BBC News: Is Spanish football racist?
Well, based on the evidence of last night’s match, which saw the Spanish fans directing racist abuse at Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips my opinion would be yes. Football commentator Alan Hansen said he had two words for the Spanish crowd last night ‘Absolutely Pathetic’. Not exactly the two words I had in mind, I think Gary Lineker put it better when he described it as ‘Deplorable’.
English fans are by no means above reproach and there is still instances of violent behaviour when they travel abroad, but racist abuse has all but disappeared. There are still incidents of racial abuse in English league matches but they are perpetrated by a tiny minority of fans and are treated very seriously by FA officials.
The question arises what should have been done about it?
Should the English players have walked off in protest?
Should the Spanish players have walked off in protest?
Should the referee have stopped play?
Any or all of the above should have happened but didn’t. A strong message does need to be sent to fans of all nationalities that racism is not at all acceptable in the game of football. There have been calls for the Spanish team to be prevented from playing in the 2006 World Cup but I think that is perhaps the wrong move, it’s is very unlikely to happen anyway.
It is a widespread problem anyway and not merely confined to Spain, FIFA must take a hard stance on this issue as it is as serious a problem as violent hooliganism. One possible move would be to ban all fans of a national team from attending future matches for a set period of time or number of matches in a similar fashion to the punishment meted out to players for such offences.
This may lead to matches being played in completely empty stadia but I think the message will get through and crowds should become somewhat self-governing with those that continue to shout abuse being shouted down by their fellow fans rather than be joined in the abuse.
Tags: sport
