Football Shame: Euro 2012

Following a BBC damning documentary investigating racism in football in the Ukraine and the recent Olympic ticket touting by their General Secretary, I am left to wonder how they have even been allowed to host Euro 2012 and why they are not banned from the Olympics. The ethics of the country is appalling.

BBC news last night broadcasted clips from the Ukraine which showed fans making monkey noises as the black players walked into the stadium. As someone who regularly attends football games, I was really disgusted. The due diligence taken by UEFA was as poor as Sepp Blatter’s, FIFA Chairman, response to racism on the field.

Footballer, Sol Campbell, has suggested that English fans should just stay away and publicly denounced UEFA’s decision to award Poland and the Ukraine this competition without sorting out its racism problems.

Maybe a violent footballing tornament ahead. I hope not.

Bunty

p.s. And do not buy tickets from a Ukrainian tout for the Olympics.

Posted on May 29, 2012 at 11:47 am in Daily Musings & Ponderings | RSS feed | Reply | Trackback URL

Tags: BBC, Euro 2012, football, News, Olympics, Poland, racism, Sol Campbell, sports, Ukraine

4 Comments to “Football Shame: Euro 2012”

Anonymous
June 8, 2012 at 7:16 pm

Sadly, racism in football is still very apparant. The situation in Ukraine and Poland although may be shocking to some, is only a fraction of the abuse that ethnic players have had to endure. I would like to highlight that many players have compained to Fifa about the racial abuse that they have recieved whilst on the field in both Spain and Italy.

In 2004, Shaun Wright-Phillips and the other black members of the England squad were subjected to racial abuse and monkey chanting from thousands of Spanish fans every time that they touched the ball. Spain publicly apologised for the fans’ actions (only after an apology was demanded) and were accused of playing down the event by stating that the chanting was harmless. I’m sure that anyone of an ethnic background would happily tell you that there is no such thing as harmless racism.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o was named player of the year in 2005 whilst playing for Barcleona FC. Being the best player and playing for one of the best teams in the world did not exempt Samuel Eto’o from being racially abused 3 times in 2005 by Spanish fans. Although he famously reacted to the scandal by doing a monkey dance after scoring a goal, I don’t believe that it was the best way to react to the situtation.

I would like to say that the matter should have been taken up with Fifa, but when Sepp Blatt tells you to shake hands and get over it, you begin to question if it’s time for a little re-shuffling in the Fifa board of directors. Football will never be able to move forward if racism is just looked at as ‘a part of the game’.

Issuing fines to individuals that are abusive at football matches is obviosuly not effective enough. I believe that it may be time for drastic measures and for players to boycott International tournaments until the matter is taken more seriously.

David Beckham reacted to the recent Ukraine footage by saying that he belives that a bigger message is created by playing the game and ignoring the minority of fans that are there to abuse players and cause trouble.

As much of a hero as David Beckham is; It’s alot easier for him to say that he would play on as he doesn’t know what racial abuse feels like. In David’s defence, he did say that he would leave the field with any of his colleagues should they not wish to play.

Reply
- Bubbly
  June 11, 2012 at 10:58 am
  
  Great post and comment, the FA seem to not take racism seriously at all. I’m not into football but hardly anyone can escape the news about it. Dutch players made complaint about racism duing training sessions and it was simply shrugged off.
  
  Reply
Polly
June 11, 2012 at 1:06 pm

Anonymous, that is simply a wonderful comment to have written and to share with us. I myself do not watch football and I had no idea what was going on. I cannot even believe that this sort of thing happens, and that Blatt said those things. Obviously I have picked up that he is an ignorant moron but wow, he is that thick about racism?

Reply
Mysterious Pinkie
June 11, 2012 at 4:04 pm

So now that the tournament has actually started, everyone’s fears about the level of racism from the crowd is proving to be true. The England sqaud while training had to only train on one side of the pitch as everytime they went to the other, they had racial abuse hurled at them.

It is completely shocking that the authorities and Fifa are STILL trying to just brush this under the carpet, or in this case, under the turf. What needs to happen for the officials to stop this disgusting behaviour and try to change things??

Reply

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