The Seemingly Immortal Cancer of Racism in Football

Racism is an age-old topic of discussion in every walk of life, millions of individuals suffer daily from it, sadly sports in general and football in particular is not exempted from this vile act. Over the years, various sets of world class players plying their trades in major leagues of the footballing world have been subjected to abuse simply because of the complexion of their skin by opposition fans and sometimes opposition players and with the raging advent of social media platforms, this particular schism has gotten even worse.

Manchester United’s Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand allegedly being racially abused by Liverpool striker Luis Suarez and Chelsea’s John terry respectively, Kalidou Koulibaly being racially abused by a section of his own fans after conceding a late own goal against Juventus, Blaise matuidi of Juventus, Moise Kean, Romelu Lukaku, Mario ballotelli, Danny rose.

The list is disappointingly endless and ongoing ,which makes it such a dent on the footballing bodies (FA, UEFA, FIFA) image and they’re all too aware of the race against time to curb this despicable trend before it’s established as part of the game’s culture and after last night’s European qualifier between Bulgaria and England in which four black English players(Raheem Sterling, Tyrone Mings , Marcus Rashford and Barkley) were racially abused it is a race the game’s governing bodies are currently loosing.

The figurative jury is still out and widespread public opinion is of the stance that if the national, European and world bodies cannot handle the buffoonery of theatrical diving by football players and if they cannot see that financial obscenity is damaging the game, surely they can’t see the deep humanitarian problems inherent in racial abuse. It’s also quite worrying that the largest fine they have ever handed out to a club or country is £34,230 against the Bulgarian FA for monkey chants against English players, meanwhile, they once found former Arsenal player and Denmark international Nicklas Bendtner £80,000 for unauthorised advertising on his pants. Misplaced priorities one might argue.

Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borisov has ordered the president of the country’s Football Association, Borislav Mihaylov, to resign in the wake of the shameful racism which marred the Euro 2020 qualifying clash with England. A decision that is bound to erupt the dominoes of discussions and arguments that could halt and hopefully eradicate the appaling action out of the game sooner rather than later.

Frankly, the punishments previously handed out to national or club bodies are so farcically minuscule that they are an insult in themselves. A slap on the wrist of offenders hasn’t and wouldn’t suffice, and unless the pious words and “grandstanding” declarations of the footballing authorities are backed up by heavily punitive measures, we shall still be in this situation—or one worse than this—in 10 years’ time.