Football must stay vigilant in this fight against racism

TWO people were arrested for allegedly racially abusing Motherwell’s Christian Mbulu at Tynecastle on Saturday. Seriously? Overtly racist abuse, loud and proud in broad daylight, captured on video for all to see? Just when you think we’ve left this abhorrent addiction to idiocy behind, some mouthbreathing loons pop up to remind us of the constant need to stay vigilant. Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson, who has seen footage of the incident, describes it — with some restraint — as ‘dark ages and dinosaur stuff.’ Few could argue with his declaration that: ‘They should not be anywhere near football. There is no place for that in any walk of life. No walk of life should accept that in modern society.’ Yet you don’t have to go back to the dark ages to find other examples of this behaviour. Just ask Scott Sinclair, racially abused by an Aberdeen fan less than a week earlier. And, sadly, you wouldn’t need to look overly hard to find certain dark corners of the game where such behaviour is excused, shrugged off or subject to such levels of whitabootery and false equivalence that any words of condemnation carry zero weight. To pretend that there aren’t racists in society would be ridiculous. To believe that they don’t attend football games is equally nonsensical. What football can do is continue to send clear and unequivocal messages about the punishment for those bringing their bigoted views to the match — and inflicting their bile on others. The good news? It seems that Hearts fans were directly involved in identifying the alleged culprits on this occasion. And having promised ‘indefinite bans from Tynecastle Park’ on Saturday night, Hearts owner Ann Budge revealed yesterday that she has already made good on that promise. Swift retribution, indeed. It would, of course, be better if our clubs didn’t have to deal with these incidents with such sickening regularity. Nicer still if the racists got the message and moved along, focusing instead on their marches and their tin-pot Mosleys. You know, like the one who promised to turn up at Hearts v Rangers last week. Then didn’t have the bottle to show his face.

HOW HAS THIS HATRED BECOME NORMAL AT FOOTBALL: READ MARTIN SAMUEL ON PAGES 66-67