Foreign AffairZ: Racist Chants
By: Zach Utsler
Soccer is a wonderful sport that immediately brings to mind a healthy competition comprised of skill and determination. Unfortunately, the Beautiful game is not always so beautiful. Throughout the world there are several cases where racism and prejudice tarnish its’ luster. Not all of us in the U.S. are aware of the scope this subject heeds so to get a little background you can check out this link or do a little googling yourself there are even some decent videos on youtube. Racism in Football
There have been numerous campaigns, sanctions, and fines that have been applied in an attempt to curb the problem. Yet, the issue still exists. Most recently in Italy, Juventus was ordered to play their next home game closed off to spectators for alleged racist chants from their fans towards Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli. This has spawned a new idea from the UEFA president Michel Platini, which he introduced just a couple days ago. His suggestion is to give referees during a match the power to stop the game for up to 10 minutes and if the misconduct in the stands is not controlled then the game can be ended. This seems to be a pretty bold idea and I’m sure it will be met with a fair share of praise and opposition.
It is certainly a sensitive issue and as I mentioned before there have been many attempts to figure out how best to handle it. Personally, I do believe that there needs to be stricter punishment for these situations whether it has an affect on the team, organization, tv broadcasters, or not. I’m hard pressed to think of a plan that would only punish the fan base, because they are such a large part of what makes an organization thrive. There really is no place for such cruelty in the game or outside of it for that matter. I think there is a big difference between taunting an opposing team and singling out a player/players because of race, religion, or creed. Heck! Whatever happened to just cheering for your own side?
Let’s take a poll!
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.Spout off:
I’m sure some of you have ideas about what can be done to curb this issue. Maybe just adding something to what UEFA is discussing now. Let us know what you think.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Great Article Zach.
I disagreed with Platini’s idea for the simple reason that I would need to know more about why Platini thinks this will curb racist comments.
I don’t think the ignorant fools who spout off these racist epithets are going to react to anything other than severe punishment. Juventus’s recent punishment of having to play home matches in an empty stadium is a better solution because that alienates the whole fan base and even more importantly, hurts the club where it counts, on their bottom line. This will turn the supporters and the club management against the perpetrators and get the problem solved much quicker, imo.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Zach, fantastic article. I agree that it is a huge problem, but I think that giving referees the authority to stop and suspend matches will not solve the problem. I think (like Danny said) that there needs to be more accountabily amongst the fans and the clubs. If they suspend the match or something like that, the clubs won’t care because the tickets have been sold already. I think the banning fans and spectators from stadiums as punishment is probably the only way to accomplish this.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Thanks for the compliments fellas, I’m glad you liked the article…
Yeah, as it stands I’m not so convinced, but I’d like to hear if there is more to the proposal than just what has been mentioned so far. It is pretty simplistic sounding at the moment not a lot of details. I agree with the “closed door games” as well and the banning of spectators who are caught in the act which is a punishment not mentioned in this blog. I’ve heard of some people getting a life ban, sad but I guess that’s what it takes.
Another interesting peice to this that I did not go into is that one source asked a head ref what he thought. He did not like the idea of leaving that “power” or responsibilty in the officials hands. His feeling was that there is already so much he and other officials have to pay attention to that they could not be as attentive to this problem. I think this makes sense. The suspenion of time or canceling of a game should come from some one on the sideline maybe some other kind of official for the stadium or league. They would be the one’s that would have to do the announcements and enforcement during those ten minutes anyway. Not gonna see the ref run around the stands red carding (ejecting) fans.
Do you think if this did go into effect that if the game was ended the side that was spewing the abuse should lose points? Would teams be more attentive to the matter if it meant it could hurt their standings in the league?
April 24th, 2009 at 8:13 am
The hard part is getting the fans to cooperate. How do you kick all of your customers out of the store and still run a business?
April 24th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Zach-
“Do you think if this did go into effect that if the game was ended the side that was spewing the abuse should lose points? Would teams be more attentive to the matter if it meant it could hurt their standings in the league?”
I don’t think its fair to the club to give a team a loss because a few of their fans are idiots. If the problem is overt and continued within a fan base and the club doesn’t take the necessary steps to mitigate the comments, then the club could be held liable and could and should receive punishment including point deduction. But as it stands, you have what seems to be a few fans at these sporting events that make these references, so I don’t think you can directly blame the club.
April 24th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I agree with Platini’s plan. I think stopping games is the way go. But obviously isn’t the only step. Banning fans, closed door games, fines, losing points, club suspension, relegation, etc should all be implemented.
Racism is a terrible thing and, in my opinion, it is the worst type of belief that exists. Stopping hate, not just in the stadiums, around the world should be a number one priority.
I think the clubs are in the best situation to stop the racist chants. They are the ones that benefit from the fan base, they are ones that the sell the tickets, and they are ones that solicit the spectators. Now they have to take responsibility for the fans they attract and the profits they make.
The players will be the unfortunate losers in this whole situation. They are the ones getting the racist chants and they are the ones that suffer the consequences. But i think the situation is bigger than the players. If they truly disagreed with the racism then they wouldn’t want to play with a club that doesn’t manage it properly.
It is harsh, but it is necessary. Racism is a cancer. It only takes one person to spread it to the masses.
April 25th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Another way they could go about it is by fining the club each time it happens, first time a fine equivalent of the gate recepits, second time, double the gate receipts, third time triple the gate receipts. If it happensa fouth time, a game set number of games behind closed doors, and a deduction in points!
Clubs rely heavily on gate receipts, if that source of revenue is being taken away from them, then perhaps the clubs will try and single out the trouble makers, which they can do, and deal with this problem!