Racism In Soccer

Flaws of the Beautiful Game

As time has gone by many athletes have had to deal with many unfairness while trying to perform at their best; however, there are times when even the fans have to deal with foolishness. Racism is still a huge issue all around the world. In this case, I will focus on the events that caused a lot of controversy in European soccer. Some of these fans just love to disrespect the athletes and other fans. This paper will point out some examples of racism in soccer and how these athletes reacted. I will also try to answer these questions: Did these athletes respond in a proper way? Are these athletes getting the support they need? Are the fans committing these crimes being punished?

To start off I want to talk about the

There was this incident when Espanyol’s (RCD Espanyol is a Spanish team) fans racially abused their own goalkeeper Carlos Kameni who happens to be from Cameroon. A fan using a megaphone said “Kameni! Get out of here. Get out of here. Now go to the press and tell them this is racism. You are a son of a bi**h. whether you are black or orange.” (Tkdgalchloe). If that was not enough another fan threw a banana into the goal area where he was standing. In this case, the fans were fined. Spain seems to be a harsh place for colored soccer players to play in because in another recent incident that involved another Spanish team was Barcelona with the banana incident involving Brazilian right back Daniel Alves. It was Villarreal (Spanish team) against Barcelona. The scored was 2-1 with the home side Villarreal ahead with one goal when the Barcelona side got a corner kick around minute 75. Since Barcelona needed all the people they could get in the area to try to score and tie the game Daniel Alves decided to take the corner kick. Right before Daniel Alves could take the corner kick a Villarreal fan threw a banana into the field right in front of him. Daniel Alves then decided to quickly pick up the banana and take a bite out of it and then take the corner kick as if nothing had ever happened.

To start off I want to talk about Marc Zoro who in 2006 played for Messina (an Italian team). He had been racially abused all season but that afternoon during a game against Internazionale (another Italian team) he had enough and picked up the ball and started to head out the pitch. Two players from the other team were able to convince him to stay in the field and finish the game. Apparently, the Internazionale fans were not done abusing Zoro and on the next game they had a banner that said, “Peanuts and bananas are the pay for your infamy”. (Snspake). Then we have another example of someone who was not afraid to walk out. This is Kevin Boateng who in early January during a friendly match against Pro Patria decided that he was not going to let the fans racially abused him. In the clip provided by the Guardian we can see how he picks up the ball and just kicks it in the direction of the fans that were offending him, but in this case, that was not it. He then took his jersey off and started walking out. A couple of the players from the other team tried to stop him but it was already too late. The AC Milan players had his back and also decided to walk off the field with Boateng. Boateng gained a lot of media attention for this and during an interview, he even said that he would have done the same no matter if