FOOTBALL4GOOD MAGAZINE - DECEMBER 2019

Players, rightly so, are angry. In protest to events in his country, Liverpool and Netherlands midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum celebrated his goal against Estonia with a strong anti-racism message alongside white player Frenkie De Jong. After the game his words on the state of racism in football were damning. “It’s a problem in society and a problem that should be solved by our politicians,” Wijnaldum said. “Our ancestors fought for us so we can live freely.” Instead, players in Dutch football’s top two di- visions picked up the mantle, standing still for the first minute in the next round of matches. The defiant message: ‘Racism? Then we don’t play football’. The attempts to aid officiating and eradicate clear and obvious errors from the game have neglected football’s biggest stain of all. The lack of judgement and adequate action – in not prioritising the welfare of players – will allow racism to fester and continue putting players in the compromised position of combatting racism while under the stadium lights. With the technology and resources now at our disposal, we owe it, as a debt to all those who have suffered abuse across three centuries, to provide players with the same rights and means offered to officials. Before we turn the cameras the other way around and truly establish where our priorities lie, in homage to the pioneers who have had to and continue to suffer abuse, while making such significant contributions, we pay tribute to the pioneers who used the pitch to tackle racism. During the final ten minutes of a league game against Villarreal in 2014, football’s most decorated player hurried toward the corner flag as his side trailed 2-1. Barcelona’s Dani Alves scanned the box for a teammate to pick out, but instead an inanimate object hurtling towards him caught his eye. A banana. He picked it up, peeled it, and took a bite. “My father always told me: ‘Son, eat bananas to avoid cramping lol how did they figure this out?’” wrote Alves on social media. “We have suf- fered this in Spain for some time. You have to take it with a dose of humour,” he later said. “If you don’t give it importance, they don’t achieve their objective.” His attitude sparked the football world’s imag- ination. It triggered a social media campaign, with players posting photos eating a banana. The hashtag #weareallmonkeys was coined by then teammate Neymar and was used to speak up after six months of suffering abuse in Spain. The year before, Kevin-Prince Boateng had also left the pitch in protest after receiving abuse during a friendly match in Italy. Later in 2013, he stood before the United Nations emphatically stating, “We must confront racism!” Boateng compared racism to malaria, and stadiums to stagnant waters in need of drying out the “dan- gerous and infectious virus which is strength- ened by indifference and inaction.” When Alves’ compatriot Roberto Carlos moved to Russia in 2011, he became the most high-pro- file player to head that far east. He, who revolutionised the fullback position and holds a great claim on being the game’s greatest, did not share Alves’ joviality. The world cup winner walked off the pitch after yet another banana was thrown his way. “I’m outraged by the sickening behaviour of THE ATTEMPTS TO AID OFFICIATING AND ERADICATE CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERRORS FROM THE GAME HAVE NEGLECTED FOOTBALL’S BIGGEST STAIN OF ALL. this fan who, in fact, insulted not only me but all the players,” Carlos said. The response of the Russian Football Union’s General Director, Alexey Sorokin, was that the issue was “very difficult to control.” It was the second such inci- dent Carlos had suffered in three months. Though receiving more attention than most nations in reports on racism, “Italy,” believes Lilian Thuram, “is just as sexist, homophobic and racist as any other country.” France’s most capped player spent the majority of a career that bridged the centuries in Italy. Arriving in 1996 and leaving ten years later, “I saw and heard people making monkey noises whenev- er I touched the ball,” he said. 21 years on, nothing has changed. He has dedicated his post-football career to fighting for racial equality. He argues that FIFA is wasting a seismic oppor- tunity to make a stand against discrimination, with the lack of adequate action partly to blame for its re-occurrences. In 2016, FIFA disbanded its anti-racism task force established in 2013, claiming it had “completely fulfilled its tempo- rary mission.” Is tackling discrimination being outsourced? In England the anti-discrimination body Kick It Out is the unit responsible for reporting instances of racism. There is indignation at suggestions it has failed if racism remains present in 2019. Yet it is worth bearing in mind that the organi- sation has only 17 full-time employees and is in desperate need of funding. It was founded originally in 1993 in response to the harrowing abuse, which riddled the era and specifically the previous decade. Much of which is now unspeakable and required unimaginable fortitude from these players. Home and away, the abuse was horrendous. On his debut in April 1982, Chelsea’s first black play- er Paul Canoville was booed by his own club’s supporters while warming up. Canoville said he would rather warm up in the dressing room and was afraid of being named a substitute. The now infamous image of John Barnes back-heel- ing a banana off the pitch in 1988 was a non-event. Instead, it was “just something that was an accept- ed part of society and football,” he says. These players dressed themselves in the armour of dignified silence, trying not to let the ignorance affect them and determined to defy prejudice through performance. They received no support, with praise indicative of the extraordinary: being viewed equal meant being better. Though, praise and success often even exacer- bated racist abuse. During the previous decade in England, three black players were credited as trail- blazers for changing the game. Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson, nicknamed ‘The Three Degrees’, were at the heart of one of West Bromwich Albion’s most exciting eras. Their time together was the first time a top- flight club regularly fielded black players, with the success they brought to the club heralded by other black professionals as their inspiration to play the game. In a famous victory against Manchester United in 1978, Batson hailed their performance in a “seminal game” for black players. The trio shrugged off a wall of vile racist boos with a performance that oozed grace and class. For the first time it drew reference to the abuse from a match commentator. From way up in the Old Trafford gantry, Gerald Sinstadt noted, “once again there’s some unsavoury barracking of the black players from certain sec- tions of the crowd,” before adding, “which says nothing for their sportsmanship at all.” 18 19 FOOTBALL4GOODMAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2019 VAR AGAINST RACISM?