The REACTION TO THE European Super League saga shows WHERE FOOTBALL'S PRIORITIES LIE
by Farah Hussain
"Deduct them all points tomorrow, put them at the bottom of the league and take their money off them...it's a criminal act against football in this country" ranted Gary Neville on Sky Sports on 19th April 2021. That week, the football community rightly rallied round and voiced its opposition to something which could ruin the game we all love. The media and social media went into overdrive, ex-players and pundits were passionately airing their opinions on TV and fans took to their stadiums to protest. The FA, Premier League, English Football League, UEFA, FIFA, the government and Prince William all sprung into action within a matter of hours to condem it. There were calls for a government led review and legislation to be put in place.
No, this reaction wasn't about racism within football, it was about the proposal of a European Super League.
Don't get me wrong, the proposed ESL is a terrible idea and the plotting and planning behind it is a scandal. The passionate reaction from across the football community has been the right reaction.
But where is this level of outrage and passion when it comes to racism in football? Does the abuse which a human being receives over the colour of their skin not matter as much to football?
The fact of the matter is, the proposed ESL threatened the bank balances of those who control football. Racism isn't a threat to their bank balances, so they don't really care about it. As the Leeds player Patrick Bamford said in his interview following the Leeds v Liverpool match,
"It's amazing the amount of uproar that comes into the game when somebody's pockets are being hurt. It's a shame it's not like that with all the things that go wrong at the minute, racism and stuff like that".
Racism doesn't get action, it gets half-hearted punishment and empty gestures instead. The Slavia Prague player Ondrej Kudela racially abused the Rangers player Glen Kamara during a UEFA Europa League match on 18th March. Kamara reported that Kudela said to him "you're a monkey, you're a f*cking monkey and you know you are". Yet Slavia Prague were allowed to progress into the next round of the competition. The ESL plotters Manchester City, Chelsea, Real Madrid on the other hand were threatened with being immediately thrown out of the Champions League as were Manchester United and Arsenal from the Europa League.
The comparison is stark. I don't recall any calls by ex-players and high profile pundits to dock English teams points or throw them out of competitions when their players and/or fans have been racially abusive.
In the last couple of days it was announced that English football clubs will boycott social media by switching off their accounts from 3pm on Friday 30th April to 11.59pm on Monday 3rd May. That'll teach the racists, won't it?
The mental and emotional consequences of being subjected to racist abuse are serious and complicated. Being degraded and dehumanised over the colour of your skin is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. Anyone who watched Anton Ferdinand's documentary "Football, Racism and Me" on the BBC earlier this year could see the harrowing consequences racist abuse. Ferdinand was racially abused by former England captain John Terry in October 2011. 10 years on, the effects on Ferdinand are still there to see.
Racist abuse on social media is a huge issue at the moment. But the owners of Twitter and Instagram have done next to nothing about it. Where are the calls for the football community to "mobilise and organize" - the phrase used by Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher about stopping the the ESL?
The governing bodies of football, the government, the clubs and the social media companies need to come down hard on the perpetrators. Real action is needed, not empty gestures. We need fines, points deductions, lifetime bans, tough legislation - clear consequences for clubs, fans and online trolls. This is the only way to deal with this issue head on.
But until racism starts to affect the bank balances of those who control football, sadly, nothing will happen.
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