Ever since I can remember, I have always been two things, a human and a footballer. I say footballer because that’s all I have ever known, since the day I could walk I could kick a ball. I grew up watching the game, learning the skills and dreaming night and day about one day playing for a professional team. I say “human” because that is what I am, regardless of race, sex, height, weight or religion, in the end I am human. In the end I breathe like everyone else, I may look different, I may be a darker shade than most and I may speak differently than my European counterparts but unless God recently changed the qualifications of being human, I still belong in that category. Now that we have clarified that I am a human footballer, why would someone deem it suitable to yell “nigger” in my direction during a match whether their team is losing or not. I am fully aware what color my skin is and what race I am, I doubt that I need a negative reminder from fans or an angry parent. For those who have never experienced this personally or have been in a crowd when something like this occurs, it is very painful unless you are one of those chanting the word or encouraging it, you should be ashamed. I once thought that the love that I had for the game can never be shaken, I believed that it was pure conviction but when someone calls you “black shit”, you start asking yourself why you even bother playing at all.
For one to be an extraordinary footballer, you must have an abundance of creativity and few would ever argue against the fact that South America is the queen bee of creativity, unleashing one legendary player after another chalk full of creativity and skill. The two legendary entities of Brazil and Argentina always seem to be atop FIFA world rankings and are known as the top two teams in the world so imagine the shock of realizing the racist history of South American football. When the football clubs of Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo, and Fuminense decided to form a professional league in 1912, they sent out invitations to teams to join but the one rule was, there was to be no black players on these teams. Vasco, a team with twelve black players on it’s roster and a championship trophy to defend, declined this invitation. By the next year of 1913, the racist rule of no black players was lifted but instead of being lifted completely, it took more of an unwritten rule role. By 1920, Fluminense started to employ black athletes but in the same breath committed the worst act of racism ever seen in football, in an attempt to hide the color of the players from the ever racist team supporters, they forced the black players to play with rice powder covering their skin, giving them a whitish look. It would not be till 1936 that Brazil’s most coveted team, Flamengo would employ a black player, Leonidas da Silva also known as Black Diamond, this was the last of the teams to reform thus ending the no black players era which lasted for twenty four years. Flamengo eventually became the team with the most black players and the racism was again emerged when opposing fans would call the team Urubu otherwise known as the American black vulture. Apparently the racism could not remain a thing of the past since several instances of racism in South America has arisen over the past few years, notably the racism that Brazilian striker Edinaldo Batista Libano otherwise known a Grafite faced from Brazilian supporters who threw a banana at him with the encryptions “Grafite monkey” during a game in Sao Paulo. He also faced more prejudice from an Argentinean player who belittled him with racial slurs, lucky the perpetrator was arrested but one has to wonder if the damage had already been done.
If I were to write about every racist act connected to football that takes place in Europe, the world would run out paper. Europe is seemingly the football capital of the world and as we learned about the beautiful game, wherever it goes, racism is riding shotgun. It is also true that wherever you find the most adversity, that’s where heroes often tend to emerge. In Europe there is a wide array of racism to choose from, there is no specific group as the racism seems to travel to many religions and race resembling a desperate prostitute. The racism ranges from attacks on blacks like Oguchi Onyewu, an American of Nigerian descent who suffered abuse from fans in Belgium during a game for Standard Liege to attacks on Middleborough’s Egyptian forward “Mido” by Newcastle United fans who chanted “Mido, he’s got a bomb” due to Mido being Islamic. The racist acts do not take particular care of the player’s status or fame as racial acts have even befallen on Thierry Henry, a French striker known as the ninth most commercially marketable footballer in the world, a spokesperson against racism in footballer and starter alongside NIKE of “Stand up Speak up” a campaign against racism in football. During a training session between France and Spain in 2004, Luis Aragones, Spain’s coach at the time was caught on film saying to Jose Antonio Reyes I reference to Thierry Henry “Tell that negro de mierda (black shit) that you are much better than him. Don't hold back, tell him. Tell him from me. You have to believe in yourself, you're better than that negro de mierda.” The coach retained his job, all the even did was cause a brief uproar. France has had it’s share of racial indignity, Bastia, a French football team seems to always be in the midst of racial controversy from abusing players with racist chants to actually unfurling a racist banner aimed at Boubacar Kebe, a Libourne player who has taken an immense amount of abuse from the same fans during different meetings. Then there was the event where Moroccan footballer Abdeslem Ouaddou was abused by fans of the football club Metz. In a unique turn of events, Bastia’s own player Frederic Mendy was abused by Grenoble’s fans.
“I was hurt” were the words of the first black international player to represent Germany, who was repaid for his accomplishments and his two goals against Hansa Rostock’s development team by being showered with monkey chants from the fan sections, the difference between me and him showed during half time when he decided to play the rest of the game even though the coach gave him the option of being substituted out. In the same year of 2006 another African player was attacked by fans, Adebowale Ogungbure, a Nigerian midfielder who plays for FC Sachsen Leipzeg was smothered with ape chants from fans of Hallesche FC after he was fouled. For Ade, he has felt the pain more than once. After a game against the same team at an earlier time, he was spat on, called such atrocities like “dirty nigger,” “Shit nigger,” and “Ape.” Ade behaved like a man and kept walking, then the fans started making monkey chants towards him which provoked him to put two fingers above his lip to symbolize Hitler’s mustache and then he followed up with a Nazi salute. The fans, already angry because of a draw between the two teams, attacked him. One fan beat him with a corner flag while another put him in a stranglehold. During an interview with SPIELGEL ONLINE he explained that he only reacted with the Hitler gesture because he wanted the fans to be as angry as he was claiming that the spitting is what pushed him over the edge and then he said “I've faced some sort of racist abuse at about half the matches I've played, but the spitting was too much on March 25. "I've never seen anyone spit at a dog or a cat in Germany -- why should I be spat at?” Why should he be spat at? Is he not as much of a human as the fans who spit upon him? Is he not playing the game for their enjoyment? Since when was it acceptable to look down on someone to the point that you are willing to treat them worse than you treat a lowly dog?
Racism in football does not just pertain to blacks, Jewish players are often constantly reminded of their painful past sufferings by opposing fans. In April 2006, there was a match between the teams of St Pauli and Chemnitzer F.C and fans of Chemnitzer who traveled with the team idiotically ran into Turkish owned stores waving Nazi flags and shouting high insensitive statements pertaining to the holocaust, making reference to the concentration camp of Auschwitz. German racism has also been known to not be as vivid as European racism, because the Germans tend to used code instead of shouting and blatant racism, basically meaning that they’re more cowardly than the already moronic racists in Europe. Codes used by the Germans include those such as the number “88” with 8 representing the eighth letter of the alphabet, meaning the code would be “HH” translated into “Heil Hitler.”
Italy is usually known for the subtlety of their language, but there is nothing subtle about their vivid and racist behavior. The racism in Italian football has seemly been forgotten, but not forgotten in the sense that it no longer exists but in the sense that the authorities almost don’t even care anymore. One has to ask himself the true evil here, the racism from the fans, or the indifference of those who fail to do anything about it. Marco Zono, an Ivorian defender who played from the Italian team Messina was so abused by Inter Milan fans that he threatened to stop the game before being convinced otherwise by Adriano, an Inter player who told him that walking off and stopping the game would be the equivalent of saying that racism has won. Adrian Mutu, a Romanian striker was repeatedly called a gypsy when he played against Parma, Korean striker Ahn Jung-Hwan has spoken out against the racism against Asians in Italy along with Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura. Racism sometimes gets so intense in Italy that the president of Pro Sesto, a team in Italy’s Serie C1 said “It happened before, in the away game when every time one of our black players touched the ball they started to boo … On Saturday it happened at our ground when one of our players was injured and they hurled abuse at him. Verona should be fined repeatedly for the attitude of their fans. It is incredible to believe that people could chant ‘die’ at a player on the floor.” referring to a match earlier that week.
Spain also seems to be in the midst of controversial fan behavior because of a certain Samuel E’to, a striker for Barcelona. Despite winning numerous titles with the team and being renowned as one of the best footballers alive, E’to is constantly bombarded with racist chants and treated as though he was less than human but still he continues to play and perform at a high level. This goes to show that the racism is not reserved for those who do not perform well, in fact there does not seem to be a discernable reason for the fierce hatred besides the obvious ignorant hate of a fellow man’s skin color or religion.
These racist incidents accompanied by many more and their malicious intent has prompted the start of many campaigns and programs to combat them such as FARE (Footballers against racism in Europe), Stand up Speak up, the EPL has even started to deliver very sever punishment to teams who allow their fans to engage in racist actions. One team, Athletico Madrid was given a two match ban where their games was to be played in a empty stadium with no fans. Racism has become a very important issue to FIFA and the UEFA who try to do everything in their power to stop these acts but in reality, the only one to stop it is for the people themselves to take a hard look at themselves and ask if their actions is right. With all the ugly racism and hate in the presumably beautiful game, one can not help but to wonder, what’s so beautiful about it?
