Afternoon all.
Inevitably, the football news dominating the front and back pages of nearly every newspaper today relates to England’s 6-0 battering of Bulgaria. Sadly though, the game itself isn’t the big headline, it’s the racism directed at the black players representing the away team.
I’m not black, I’m white and English so I’ve absolutely no idea what impact such abuse has on any one individual who is black. Or mixed race, Asian, anyone who is non white. For reasons I won’t go into, I’ve been a ‘victim’ so I know how I was affected. But everyone is different.
Racism is history, or at least it should be and even what went on years ago, is still hard for me to stomach but life is different now, very very different, yet many countries are struggling to catch up. England remain one of them in my opinion but we’re getting there, slowly. Football has a long way to go though.
I think Gareth Southgate and his staff got things wrong last night. This was an opportunity to take a stance, to tell the world that we won’t allow our players to be victims. The opportunity was there to leave the pitch and go home which I think would have sent out the biggest message of all. Racism can not be allowed to win and last night it did yet again.
The group of hooded ‘fans’ were allowed to leave the stadium, as far as I know, without questions being asked. The vile monkey chants continued after halftime despite the warnings and regardless of Bulgaria’s captain pleading for them to stop.
Racism doesn’t just have an impact on the players either, what about the travelling fans who are English and non white? How can they feel safe outside the ground when inside it, England are seen to be saying it’s ok to play on regardless?
This story, for the want of a better expression will disappear from the headlines as the days pass. Bulgaria as a footballing nation will probably carry on as they are, especially when they have a manager who claims he didn’t hear anything.
Unless UEFA start dishing out stiff punishments, certainly stiffer than a couple of verbal warnings, then racism in football will carry on. At a slower pace over time I’d imagine but I truly believe that had England set an example last night, the rest will follow.
There’s no place for racism in football or any sport.
Or in life…
This is a delicate one today , Racism is alive and well throughout the whole world and as much as You and I deplore it , football alone won’t solve it.
Anyone that has travelled will know that it is more prominent the further east you go in Europe but it is the backbone of every war that takes place . It doesn’t matter where you look all conflicts relate in one way or another to them and us .
Absolute harmony is a pipe dream and until we get a kind of Star trek world where there is a united planet it will continue . Even they , then manage to find other cultures to fight with Perhaps that is what we need a flotilla of little green men threatening humanities extinction or Greta backed by Soros.
I don’t mean to make light of it but really there is no solution , no matter how much you make the effort to rub shoulders different people have different cultures and when times get a little harder those differences come to prominence.
It’s certainly a very unpleasant world right now and at a time when one might have believed enlightenment would have been more forthcoming. Yet we have a white supremacist racketeer in the White House, a surly dictator in Russia, the new chairman Mao in China, a whole swathe of fascist nut jobs running developed countries across the globe and a privileged chancer as our Prime Minister with a terrorist-loving anti-Semite communist as an alternative.
At a time when our national sport should be bringing people together we see a hoard of moronic young men giving Nazi salutes without any real understanding of what that symbol means to millions.
Southgate should have pulled the team off last night and made a stand. No question. The whole game was a complete waste of time.
It is a delicate subject but one I feel has been pushed under the carpet in sport for too long. I know that different countries/areas have very different beliefs and laws but when it comes to world sport, surely every country should unite as one. It’s up to the governing bodies to do something more than they’re doing imo.
I quite like Boris Adam. 😆
The president of Bulgaria FA has resigned…
Yes Rico. He’s a real humanitarian. Honest as the day is long too. 😃
Aren’t they all Adam… 😂
Yep. Perhaps we do get the politicians we deserve after all. ☹️
I’m certainly glad I’m not being born now.
Rico, I don’t agree that the players should have walked off in protest at the racism directed at them last night. It’s is not, and should not be, their responsibility to police the game. It is for the powers that be to take appropriate action, and those powers are UEFA and FIFA.
It was a much braver decision to play on and thus further highlight the abuse, while simultaneously showing the racists that their attempts to intimidate would not succeed.
The minimum punishment should be immediate disqualification from this tournament and the next.
Fair enough Cicero, but by leaving the pitch it’s not policing things, it’s taking control under the powers UEFA have awarded them.
Bulgaria won’t qualify anyway I think.
UEFA have not given players the option to leave the pitch, if you read the protocols you will see that the players have no responsibilities beyond reporting abuse to the referee.
Hi Rico.. I’ve just seen that Bulgaria have been hit with 4 charges.. we’ve got 2!
Willock & Nketiah start for the U21’s tonight… I also noticed Xhaka starts for the Swiss – don’t tune into that, Rico.. it could be painful 😂
Did you see Guendouzi is up for the golden boy award?
I’m sure they would have been within their rights under the rules to leave the pitch Cicero, otherwise why would Southgate have given them the option at halftime?
Hi Sue, I didn’t re Guendouzi but I did see the charges dished out. Not sure why England have any though..
I shall not be heading anywhere the Swiss game by the way… lol
I agree – it’s ridiculous!
Haha very wise of you – I have to say, temptation got the better of me, I had a quick look, saw Lichtsteiner and that was more than enough, so turned over 😀 just keeping an eye on all the other gooners playing, especially Kolasinac 😍
You can vote for Guendouzi, on this link..
https://www.football.london/ arsenal-fc/players/matteo-guendouzi-golden-ball-award-17088987
I hope he wins!
Thanks for the link..
I might tune in to the u21’s
Evening Rico and the House Its half time in the U21s .
England are winning 4-0 Eddy has scored twice.
He is having a very good game and is areal handfull.
Evening Rick, 4-1 now. Lol
Sorry Rico, am I missing something? What rules are you talking about?
UEFA’s three-step rule against racism Cicero. England/Southgate were asked by the referee if they wanted to take the third step by leaving the pitch but they declined.
I can see both sides of this, personally I agree that it was a great chance to make a statement to the world and walk off but I see that the England players have said they wanted to thrash Bulgaria to show the racists that they wont be beaten by such scum.
In other news I see that a family in Holland spent 9 years hidden in a property waiting for the end of days, I think they eventually run out of drugs and porn…………….and the clincher was that they had had enough of watching how to speak english language videos by Steve McClaren !
Jordan Henderson revealed England’s players were driven by the motivation to make Bulgaria supporters “suffer” for the racist abuse they doled out to the Three Lions on Monday night.
Just watching The Chase and a question comes up…………….Who were British baseball champions in 1906 and 1908 ?
A) Nottingham Forest
B) Spuds
C) Aston Villa
It was B) The Spuds !……………………..so they have won a baseball trophy as many times as they have won the league !……………..and I bet they made a Pathe news reel about it and I`d bet my life on it that it was in black and white like the last time they won the league !…….hahahaha
New post up now