Plane idiots show there’s still work to be done in football
DEPENDING on your point of view, it was either the worst or best possible timing.
Mere seconds after City and Burnley players had collectively taken a knee in further support of the Black Lives Matter movement, the silence that came with the first whistle was rudely interrupted by the awful buzzing of an aeroplane.
When it came into sight things got even worse – a banner trailed by the aircraft carried the words: WHITE LIVES MATTER BURNLEY.
The Etihad has seen some remarkable things in its time and this will go down as one, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
It was such an astoundingly bad take that viewing it from the press box it was necessary to wait for the plane to circle again just to be clear that it had actually said what the eyes registered the first time.
It did not affect the players, who seemed unaffected as they got stuck into the action. Phil Foden drilled in the opener and Riyad Mahrez scored twice as Pep Guardiola’s side wrapped up what has become a routine blitzing of Burnley before half-time.
But the actions of a few idiots should affect how the players, the clubs, and the Premier League acts going forward.
Racism is not a problem that is confined to football but that does not mean that it is free from it, nor that it should not do everything it can to try to eradicate it from the sport.
Burnley, to their credit, were quick to put a statement out making clear that they ‘apologise unreservedly to the Premier League, to Manchester City and to all those helping to promote Black Lives Matter’, and the action was universally condemned.
The players wore Black Lives Matter on the back of their shirts instead of player names on Wednesday and again last night, as players of all Premier League clubs have for the first 12 matches of the restarted season, and will wear a badge on their shirts for the rest of the season.
Clearly though, the fact that this plane nonsense happened in the first place is all the justification needed to do more until everyone gets the message.
The timing of it was horribly jarring, but could not have made it easier for all in the league now to come together, condemn it, and work harder to make sure such sentiments are driven out of the game.
Football has, on the whole, behaved admirably during the pandemic, with clubs choosing not to furlough staff and helping their communities out, players using their profiles for good, and as well as charting a safe return the league was proactive in supporting the wishes to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Having shown that they can be a force for good, the message from the plane could not have made it clearer that the message of equality still needs to be given as big a platform as it can for as long as it takes.