RACISM IN THE GAME SEEMS AS BAD AS EVER 30 YEARS ON
IWAS only a youngster back in the days when John Barnes was backheeling bananas at Goodison Park and Mark Walters was having to dodge them at various stadiums across Scotland.
I was too young to fully understand just how appalling the taunts were against these two superb footballers who would go on to become team-mates at Liverpool.
I couldn’t help but think of this last week as the disgraceful scenes unfolded in Bulgaria and again yesterday, as the news came out that Hearts were launching a probe into allegations of racist abuse aimed at Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos.
I was watching the England game at home with my kids: how do you explain such things to them?
They are six and eight — and, quite innocently, they were asking me: ‘Dad, why has the game stopped?’.
Then, when the Bulgarian captain went over to remonstrate with the idiots in the stand, it was: ‘Dad, what’s he doing? Why is he talking to those men?’.
How can you possibly explain that to a kid? That a group of Neo-Nazis have made their way into the stadium, are making fascist salutes and are racially abusing England players?
I’ve got to be honest, I was struggling to find an answer. But I did the best I could before eventually switching off the TV because I didn’t want them seeing it any more.
Never mind actually taking my kids to a game and into this cesspit, there are times now when I won’t even let them watch it on telly.
What happened to the likes of Barnes and Walters should have been a seminal moment from which football began to cleanse itself of this poison.
But ask yourself this: Now 30 years down the line, what has actually changed?
Yes, there is a lot more awareness around racism and a lot more initiatives geared towards calling it out and fighting it. That can only be a good thing.
But it’s still happening. It used to be the case that these things were described as ‘isolated incidents’. Sorry, but anyone who still subscribes to that theory needs to open their eyes.
It’s as bad now as it ever was. There are times when you feel like we’re back to square one.
For anyone who disagrees with that and believes that racial abuse is not as blatantly overt as it used to be, just look at the events in Sofia last week.
Just look at what happened in the North London derby last season, when Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a banana thrown at him by a Spurs fan.
Then, this season, we’ve had an Italian pundit claiming the only way to stop Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku is to ‘feed him 10 bananas’.
Lukaku was also abused by Cagliari fans — only to then suffer the humiliation of an Inter fan group releasing a statement claiming that the monkey chants were, in fact, not racist.
Then there’s the Bulgaria manager last week, at first, saying he didn’t hear a thing. What chance have we got when there’s such a blatant refusal to even acknowledge the problem in some quarters?
It’s thoroughly depressing. It’s happening all the time. For instance, just look at two of the stories that have come out of the football this weekend.
On Saturday, an FA Cup tie between Haringey Borough and Yeovil was abandoned due to reports of racial abuse from Yeovil fans aimed towards Haringey players.
The Haringey manager, as was well within his rights, took his players off the pitch. It was a strong move and I would fully support anyone who walked off.
There is an argument that, by walking off, you’re basically letting the racists win. But I don’t buy that at all.
Why should you suffer in silence and continue to do your job while being racially abused at your place of work? In what other walk of life would that be acceptable?
UEFA’s three-step protocol for dealing with it is well-intentioned, but the fundamental flaw in it all is that you’re still effectively giving people two chances to be racist before calling the game off.
That’s nonsense. With something as serious as racial abuse, it shouldn’t be a case of three strikes and you’re out.
I commend Hearts for their sharp response yesterday and showing a desire to self-police the matter amid allegations that Morelos was abused during the match at Tynecastle.
What doesn’t look quite so good, though, is the fact that this is the third incident of this nature at the club in less than a year.
Last December, Hearts banned two fans after they were found guilty of racially abusing Motherwell player Christian Mbulu.
Then, in April’s Edinburgh derby, a Hearts supporter was caught on video directing racist abuse towards then-Hibs midfielder Marvin Bartley.
This is not a problem that’s exclusive to football. It’s a societal issue which can only be tackled through educating people from a young age.
We know racism is not going to disappear overnight. But we all have a duty to self-police it and do all we can to fight it.