Racism in Football

[Kippax Street 1880]

It was still an inappropriate thing to sing - especially.a week after the MEN Arena bombing

Almost like they are our rivals and don't like us very much

 

[freshie]

Because like it or not, rightly or wrongly, people think it looks strange when a European team is mainly made up of Africans. Just like they would if Nigeria had 11 white players on the pitch.

It's football, people become idiots. They make chants about anything that will wind the opposition up. It wasn't even that long ago people were making hissing sounds when we played Tottenham and singing about them going to Belsen. It's sick and offensive yes, but surely all those that did it are not Nazis, or even bad people. Just idiots.

The only people who think it looks strange are racists

 

[freshie]

Chelsea’s official statement. As expected - a wishy washy statement ending with “an opportunity to educate”

 

[Pell]

Gonna be awkard in that Chelsea dressing room

More awkward than a Giggs family reunion.

 

[Mon Autre]

Chelsea’s official statement. As expected - a wishy washy statement ending with “an opportunity to educate”

And this is exactly the kinds of reason people like Zaha weren't keen on the taking the knee gesture at the time. It's meaningless without action.

Personally I thought the knee fine as a show of solidarity at that point in time but clubs and senior figures in the game now have to actually start showing what they mean when they say they find "all forms of discriminatory behaviour completely unacceptable". What is the consequence of players behaving in a "completely unacceptable" way? If it's business as usual in terms of playing time, drawing their salary and their image being posted everywhere to promote the new kit launch, then it clearly isn't being taken seriously.

If a group of fans were caught singing something like that in the stands then a club would ban them. If it was a member of the non playing staff they would probably be fired.

Happy to be informed of other examples but the only manager I can think who has actually stuck their neck out and taken a stand against this kind of thing recently was Ralph Rangnick when he dropped three Austrian players earlier in the year for homophobic chanting. That sent a much bigger message than fines and educational programmes.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Chelsea’s official statement. As expected - a wishy washy statement ending with “an opportunity to educate”

Nothing will come of it, I'm sure.

He's done his apology on social media, he might do an apology via Chelsea too and that'll be that.

It'll be old news soon enough and the most you'll hear about it is in social media memes when he fouls a black player in a game or something.

I'm not even advocating people automatically lose their jobs over things, but if you or I did it, we likely would. But then we didn't cost our employers the best part of £100m. That's what it comes down to.

 

[Kippaxpete]

Not just Enzo Fernandez. Lisandro Martinez (United), Alex Mac Allister (Liverpool), Giovanni Lo Celso (Spurs), and Guido Rodriguez (Betis) all on camera joining in. And that's just the ones on camera.

In fairness to Mac Allister, I'm sure Chelsea fans were to blame.

 

[Vienna_70]

In fairness to Mac Allister, I'm sure Chelsea fans were to blame.

I thought it was the SAS!

 

[Vialli98]

Chelsea’s official statement. As expected - a wishy washy statement ending with “an opportunity to educate”

Not sure what else Chelsea can say at this stage. They ended the statement with initiating an internal investigation. Not sure what will come of that but I'd hope at the very least some kind of fine for Enzo and a commitment to send him to whatever anti-discrimination and inclusion course they feel is the best.

 

[better dead than red]

There's a reason most Argies find it hard playing in any league outside of Spain and Italy (Kun was built different). This type of behaviour is acceptable in Italy and Spain so they feel right at home in those leagues.

I can confirm this on a micro level. My daughter has gone to Spain twice to play in an international football tournament. She's had a couple of black players on her teams. These girls have gotten absolutely twatted on a few occasions, outside normal game play, by players on other teams, Spanish teams, and the referees in every instance turned a blind eye.

Could it be merely because the girls on my daughter's team aren't Spanish? Perhaps. However, I've read that is can be difficult for black players in La Liga. I suppose I subscribe to the girls being black made them something more of a target and not being Spanish didn't help them.