Soccer

There's still a long way to beating racism in UK football

16 December 2018 - 00:00 By The Daily Telegraph, BBC and CNN

The last week has served as an unpleasant reminder, if ever we needed one, that racism still exists within British football and former England international John Barnes believes ethnic minorities would not have been surprised by the abuse suffered by Raheem Sterling as racism remains "prevalent" in British society.
Just days after Arsenal player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a banana thrown at him by a fan, last Saturday saw Sterling of Manchester City become the latest victim of racist abuse.
Barnes, capped 79 times by England, was the victim of persistent racism during his playing days, including monkey chants and having bananas thrown at him.
The 55-year-old feels prejudice and discrimination extend far beyond football and stem from "hundreds of years of indoctrination". "When people talk about, 'Oh isn't that terrible what happened to Raheem Sterling?', you speak to black people in the inner cities and they say 'this is what we go through every single day'," Barnes told BBC One's Breakfast programme.
"It's not a surprise to us. It's prevalent in society as you go into the inner cities and see how disenfranchised and what a lack of opportunities there are for members of ethnic minorities. So why should football be any different?
"Society has to change. The only way we can change racism is if we change the perception of the average black person in the street. It's a very long-term process, we're talking about hundreds of years of indoctrination ensuring that there are certain groups of people who are more worthy than others."
A group of Chelsea supporters were shown screaming abuse at Sterling - alleged to be racist in nature - as he retrieved the ball from behind the goal at Stamford Bridge, with the incident shared on social media.
The incident occurred as Sterling and his City teammates lost at Chelsea to open up potentially the most exciting Premier League title race in years.
Standing in the front row, within touching distance of Sterling, a group of men stood up and leaned over the advertising hoardings to direct abuse at the 24-year-old.
The scenes, captured on live TV broadcasts, sparked outrage from fans, pundits and former players.
"Britain now is as it was in the 1970s, when I was growing up in Cannock, a mixed-race child within a community that was, and remains, 99.9% white," ex-Liverpool player Stan Collymore wrote in The Guardian.
"In this post-Brexit vote environment, people again feel free to be openly racist, saying and writing the types of things that vilify certain sections of society for no other reason than the way they look.
"There's a blame culture at play and, more often than not, it's black and Asian people who get the blame."
And this was also the view echoed by West Brom boss Darren Moore, who called on football to unite to stamp out the "ugly" spectre of racism. He says he feels the game needs to act because it has "become complacent".
Moore is one of just eight black managers in the top four divisions of the English game: "We are nowhere near where we thought we were," he said.
Chelsea and the London Metropolitan Police are investigating the allegations, with the club suspending four supporters from all their matches until they have reached a conclusion.
Moore, 44, made more than 600 appearances during a 20-year career that included spells at eight clubs, including West Brom and Derby.
Moore accepts progress has been made in the fight against racism but feels "isolated incidents", such as the one on Saturday, have gone unchecked.
He also backed Sterling for highlighting discrepancies in the way the media dealt with two stories about City teammates Phil Foden and Tosin Adarabioyo buying houses. Foden, who is white, was portrayed positively, while Adarabioyo, who is black, was not.
Moore said: "In terms of the views on both players he named, the way Raheem articulated himself was spot on. He has a point. Everyone, the governing bodies, the clubs, the media - we have to get clear, open messages out there and educate people.
"These isolated incidents have gone on far too long. We should not condone what is happening in the stands of our clubs."..

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.