ESPN: The Beautiful Game Turned Ugly

[Nutmeg]

On this morning's SportsCenter, Jeremy Schaap narrated a piece on the racism prevalent in European Soccer. The footage was sadly compelling, helping to highlight how bad things have become. Two examples stood out to me. ESPN showed Marco Zoro, who plays for Italian Serie A side Messina (they stressed this team was from Sicily, though I’m not sure that makes a difference). Zoro apparently gets abused by his own fan base on a regular basis. The incident they showed, though, was Zoro getting taunted by racial remarks against Inter. He attempted to stop the match by picking up the ball in mid-match and walking off the field. Inter’s Adriano helped convince him to keep playing. Zoro’s reward for standing up to the racism? A huge banner in his next trip to Inter saying something to the effect, “Peanuts and Bananas will be your reward for your infamy.”

The second example was Samuel Eto’o calling out Real Zaragoza’s fans. After scoring a goal against Zaragoza, their notorious hardcore supporters commenced with the racial taunts. Like Zoro, Eto’o stopped the match, walked towards their fans, and said repeatedly, “No mas.” It was personally sad, though unsurprising, for me to see so much footage of racist fans from Spain.

A couple of things that could impact the US and World Cup here. First, any racist acts from people involved with the teams (coaches, players, officials) will result in a loss of three points – but NOT from the fans. Sepp Blatter, however, said that any racist acts from the fans would result in FIFA intervening and “abandoning” the game.

My personal opinions, Blatter should have gotten tough on this a long time ago. The Italian and Spanish federations, and any others that haven’t cracked down on their racist fan bases, can suck my balls. They should have been blacklisting racist morons a long time ago. I seriously question whether FIFA will have the fortitude to abandon any World Cup match where racist fans start taunting players, nor am I sure that’s the right thing to do. I could see a riot escalating pretty easily. But FIFA and the World Cup should start identifying those who hurl racist remarks and banning them from all future games as they have done with hooligans.

Our players should be prepared to face some racist taunting, particularly from fans of Italy. And FIFA should be prepared to deal harshly with those same fans.

[appoo]

I saw that to. It's depressing really. The anguish from Zoro and Eto'o was very much visible. I've heard some people say "man up and just accept" - which is something I don't think is right. this behavior should never be accepted. Just like Henry says

[SoccerScout]

Lets make sure soccer is not to blame...racism has nothing to do with soccer...its the people not the game.

Theres just as much if not more racism in America, but here in the US people have "learned" to contain their thoughts mostly to themselves, which is a great thing.

[Golazo]

I think the ones that should "man up" are the OTHER players. If a teamate or a colleague (ie player on another team) is the target of dehumanizing crap like that, a captain or a coach or someone should make it clear ahead of time that both teams will walk of the field.... that -in turn- should force leagues to treat racists as they have violent hooligans. Clearly, the latter scourge has not been eliminated, but it has been greatly (meant in all senses) reduced.

(On the Sicilian assertion: I'm sure it wasn't meant as ironic... but it is. I read the reference as an indication along the lines of "well, you know how backward those Southern Italians are.)

[mpruitt]

Lets make sure soccer is not to blame...racism has nothing to do with soccer...its the people not the game.

Theres just as much if not more racism in America, but here in the US people have "learned" to contain their thoughts mostly to themselves, which is a great thing.
This is a bit of a cop out. I can't speak to the thoughts and feelings in people's hearts and minds but the type of stuff that goes on at European soccer matches would be absolutely and completely unacceptable here, most especially even by home fans. I mean could you even imagine a home or away fan dropping some kind of racial slur at a latino or black athlete here? The thought of it to me is so absolutely absurd. Black atheletes have ben our heros for generation now. Still being a place where by black athletes have to put up with the kind of stuff that Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown or Bill Russell had to put up with is just completely beyond my comprehension in this day and age. Yet still, whether it's racisim, nascism or violence in my oppinion there appears to be a laissez faire attitude towards most european supporters or, 'Oh those are just the Ultras... it's a small fraction of fans and we can't really control them.'

It's a bunch of garbage that more insn't being done about this and I think it really brings into equestion Europia's attitude of cultural superiority over America.

[Clinton AFC]

ESPN showed Marco Zoro, who plays for Italian Serie A side Messina (they stressed this team was from Sicily, though I’m not sure that makes a difference). Zoro apparently gets abused by his own fan base on a regular basis.

The irony of course is that Sicilians suffer discrimination and 'racial' abuse from Northern Italians because of their darker complexion, poverty, and supposedly 'criminal' culture. Even as Salvatore 'Toto' Schillaci led Italy and won the WC'90 Golden Boot, he was lampooned on Italian TV for being from Sicily which is, in Italian eyes, close to Africa and 'barbaric'. Italy's version of Johnny Carson joked that Schillaci should play for an African side like Cameroon.

It is straight up pathetic in this day and age. I hope our guys brought plenty of cans of whupasss for the Azzuri.

[Anthony]

From personal experience, it seems to me there is a lot more "casual" racism in Europe than here. In 1998, I almost got into a fight with a bar owner in Paris becuase he was rapping a black patron with a stick and making monkey noises. That is something you hear about happening in the deep south 40 years ago.

I think the difference is that while there is still racism in the US of course, it is no longer considered polite. We went through a very painful period (50 years + and still going on in some ways) of comeing to grips with the issue. In Europe, they have never in theory had to come to grips with it until recently.

[appoo]

I really hope the Italy fans behave themselves in our match. It'll be nationally televised here in America in ABC, and right in the middle of the day on a weekend so a lot of people will be tuning in. If they start making monkey noises and shit like that at Gooch and Beas and Johnson....well. That would create a very serious situation

[P1brit]

Lets make sure soccer is not to blame...racism has nothing to do with soccer...its the people not the game.

Theres just as much if not more racism in America, but here in the US people have "learned" to contain their thoughts mostly to themselves, which is a great thing.

Thats a very good point. The game is just an avenue for it to happen. These people are scum and if they weren't ruining the game from the stands they would be do something stupid elsewhere.

I hate this "you have more racism than us" arguement. Everyone needs to take care of their own garden and not point out that their neighbors grass is dying when theirs is full of weeds.

[VBSoccerFan]

I really hope the Italy fans behave themselves in our match. It'll be nationally televised here in America in ABC, and right in the middle of the day on a weekend so a lot of people will be tuning in. If they start making monkey noises and shit like that at Gooch and Beas and Johnson....well. That would create a very serious situation

The US scores early on a steal and counterattack, then late in teh first half, the Italian fans start in with the racist chants at Gooch and Beas, and FIFA abandons the match with the score standing as it is at the time. US 1-0 for 3 points.

[Daren Spencer]

I really hope the Italy fans behave themselves in our match. It'll be nationally televised here in America in ABC, and right in the middle of the day on a weekend so a lot of people will be tuning in. If they start making monkey noises and shit like that at Gooch and Beas and Johnson....well. That would create a very serious situation

I agree. The only good that could come out of this behaviour at the World Cup would be the exposure to the problem. Hopefully it would force FIFA to change the way they deal with racism (probably not). Abandoning a game would cause a real issue for security I would think. Anyway, lets hope it doesn't happen.

[WestLooper]

The US scores early on a steal and counterattack, then late in teh first half, the Italian fans start in with the racist chants at Gooch and Beas, and FIFA abandons the match with the score standing as it is at the time. US 1-0 for 3 points.

Absolutley no way this would EVER happen. The chances of Trinidad & Tobago winning the whole thing are higher than FIFA abandoning a World Cup match because of racism.

[Anthony]

Absolutley no way this would EVER happen. The chances of Trinidad & Tobago winning the whole thing are higher than FIFA abandoning a World Cup match because of racism.

I look Italian and speak some Italian. If you like, I can try and start a racial incident to get the Italians disqualified.

(IT'S A JOKE PEOPLE!)

[YNWAYNWA]

front page of today's St. Petersburg Times

more great soccer coverage :mad:

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/04/Sports/Hate_in_the_stands.shtml

[nyrmetros]

I have a bunch of Italian friends, some are 1st generation american, some are 2nd, and a few are 3rd. The ones that are 3rd generation american, race is not an issue for them. They don't care. The ones that are 2nd and 1st generation make a very big deal abuot it, and make sure to let everyone know their feelings on the race issue.

Not sure what that means, if anything, just an observation.

Back to soccer, they all hate MLS, but 2 of them will watch Metro/RB games. And 5 of them will support the US on June 17. Yuo can guess which generation they are from.

[JeffreyWyatt]

If anything this should highlight just how hard it was for Jackie Robinson... taking more abuse than any of those guys ever will and doing it by himself... alone. Racism is a horrible thing in soccer and I hope that the World Cup is a time where it won't flare up.

[PsychedelicCeltic]

From personal experience, it seems to me there is a lot more "casual" racism in Europe than here. In 1998, I almost got into a fight with a bar owner in Paris becuase he was rapping a black patron with a stick and making monkey noises. That is something you hear about happening in the deep south 40 years ago.

I think the difference is that while there is still racism in the US of course, it is no longer considered polite. We went through a very painful period (50 years + and still going on in some ways) of comeing to grips with the issue. In Europe, they have never in theory had to come to grips with it until recently.
You've nailed it. America, almost from the start, has had to deal with people of colour, because of the slave population (and Indians, but they were segregated from the population to a much greater degree IMHO). It wasn't pretty, frequently brutal, but Europe has never really had an enormous struggle with conscience like what the civil rights movement presented to Americans.

Most of Europe is very homogenous - even Britain is still 90% white - and the riots in the banlieues last year show Europe hasn't figured anything out on the subject. I think a fair number of Europeans would be pretty happy if no immigrants ever came to their country again, ever. Even the US far-right knows that immigrants are needed in the US.

They've never had anything like Jim Crow but Europe has shown its ability to flip out over racial issues in ways Americans would find familiar.

It should be added that Europe's record on the Roma and the Jews aren't exactly shining either.

[Nutmeg]

Good quote from the article link posted earlier (it actually was an excellent piece and worth the read):

In Zurich, there is a tinge of anger in the voice of Jerome Champagne, FIFA's delegate of the president for special affairs.

"These racist bastards - excuse me - are using our game, because in a stadium of 60,000, it's easy to be anonymous," Champagne says. "What they are doing is using football, staining the image of the game because they can propagate their stupid ideology. And we have to tackle that.

"But the main issue is not racism within soccer, but racism around soccer."

[superdave]

Theres just as much if not more racism in America, but here in the US people have "learned" to contain their thoughts mostly to themselves, which is a great thing.
How could you know that? Are you God?

[Alan S]

Where it happens I think they should make that team play their home matches in an empty stadium. It should be the next game and the next time that same team visits them again. If such things really are just extremist fans then maybe that would create an incentive for the non-racist fans to stop looking the other way. Also, team owners looking at potential lost ticket sales might find better ways to identify those people and keep them out of the stadium.