Racism is rearing ugly head again and we’ve a duty to stub it out
Is there is a sliding scale of racism?
The question was aired last week after England players were openly abused by Bulgarian fans.
I honestly couldn’t properly define what a racist is but the root cause is a lack of education.
During my time at Norwich’s Academy, I was involved in a case where one of our Under-18 kids was subjected to a shocking remark from an Arsenal player.
I heard it and the linesman heard it too. Our player was called a “f****** monkey”.
Clear as day and with no room for doubt – it was a shocking thing to hear.
Our player was a big lump of a boy and was raging – he wanted to kill his abuser.
I could understand entirely why he was so upset and thought about letting him loose to dish out a bit of instant justice – but we calmed him down.
The Arsenal boy had to face the music – a five-game ban as well as attending a course of racial education.
It brought it home that it’s both a lack of intelligence as well as education that has some people abusing others because of the colour of their skin.
As a boy from Kilmarnock I hadn’t seen many black players.
That changed when I moved down south and met guys from many different nationalities and cultures.
When they told me about their experiences, it was an eye opener.
People looked down on them and they were badly treated by the ignorant minority.
I witnessed it first hand while walking down a street with a team-mate.
Everything he said was accurate – it was awful to watch racists’ behaviour. Neil Lennon has said he’d back his players if they opted to walk off the pitch due to racist abuse and I couldn’t agree more.
What England did in midweek was the perfect response to the abusers – they were professional to the core, even when the match was temporarily halted.
The way Gareth Southgate’s men dismantled Bulgaria was the perfect response to what had been going on.
The more goals they scored, the better they must have felt as they shut the racists up.
Not enough is being done to tackle this issue and it’s again starting to creep back into football. Some of the Eastern European nations appear to have had a rise in racist incidents and it’s a real concern.
UEFA need to properly address it by imposing severe sanctions and show it won’t be tolerated.
There needs to be bans, stadiums closed and players hammered by lengthy suspensions and financial punishments that don’t amount to a slap on the wrist.
It’s a disgrace that in 2019 we still need to address racism in football.
It appears we are regressing back to a time when morons could spout their bile without being properly shouted down.
We all have a part to play and I believe better education is at the heart of any solution.
As a player I never experienced any racist abuse personally but I know it happens.
Nobody should be complacent. We must hammer home the message that racists won’t be tolerated and a racist is a racist – there’s no sliding scale.