Key Fights Against Racism in Soccer
Striking back at the sport's biggest problem.
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Key Fights Against Racism in Soccer - In professional soccer, racism begins at the very top of the command chain, with the president of FIFA. In 2011, Sepp Blatter told CNN that the players speaking out about racism during games need to stop blaming the banana throwers and instead do this: "He should say that this is a game. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination." FIFA actually has not worked so hard, but players have — reporting abuse and taking steps to bring about change. Here, a few of their victories in the world’s most popular (and racist) sport. (Photo: Reuters/Stringer/Files)
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The "We Are All Monkeys" Movement - For the uninspired racist, there’s always a banana peel. And Brazilian Dani Alves has had countless ones thrown at him in the 12 years he’s played in Spain for Sevilla and Barcelona. In April, when one was tossed at him before he took a corner kick, Alves stopped and ate it. Within hours, players of all races had posted Instagram shots of themselves eating bananas with the caption “We are all monkeys #saynotoracism.” Alves told the BBC that “I hope that this can be an alert to ban this kind of attitude from football altogether. I hope the debate about racial prejudice will not fade away, but stays on permanently and not be restricted only to football." The Spanish league, which had insisted for years that it didn’t have a race problem, fined the opposing team 12,000 euro ($15,600) and arrested the fan who threw the fruit. (Photo: ...
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FIFA Finally Does Something - Kevin Prince Boeteng couldn’t take it anymore. When the other team's fans would not stop chanting racist slurs and making monkey sounds at him and black AC Milan teammate Mario Balotelli at a 2013 game, he left. "I decided to walk off the pitch because I said to myself, in this kind of environment, in this situation, I don't want to play football anymore,” he told a reporter. Since it’s against every rule to leave the field during a game — no matter what the crowd is doing — it was even more significant that his teammates left with him and the game was abandoned. The bigger payoff was that Boeteng’s protest finally got FIFA president Sepp Blatter to do something substantial. Boeteng was invited to be a part of a task force to fight racism in the sport. So far, they have passed reforms that will get a team fined, expelled from a game or ...
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Super Mario Speaks Up - Since he entered professional soccer, Mario Balotelli has had to deal with racist fools. In 2009, fans of his team Inter Milan held up signs that translated to “Better black than black-and-white,” meaning Balotelli was better than Juventus, the team whose colors are black-and-white and whose fans had relentlessly attacked the player. Later, Balotelli admitted that racist chants and actions during games make him feel “alone” and he has decided to stop being silent, saying, “If it’s gonna happen one more time, I’m gonna lift the peace because it’s so stupid.” (Photo: Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
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The C-Word - John Terry has been an ass for a long time, most notably in an airport bar the day after 9/11 when he stripped naked, hurled insults and vomited in front of Americans sobbing as they watched World Trade Center footage. Classy. Ten years later, he called Ferdinand Anton, another British league player, a “f-----g black c--t” during a game. In court, Terry admitted he’d said it, but was just being sarcastic. The punishment, which was the harshest one to date for a player charged with racism: a 220,000 pound fine (approximately $373,000) and Terry was stripped of his captaincy of the English national team. (Photos from Left: Scott Heavey/Getty Images, Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
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Luis Suarez's Lowest Moments - Most people remember Uruguay national player Luis Suarez for having the highest number of goals in the British Premier League two seasons in a row (2013 and 2014) and for biting other players mid-game for no reason in 2007 and 2013. But before pulling his second Mike Tyson, Liverpool player Suarez was fined 40,000 pounds ($68,000) and given an eight-game ban for making a racist remark to Patrice Evra. Three months later, he refused to shake Evra’s hand at a game. (Photos from Left: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images, Michael Regan/Getty Images)
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European Soccer Against Racism - UEFA, the powerful Union of European Football Associations, had their hand forced to act after three of their biggest stars — Boeteng, Balotelli and Alves — spent the 2013-2014 season publicly speaking out about racism. So last month they announced something much harsher than the small fines they had been giving out. Starting next season, racist abuse by players or officials will mean a minimum 10-match suspension. UEFA hopes that other regions will follow with similar measures. (Photo: UEFA)