UEFA has failed to protect players from racist abuse once again.
It’s not that this is anything new, it's just the players are naturally fed up with the monkey chants, the racial diatribes and having things like water bottles and human spit flung at them. UEFA in the past has levied fines and partial stadium closures and recently put in a new protocol allowing teams to walk off the pitch, but is that really enough of a crackdown?
No. Racism in the stands has always been there but now that there’s a spotlight on it, UEFA looks like the joke that it already is.
When England traveled to Bulgaria for Euro 2020 qualifiers earlier this month, there was plenty of media attention around the potential for racist abuse. And look what happened: monkey chants directed at debutant Tyrone Mings, who was brilliant by the way, and further chants directed at Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford. Bulgaria was already serving a partial stadium closure for previous racial abuse toward black and other players of color. Bulgaria's captain Ivelin Popov literally had to beg the supporters to stop the chanting at halftime, which didn't stop after he did that.
The England players decided to stay on at halftime even after the game was stopped multiple times and absolutely battered the Bulgarians 6-0. And good for England, even in the face of adversity, the players let their football do the talking. Bulgaria’s head coach stepped down after the incident. Truly it was a depressing sign that football has regressed even after years of campaigning by anti-racism groups. Clearly though, the campaigning hasn’t done nearly enough.
Speaking of campaigning, “No Room For Racism” was the flagship campaign last week in the Premier League. And guess what happened? More racism!
Trent Alexander Arnold was racially abused by a Manchester United fan at Old Trafford this past weekend after the teenager has been one of the poster boys for the No Room For Racism campaign. Even worse, there were reports of further racist activity in the stands at Bristol City at Luton Town, Northampton playing Salford and the FA Cup tie between Yeovil and Haringey Borough, the latter of which was abandoned before the final whistle as both teams walked off the pitch.
In Scotland, Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos was allegedly racially abused against Hearts in Tynecastle. Arrests were made in these matches as well as lifelong stadium bans for the people involved, which is great, but doesn’t tackle the problem head on.
If you really want to knock racism out, education comes first. Clearly though, these fans don’t want to educate themselves because they don’t care about living in a diverse society.
So, if education doesn’t work, what can be done at the football grounds? Well, for starters, if a match is abandoned due to racial abuse, UEFA needs to kick the team in question out of the f***ing competition! Enough of these small-time fines and partial stadium closures — they don’t work and never will. UEFA’s weak punishments allow for this to continue and hopefully after UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin’s statement on tougher crackdowns on racism this will happen.
But right now, UEFA looks weak and it seems like it cares more about the money rather than protecting the players it governs. Don’t forget, these players make all the money for UEFA in the first place, and they deserve protection on and off the pitch.
And finally, what a poor excuse for a human being you are in participating in these racial diatribes. What is the purpose of you going to a match just to jeer players that don’t look like you? What drives you to be such an asshole that you choose to focus on the players’ race rather than the football they play? You have no place in society let alone a football pitch. Stay away from the beautiful game and crawl back into the hole that you came from.
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