By Ayesha Begum, Senior Editor
On Sunday 22nd December 2019, there was a football match between Chelsea F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. For some football fanatics, this may seem like a trivial statement as no football fan would dare forget about any games, however, for those who have never displayed any interest in football, such as myself, it can seem strange that you may have heard of this specific match, and for all the wrong reasons.
On Sunday 22nd December 2019, there was a football match between Chelsea F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. For some football fanatics, this may seem like a trivial statement as no football fan would dare forget about any games, however, for those who have never displayed any interest in football, such as myself, it can seem strange that you may have heard of this specific match, and for all the wrong reasons.
Antonio Rüdiger is a member of the Chelsea team. He currently plays in the centre back position, is from Germany and of Sierra Leonean descent.
Son Heung-min is a member of the Tottenham team. He currently plays in the forward position, and is from South Korea, both nationally and ethnically.
You may have seen photos of a black man dressed in football gear mimicking a monkey circulating the internet. This, in fact, was Rüdiger trying to tell the referee that supposed fans of the opposition were hurling racist abuse towards him. Police have launched investigations into this.
A Chelsea supporter was arrested over racist comments made towards Son.
This is not the first time news regarding football in this light has made mainstream media. Earlier this year, there were further reports of racist abuse aimed at footballers during matches. This is what I feel baffles people the most. Football has nothing to do with where you are from or the colour of your skin, it’s about whether you can actually play the game well or not. I would be a bit more understanding if all these spectators were insulting the footballers’ football skills but the way they resort to racial abuse is downright unacceptable.
Despite my very limited knowledge of football, I am aware of the fact that British footballers, in particular, are very diverse, hailing from different countries and different walks of life. To see such avid fans of football dismiss this and continue to inflict their bigoted and discriminatory views upon something that is, essentially, being held up by the people they like to be prejudiced against is ludicrous.
For many, sport and football will be considered a safe space, one of the few places where they are not judged based upon their identity, where they are judged solely upon the dexterity of their feet. To take away such a significant and vital part of a team sport that is intended to unite groups of people together in order to ‘fight against’ the opposition is unethical.
The way I see it, these football matches mirror our current society and are a reflection of the problems that we continue to face today.
It seems as though we are beginning to go backwards in terms of our progression towards a fairer, equitable nation. Such signs can be demonstrated through the re-election of a Prime Minister with a history of racism, sexism, homophobia and islamophobia, just to name a few, suggesting that this kind of behaviour is acceptable because the leader partakes in it so why shouldn’t the rest of society.
This acceptance and dismissal can also be seen in Sunday’s football match as, according to Yahoo!Sport, there were three stadium announcements saying that “racist behaviour among spectators is interfering with the game”. I am unsure about the rulings on this but I would expect that some form of sanction would be employed, for instance, the game would have been either cancelled, delayed or something to that effect. The reluctance of the staff to take any action as the remarks were actually being said and prioritising the game raises questions about the state of our society.
From what I can recall, this is one of the few times I have actually heard about racism in football, but as I was writing this, I remembered the ongoing ‘Show Racism The Red Card’ campaign. I remember when spokespeople came into my primary school to explain to us what racism actually is and how we should go about reporting it and such, tempting us with tradable cards that had famous footballers on and lots of stickers.
The construction of the campaign itself suggests that racism has evidently become such a common practice in football, so much so that it has become one of the main foundations of the sport. Some may argue that perhaps it was just a marketing scheme linking a popular sport to an important societal issue however I would say the nature of recent events in football speak for themselves.
Above all, there is an important lesson that racism in football can teach us: it is our duty to come together as a community, through our bonds of fraternity and comradeship, in order to challenge such out-dated views and to stick up for those of us who need it most. Just like Rüdiger, a Chelsea member, and Son, a Tottenham member, even the most opposite of us must put aside our differences and charge towards the common good.
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