The new premier league season is only two weeks in and we’re already facing a racism crisis. In the super cup final, Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham missed the crucial penalty against Liverpool. On the weekend, Paul Pogba missed a penalty against the Wolves. On both occasions, the players were racially abused on social media.
Just like every other time, people come out condemning what has happened and everyone is up in arms. They can’t believe this has happened in the beautiful game. When Tammy Abraham was racially abused by his own fans, everyone put it down to “well that’s Chelsea fans for you”. Now Paul Pogba has been abused by his own Manchester United fans. The narrative is that it’s not Man Utd fans. It’s in fact people posing as Man Utd fans.
Unlike previous times racism has affected the sport, this time it was on social media. The response by the football community has been to attack via social media. The problem lies with social media. They need to do more to stop this from happening. Whilst I do agree that social media should take on more of a responsibility to tackle all types of discrimination, the problem also lies with football and society.
There are two points of issue with blaming social media. Firstly, racism has been on the rise in football for a long time. We have seen it in stadiums. It is not just an external issue. It is in our game. Secondly, social media is just a reflection of society. Football is part of our society. Therefore, football has a responsibility to do more.
After the Pogba incident, there have been calls for players to stop using social media or for social media to be regulated. It’s been an attack on the platform, which I do support, to an extent. The problem doesn’t simply lie with social media. By stopping people using the platform, it doesn’t stop them having these views. If we truly want to stop racism then we have to educate people. Schools need to teach the true story of racism. Not this whitewashed garbage which is taught right now. Kids need to be taught about the struggles across the world. That includes racism in this country. We can’t hide it from our kids. They should be taught about the racist actions of the empire and views held by “great” British Prime Ministers like Winston Churchill. When kids are taught about Nelson Mandela, they should be taught that he was labelled a terrorist by the British government, who supported the white oppressors.
If football is actually serious about tackling racism in the game, it should look at the institutional racism in the game. The governing bodies don’t take racism seriously. FIFA hands out bigger fines for sponsorship abuse than for racism. Italian football is the worst, from the “big leagues”. They don’t even take care of one of their best youngsters. Spanish football isn’t far behind. We’ve constantly heard monkey chants in stadiums when England play Spain. German football showed their true colours at the end of their abysmal 2018 World Cup campaign. Mesut Ozil was forced to retire from international football due to the abuse he got, not just from fans, but also from the high ranking officials in German football. In fact, he wasn’t even that bad. Not amazing but definitely not their worst player. However, he was the one that was blamed, instead of Muller or Neuer. He once said, “I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose”. UEFA and FIFA have players do these silly marketing adverts “SAY NO TO RACISM” but in fact they’re not doing anything themselves.
The number of managers of ethnic minorities are scarce. Just having one manager of colour in the Premier League is actually amazing. What blows my mind is that the same managers stick around in the league, yet new, younger managers who have something to offer are constantly rejected.
Probably the biggest factor that adds to the racist views in football is the language used by journalists. Just look at how black and white English players are treated in the media. White players, like Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane, Jordan Henderson are all one of our own. All with true British mentality and true English values. When it comes to Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, this type of language is not seen. For me Raheem Sterling is England’s best player by a distance. Not only does he have incredible talent, but he is a winner. Not many players in the England squad can say they have won a trophy, let alone multiple trophies. However, Raheem has suffered more in the media than any other player ever. Don’t even mention Beckham, Rooney etc. Whenever Beckham and Rooney were slated in the media, they messed up big time. They did stuff that is worthy of front page tabloid news. When it was low for them it was low. But the highs were massive for them. They got all the praise in the world. Let’s look at the criticism Raheem has gotten. He has been criticised for shopping at Primark, going to Greggs, travelling on EasyJet and then travelling on a private plane. There is nothing in these stories yet they’re making the front page on the tabloids. When his high points come, he doesn’t get the praise he deserves. So, stop with the comparison between the abuse Raheem has gotten with people like Beckham and Rooney.
Football has to do more in tackling racism. We can’t just sit back or brush it off as someone else’s problem. The problem lies with us. We have created this society where it is okay to label black players as bad influences and completely trash players of colour, yet white players are treated differently. We need a complete overhaul in the way football deals with all forms of discrimination.
Aleha