A big nasty gray cloud is hanging over world football -or-soccer like a thick NorEaster rain cloud that spews days worth of rain. It’s racism in the game. World Football’s governing bodies are failing to properly acknowledge and more importantly do something about it. Last week several racially charged incidents marred the game that is a huge global cash cow. The monies that soccer clubs in Europe can pay to get the services of the best players in the world, knows no limits. Billionaire owners can take over a club and infuse as much money as they desire in order to produce a team that wins. Getting tickets to see a club like Man United, Real Madrid or AC Milan is almost impossible. The FIFA 13 video game franchise had a global marketing initiative upon it’s release and broke records for first days sales. Soccer is making huge cash. The faces of World Football are known worldwide: Lionel Messi, Cristano Ronaldo, Abby Wambach, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. And yet soccer’s governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA, have failed to eliminate a problem that puts their greatest players at risk.
The Incidents:
In case you don’t know, The English FA is the governing body for all Football in England. They’re in charge of all competitions and it’s professional leagues including the widely popular Premier League. Last week The FA missed out on a great opportunity to show it’s fans, it players and the world that racism will not be tolerated in English football. About a year ago John Terry, a defender for the domestic club Chelsea and the captain of the English Men’s National Team, racially abused or taunted another player, Queens Park Rangers Anton Ferdinand. During a heated moment in the match,Terry called him a ‘fuckin black cunt’ and his actions were caught on camera. See the footage below:
John Terry was brought up on charges of racially abusing, which is a serious crime in England. Terry denied the accusations and tried to cover it up by saying that he asked Anton “oi, Anton, Did you think I called you a black cunt?” John Terry stood by this statement. His teammates and his club Chelsea got his back despite the damning video evidence that proved their captain was caught in a bold lie. Furthermore, did Terry really expect officials to believe that he really asked Anton Ferdinand a question like after running 70 yards up the field? Ultimately John Terry’s remarks cost him his captaincy with the National Team but his club Chelsea allowed him to continue on as ‘their’ team captain. The FA fined Terry 220,000 British Pounds which is about $350,000 US dollars and gave him a 4 match domestic ban. What’s disgusting is that The FA could have come down really hard on Terry to make a point. When Liverpool’s Luis Suarez was accused of racially abusing Man United’s Patrice Evra he received an 8 match ban and was fined 40,000 pounds. So why not use John Terry’s incident to send a clear message to the world, that English does not and will not tolerate racism. Fine him 400,000 pounds and take 16 matches away; 8 domestically and 8 in European competitions including the Champion’s League. The English FA can’t keep Terry from competing with Chelsea in The Champions League, so that’s where UEFA and FIFA step in. UEFA runs this competition so they can determine what players can participate in their prestigious tournament. They could pressure on Chelsea to ban this player or risk banning the entire Chelsea team. FIFA is the world governing body of soccer and the final stop for everything related to the sport, so they should be on the side of what’s ethically right at all times. They keep pressure on UEFA, and the FA’s in the world ro do what’s right or else. More importantly they should be more active in protecting the players.
Instead the world watched last week as FIFA, UEFA and The English FA ‘didn’t protect their shield’. They basically said that because John is so popular and such a ‘great footballer’ that his actions, although caught on tape, weren’t as harsh as Luis Suarez, whom incidentally had no video footage of his incident. The English FA should be embarrassed. Chelsea and its billionaire owner Roman Abramovich should be embarrassed to have individuals like John Terry representing your team, your country and ‘the shield’ of World Football. Instead Chelsea officials, last week went on a PR run to clean up its image. They call John Terry the captain. Derek Jeter, David Beckham, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Wayne Gretsky are just a few names of famous captains whom where and are great athletes both on and off the field. John Terry isn’t a good person. Terry once was accused of having an extra-marital affair with one of his teammates girlfriends. In America, John Terry would almost be black listed for these actions. He would be considered ‘a cancer’, a divider, someone you can’t trust on your team and is just bad for the locker room.
The Premier League was under pressure last week to address the racial issues. These same issues have dogged the league since the Premier League’s inception in the early 90’s. In England they have a great campaign to combat racism in Football called ‘Kick It Out’ short for Kick Out Racism. However after the John Terry ruling, or lack there of, several black players including, Rio Ferdinand (Anton’s older brother) refused to wear the shirts. The England FA failed to make a point with Terry and then tried to brush it under the table by having it’s players in the Premier League show solidarity by wearing the Kick It Out shirts. The England FA doesn’t seem to realize that it’s not protecting all of its players nor is it respecting their dignity. Ferdinand and others protested because of the hypocrisy around John Terry’s ruling and the wrong message it sent to them and to other fans. Simply put, you can’t ask a soldier to fight when you won’t give them the tools to fight nor stand with them in the fight.
On the world scale it gets worse. Last week at a match in Serbia that featured England and Serbia’s U-21 men’s teams, Serbian fans racially abused England’s Danny Rose. The Serbian U-21 team and it’s officials displayed some of the worst acts of sportsmanship Ive seen. During the match Serbian fans can be seen throwing things at Rose and other England Players. When the match ended everything got worse. Rose is seen trying to leave the pitch (the field), visibly shaken and upset at what he’s experienced during the match. The footage shows Serbian players chasing him down to basically jump him as he tries to walk off and avoid everybody. Several of Danny Rose’s teammates and coaches come to his aid after he is surrounded, pushed and antagonized by Serbian players. Rose in anger kicks the soccer ball of the field and is given a red card. What you see next is coaches and members of The English FA getting into shoving matches with Serbian players and coaches. Basically England had to fight for their lives to get off the field. What was really disturbing outside of the obvious, was watching the Serbian police force do nothing about the fan violence and the fights that happened after the match under THEIR watch. They just stood there and watched as these young kids were attacked. The only time The Serbian police force made a show of solidarity was after the English team and it’s officials were basically pushed back into the dressing room tunnel. The Italian team Lazio was fined 32,500 pounds for their fans racial abuse of Tottenham Hotspurs players Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe.
–Live TV Broadcast
–complete fight
FIFA and UEFA are failing to protect it’s players. To allow these types of actions to happen in sports is as atrocious as allowing the Taliban to try and murder a young female who wants to get an education. UEFA has banned fans before from its competitions. But it needs to take harsh and drastic steps to make an example that racism in sports WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ANYMORE. The Serbian FA obviously doesn’t get the point as it blamed Danny Rose, a kid, for the behavior of its fans and officials. UEFA should ban Serbia from competing in The WC Qualifiers, the Euro’s, and the World Cup. They should ban Serbian fans from attending any of Serbia’s national matches both for U-21 and The First Team for at least 1 year. FIFA should step in and punish the Serbian players and official who are clearly seen on the video, punching at and kicking The English officials and players. FIFA could bring pressure down to the Serbian Domestic leagues forcing their club teams in their leagues to take appropriate disciplinary action or else.
Sports, music and love are the three universal languages. A soccer ball knows no gender. Just ask Hope Solo. Hip Hop music is as popular in Europe as it is in America if not even more. Love is seeing children of all races yelling, playing and running up and down the street in my Brooklyn neighborhood. Sports is a way for people of different cultures and backgrounds to be ambassadors of where their from. Jeremy Lin is better then me in basketball and he play nows for the Houston Rockets. When he plays at The Garden this year I will boo him for being a great player and for leaving my beloved Knicks not because he’s Asian and can ball. In John Terry’s case, the point is sports and being a leader is a privilege not a right. Chelsea FC and it’s administrative body shouldn’t put a player and his actions ahead of the entire brand name. What is the message that Chelsea FC is really sending since it’s captain makes racist comments, is a cheat and a polarizing teammate that distracts. Fans should lean respect or stay home. The Serbian fans would never act out they way they did last week at a sporting event in the US. Our fans, police and criminal justice system wouldn’t tolerate it. Imagine a Serbian fan bold enough to throw a rock or hurl a racial slur at Ron Artest, Tony Gonzales or Ray Lewis. The UEFA (Michael Platini) and FIFA (Sepp Blatter) presidents should do a better job in protecting it’s players, it’s sport and most importantly its shield (the image and integrity of the sport) against the barbaric tones of racism in World Football!
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Until we read again…
Brandon ‘TNT’ West
Music Exec / Industry Insider/ The Andy Rooney of Hip Hop Culture
Holla at him @tnt718
