Since the beginning of football time, one of the things that has been essentially a sensitive issue in the sport is racism. It appears every now and then whenever the game turns into a wrestling match at the end of the day media reports suggest racial abuse as cause for the commotion, and this seems to be getting more and more common. Racism? In 2011? It appears so.
CASES IN POINT :
(*) Last el clasico in August. You might have heard of it, the one where Mou pokes an eye out? During all the chaos RM star scorer, Mesut Ozil, was seen furiously trying to have a go at David Villa. Unusual because Mesut Ozil isn't really the type of player to get into a fight. Later accusations started to surface that Villa had insulted Ozil, who is Muslim, religiously. Villa denied the reports and later on the truth of David actually slapping Ozil during the brawl explained how a mad Ozil had come to life.
(*) After Liverpool’s big game against Manchester United. Nothing eventful happened on the pitch but the racial fire started post-game when Patrice Evra started making claims of Luis Suarez calling him a racist name 10 times during the game. Luis has vehemently denied that claim, the referee also denies any wrong-doing witnessed, and Liverpool is staying behind the player's statement of innocence. An FA investigation has been launched and depending on the result either one of the players involved will be facing heavy consequences.
(*) Another Barcelona-related one (FC Dramalona lol), their latest match against Sevilla last weekend. A brawl was released on the pitch suddenly before a free kick was to be taken, involving Frederic Kanoute and Cesc Fabregas. Cameras showed a raging Kanoute holding Fabregas by the neck and knocking the number 4 player down to the ground, infuriating his fellow Blaugrana team mates. The next day the Spanish press was all over the case calling Fabregas a racist because the fight was set by him making an insult at a Muslim Kanoute.
All three of these cases have happened in the span of less than 3 months. That’s a lot in a pretty short time. And it annoys me to no end when I hear my favorite player being called a racist bigot because of such cases like these. Now, before anyone accuses me of being biased when giving these men the benefit of the doubt, let me just point out that this is my blog so you must deal with it. No, but really, I’m not just trying to defend them because they are players I heart but because there is no evidence that the allegations are true and what bothers me the most is it still gets printed as so in the media. The cause of the first case turned out to be nothing but David with his trademark brawl-slap, it had nothing to do with racism. Bear in mind that Ozil has never made an official statement about Villa insulting his religion and has only been quoted saying so by the media. How did the media manage to make this fight about race? Is it because Villa has a slapping track record and Ozil just so happens to be a Muslim so everyone automatically thinks the fight was because of that? Luis likes to throw bottles and bite people, so the public just assumes he’s emotional enough to say racist shit to an opponent to wind him up? Not for nothing, but Evra has been caught in 3 other race cases before this with 3 different parties that were proven untrue. Basically he's now a walking joke.
The third case is probably the most rediculous. Even after Kanoute has denied the rumors of his fight with Cesc was because of bigotry and them setting things straight mutually, lots of people still seem to believe otherwise. For Cesc to take to twitter to point out why he could never be racist might seem dramatic but I think it just really bothers him that people could think he's a racist, especially since he's had Muslims and black players as team-mates from his time at Arsenal up until now.
It's very concerning how 2 out of these 3 cases have turned out to be nothing but false accusations or misunderstandings. Not by the person involved but by the media. The press always manages to make something into something else that it isn't but bringing racism into the picture is a new low. It's understandable that journalists want to 'spice up a story' but writing in fabricated reports containing racism is another thing. Maybe it's not about spicing things up, maybe some journos really do believe race was the issue in the center of these fights? But if these assumptions are what come to mind everytime players of different beliefs and racial backgrounds get in the middle of it, how are anti-racist campaigns like Unite Against Racism going to actually make a difference? This type of narrow-mindedness needs to go away. If you always think everyone is a racist, well, then racism will never end will it? It seems that not only racism itself has to be diminished, racist assumption has to be too.
I am in no way saying racist allegations shouldn't be taken seriously. They should and FA needs to carry out the investigations properly until the truth is revealed and justice is served. And even though the facts in the Evra-Suarez investigation make Evra's claims seem unlikely, the case still needs to be dealt with properly. It's easy to call sides without any solid proof and solely based on your party of preference. United fans have been quick to call Suarez a racist after these claims were made public, and Liverpool fans (including myself) have as quickly stepped up to defend his innocence every chance given. All of this basically without any concrete proof of what actually happened on the pitch. Racism has been an ongoing issue in the football world and it would be very naive to think that has changed even with us going on year 2012, especially understanding that a lot of the times players who do endure racial abuse tend to not report the incident. But I also don't want people - players and press a-like - thinking it's okay to just make-up these kind of stories ever so lightly, because accusing someone of racism is as serious as a heart-attack and almost as dumb as being an actual racist.
x Natasha
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