Why fight against racism goes beyond simply taking a knee
What you need to know:
- One needs to look no further than the happenings in Bulgaria’s capital on October 14, 2019 and the aftermath.
It’s now clear that for all their immense resources and financial muscle, national football associations in Europe have enormously failed in stamping out racism.
The same applies for the continent’s football governing body, Uefa, whose much touted “No to Racism” campaign is in reality nothing more than a paper tiger.
One needs to look no further than the happenings in Bulgaria’s capital on October 14, 2019 and the aftermath.
On that feisty Monday night, England spanked a woeful Bulgaria 6-0 in Sofia to hand the hosts their heaviest ever home defeat.
Monkey chants
The match, a Euro 2020 qualifier, is however best remembered for the monkey chants and Nazi salutes by the home fans targeting black players in England’s team.
That game was in fact halted twice in the first half as black English players endured an ear-full of racial abuse.
And as if the disgraceful spectacle by the home fans was not bad enough, Bulgarian coach Krasimir Balakov caused more consternation immediately after the game with outlandish claims that he heard nothing of the said racist chants.
Days later, Balakov ate his words and quit. So too did Bulgarian Football Union boss Borislav Mihaylov, who went out kicking and screaming.
Around the same time, Inter Milan’s Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku was also targeted with monkey chants in a Serie A match in Calgriari. What was so sickening in Lukaku’s case is that he got no sympathy whatsoever from Inter fans who stated in an open letter to the striker that the monkey chants by Cagliari fans were “not racist”.
They justified the racial abuse with claims that Lukaku may have misunderstood the “Italian fan culture”.
The Inter ultras made it plain clear that they would direct the same abuse at their opponents in future.
Utterly disgraceful! But hey, hold your breath for this one.
Serie A reacted to this idiotic “Italian fan culture” in mid-December 2019 by unveiling an artwork of three of monkeys at the league’s headquarters in Milan.
Yes, faces of three monkeys to advance Serie A’s anti-racism campaign. How obnoxious!
The creator of these thoughtless pieces of art, Simone Fugazzotto, said he only used monkeys in his handiwork as a “metaphor for human beings”. We could go on and on.
Episodes of racial abuse of players whose skin pigmentation is a shade darker have marred one too many football matches across Europe.
What is disturbing, though, is the casual manner in which national football associations in the continent have gone about tackling this issue. Even Uefa’s partnership with a network by the name Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) has yielded insignificant gains.
This is what makes the situation so dire to the extent players are now taking a knee before matches just to trumpet the “Black Lives Matters” campaign.
While taking a knee is a symbolic action calling attention to issues of racial inequality and police brutality, European football associations must do a lot more to clamp down such incidents.
Sadly, until then, the primitive monkey chants will continue ringing out in many parts of Europe for much longer.
