting Roma taxi driver Steffan Stefanov.

‘Bulgaria and racism,’ he said, ‘the two go hand-in-hand.’ His friend, Miroslav Angelo, told the reporter that when he lived in Plumstead, south London, ‘it felt like a weight had been lifted off me’. Stephen Lawrence was from Plumstead, by the way.

Krasimir Karakachanov (right) is the Deputy prime minister, minister for defence and minister for public order and security in Bulgaria. His Roma integration strategy is to be presented to parliament, defining Roma as ‘asocial Gypsies’ — a term used by the Nazis — and calling for limits on the number of children Roma women can have, the introduction of compulsory labour education schools for Roma children and forced work programmes. He has shown support for Roma ‘reservations’ that could become ‘tourist attractions’. So, all things considered, if that’s the government talking it probably is quite hard to get arrested for a hate crime in Bulgaria. Yet by constantly shifting the focus to our own problems, by playing this game of equivalency, it only relieves the pressure on FIFA, UEFA and football’s national organisations to address racism at stadiums. Surely we do what we can, when we can, without waiting for society to be perfect? Collymore makes valid points but equivalency becomes an intellectual exercise. Better to address the problem when we see it: that’s here, there and everywhere.