Racism is an issue that has always been intertwined within
the fabric of the sport tainting an otherwise beautiful sport. Before the 2010
world cup in South Africa Abedi Pele an former professional soccer star who is
now an ambassador against racism for FIFA. While he was playing professional
soccer he played for a French football team and traveled all around Europe
playing in different competitions. He stated that during some of these matches
opponents fans would throw oranges and bananas at him. According to Abedi Pele,
racism in soccer is now much better than it was previously. The soccer
governing body has now enforced punishments for clubs, players and fans of
clubs for participating in racist activity (Ballong). Despite these punishments
inflicted by FIFA on clubs, fans and players for participating in racist
activity the problem has not gone away. Over the past month we have had several clubs fined for racist behavior all through out Europe. In Spain they were fined 20,000 Euros, two Italians were arrested after they stabbed and assaulted a Tottenham fan making anti-Jewish statements. In Austria on a Television Broadcasting a white TV reporter was painted black representing a player and made fun of with clear racist jokes about a banana (soccernet.espn.go) All of these different offenders have been severely punished for their actions and all occurred in different parts of Europe. Because of this is it fair to blame these racist actions on the culture that soccer creates or do these incidents highlight that racism is still a prominent issue in society?
Jacob Castersen
T/Thu 9:30
1 comment:
Unfortunately, racism is still a big issue in soccer, although it has more to reflect on European society than American society. There is definitely racial issues in American sports, but not to the extent of European soccer. There are stories of entire crowds chanting racist taunts, as well as people in the stands throwing bananas onto the field. What is disgusting is how the players and fans do this to opposing players, yet praise and worship their own players of color. There are incidents of players such as John Terry and Luis Suarez racially abusing their opponents, yet also having a teammate of the same race they are degrading. While things have certainly improved with race relations, there is still a long ways to go for both sports and society, but especially for European soccer.
Andrew Tran
009347674
Kin 332i
TTH 12:30
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