Football in urgent need of racial justice and redemption

From the handful of books that I have read this year,  Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by American lawyer, social justice activist and author Bryan Stevenson is by far the best by my fastidious standards.

I love books and I read a lot, but I’m also a very pesky and hard to please reader.
I will only pick up a book when I’m sure that the storyline is worth the paper it’s printed on. So when I rate a book that highly, it definitely is a compelling read.

Just Mercy revolves around an African American man from Monroe County, Alabama who is framed, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a young white woman.

Stevenson, a young lawyer fresh from law school, takes up the case and after a spirited effort spanning several years, manages to get his innocent client out of death row and out of jail.

There are plenty of subplots in the book about other cases that the author litigated with varying degrees of success and failure. I won’t say more in my unauthorised review of the book. But in summary, the book exposes a rotten American criminal justice system that is heavily steeped in racial injustice.

I’ve never set foot on American soil and I’m particularly not fascinated by the idea of a Green Card that so many Kenyans spend a lifetime pursuing.

But I’ve always imagined – naively, I must admit – that the American criminal justice system is foolproof.

Far from it. Apparently, going by Stevenson’s account, Americans have a criminal justice system that treats the rich and guilty better than the poor and innocent.

A system that is obsessed with mass incarcerations and the death penalty, especially when the accused persons come from minority groups.

So why am I ranting and raving about criminal justice on a sports column?

Well, we are often mistaken into believing that in the west all systems, institutions and structures are perfect; that in the western world the law is not an ass after all.

This often is not the case, even on matters related to sports.

In my maiden column, some 15 weeks ago, I stated that for all their immense resources and financial muscle, Uefa and national football associations in Europe are guilty of failure to stamp out racism.

Much touted

I also stated that Uefa’s much touted “No to Racism” campaign is merely a PR exercise, an ingenious way of playing to the gallery.

I stand by what I wrote in light of the uncivilised treatment that former Cameroon international Pierre Webo was subjected to midweek by a match official during a Uefa Champions League game between French giants PSG and Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir.

While it’s laudable that both sets of players opted to walk off the pitch in protest, the ugly incident just confirmed that Uefa and its member associations are really not committed to clamping down racism.

I still hold the view that taking a knee before matches is meaningless, if match officials, who are the custodians of football laws on the pitch, go ahead to renege on the very same law that they should be enforcing.

I rest my case.

[email protected]