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WHEN it comes to tackling racism, it might be time for football to face up to an inconvenient truth. Taking the knee is not the same as taking a stand.
The sentiment and the motivation comes from a good place. From Trump’s America to Putin’s Russia, far-right racism reflects the darkest recesses of humanity.
When good people say nothing, bad things happen. And with populist chancers on the march, a sense of helplessness drives people to do something to make the case for racial equality.
The problem comes when a gesture like taking the knee doesn’t actually make much difference. Like Clap for NHS Carers, it is a well-intentioned piece of PR watered down and diluted by time and familiarity.
Connor Goldson says it’s a token gesture to make people in high places feel better about themselves — and he’s right.
In a statement, players’ union PFA Scotland stoutly defend the value of the gesture by making the point that every time a child of the next generation asks a parent what’s going on, it helps to hammer home the point that racism is wrong.
That’s fair enough. But for too many in the here and now, taking the knee is not really about doing the right thing. It’s about being seen to do the right thing. And the two are clearly not the same.
Taking the knee might allow football to tick boxes, construct a few soundbites and convince society — and sponsors — that it is doing its bit to tackle the evil of racism for a bit.
But Les Ferdinand, QPR’s director of football, summed it up best when he called the pre-match ritual a ‘nice hashtag’. Like a smart coat, it makes things look a little better on the surface. But does it really make any real tangible difference to the uneducated attitudes lurking underneath?
The allegations which followed the Rangers-Slavia Prague game on Thursday night suggest the answer is no.
Towards the end of a badtempered Europa League clash at Ibrox, Slavia defender Ondrej Kudela ran towards Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara and covered his mouth before whispering something in the Finnish international’s ear.
The absence of fans from football doesn’t have many plus points. But, perched high in the Bill Struth Stand, it does allow journalists to see and hear stuff impossible to pick out in normal times. And some in the press box clearly heard Kamara screaming ‘racist, racist’ as Bongani Zungu warned officials that his team-mate had just been called a ‘f ****** monkey’.
In a furious Slavia denial, the ‘whataboutery’ was rife. The righteous indignation was off the charts.
Kudela claimed he actually said: ‘You f ****** guy’, adding: ‘It was said in emotion, but I absolutely deny there was anything racist in those words.’
You f ****** guy sounds like the kind of insult an accused player might make up in a fit of panic.
But that didn’t stop Slavia branding the accusations against their player as ‘disgusting’ and charging Rangers with ‘unprecedented malicious play’ after keeper Ondrej Kolar left Glasgow with a fractured skull following Kemar Roofe’s reckless red-card challenge. In a neat piece of victim-blaming, Kamara was accused of assaulting their player with his fists.
None of this should come as a surprise. When it comes to deflecting allegations of racist abuse, the Czech champions have previous.
In November 2019, Inter striker Romelu Lukaku claimed he was the victim of racial chanting from the ‘whole stadium’ after a Champions League game.
Slavia Prague accepted the accusations of racism against ‘individuals’ before demanding an apology from the Belgian for suggesting they were all at it.
When it comes to racist attitudes, Czech football seems to have some general issues. In a league game last summer, Viktoria Plzen striker Jean-David Beauguel was targeted by monkey chants from Olomouc supporters.
The Czech league immediately introduced a rule where referees could interrupt or end a match in the event of racism from the stands. They offered no guidance on what should happen when the racism stems from Czech players rather than fans.
Goldson would have been within his rights to march the Rangers players off the pitch on Thursday night. If nothing else, it would have forced UEFA to take the racism issue seriously instead of issuing vague statements about an ‘incident which occurred in the tunnel.’
Whether it would have made any difference to the final outcome is up for debate.
The problem for Europe’s governing body is that neither the Israeli match officials nor the VAR monitors detected what Kudela actually said.
This being Scotland, rival fans have been quick to disbelieve Kamara’s version of events. Yet some issues transcend petty, narrow-minded tribalism — and racist abuse is one of them.
Those casting doubt on what happened at Ibrox really should stand back from the fray and ask themselves a couple of honest questions. Why would Kamara lie? What would his motivation be?
The former Dundee man has no record of crying wolf and has never given anyone a minute’s trouble, least of all his manager Steven Gerrard or the SFA.
Kudela covering his mouth before leaning in tells its own story. An act of cowardice might be his salvation in the eyes of UEFA. In the court of public opinion, it makes him look guilty as hell.
A UEFA holding statement yesterday spoke of awaiting reports from the officials. The word ‘racism’ didn’t merit a mention anywhere. Gerrard fears the matter won’t be taken as seriously as it should be and, even if Europe’s governing body ever do find Kudela guilty, the punishment will be so trifling as to be meaningless.
When players from PSG and Basaksehir marched off the field during a Champions League game last December, Romanian referee Sebastian Coltescu was suspended until the end of the season for ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
Should Kudela be found guilty of anything, he’ll get more of the same. A ten-game ban will sound severe and he’ll be handed an order to attend an educational programme to learn the error of his ways. Players will continue taking the knee and football will go back to paying lip service towards racist abuse until the next time.
UEFA, like all football bodies, makes a big show of issuing slogans and soundbites on racism. If they were serious about tackling the issue they would start throwing teams out of competitions.
Slavia Prague were clearly the better side the other night and, on footballing grounds, deserve to be in the last eight of the Europa League. But a suspension and a slap on the wrist for a guilty Kudela would be a pitiful response. The punishment would be tantamount to an act of window dressing.
Under normal circumstances, this column would have no truck with violence as a solution to anything. But these are far from normal times and, if Kamara really did see fit to administer a dose of improvised justice to his tormentor the other night, then let’s not sit in judgment. Somebody had to.