Tuesday, October 25, 2011

" Black players should just put up with racism and get on with the game."

A few years ago I made the mistake of taking a fashionable guide book along on a trip to Spain. Aside from lecturing me on what an injustice it is that Gibraltar remains British, it was scathing about the iniquities of bullfighting. The real spirit of Spain, the true family sport, the guidebook said, was football.

So it was interesting shortly afterwards to watch those family-minded Spanish football fans treating black England players to savage racial abuse during a friendly match in Madrid, complete with monkey chants of the crudest kind.

Around the same time, Spain’s national football manager referred to black French player Thierry Henry in vicious terms during a training session, and was as a result subjected to a very minor fine.

Just to show that less than liberal views are not confined to Spain’s football crowds, its motor sport fans blacked up specially to goad British driver Lewis Hamilton at a Formula One race. Apologists explained that in Spain when they make fun of the colour of your skin, it’s not racism, dear me no. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. The future of French soccer has become a battle for the future of France...
  2. Inquiry begins into racial quotas in French soccer ...
  3. Italian soccer fans heaped racist abuse on Mario Balotelli and his white girlfriends... 
  4. Spanish racists target Lewis Hamilton with voodoo-style attacks...
  5. Ferdinand condemns Fifa on racism, suggests points reduction...
  6. Racism in French football: the John Mensah affair... 
  7. "The uncivilised Malays" that target the Jews...
  8. Mocking the Chinese:Just for laughs? Or racist gesture?

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