Last week Saturday during the highly anticipated showdown between Manchester United and Liverpool, which ended in a 2-2 draw, a altercation happened on film between United'd Patrice Evra and Liverpool's Luis Suarez that has pretty much overshadowed a brilliant game. Evra, often regarded as the best left back in the world, has claimed that during the match the two had a disagreement in which Suarez responded by calling him a N***a, something Suarez has protested his innocence against and has claimed to be untrue. Now even though I am a big United fan and therefore hate Liverpool, I am not going to take sides in this debate and turn it into a who said what article, what I am most intrigued about though is the topic of racism in football in general, and whether we will ever see a stop to it.
Now in such a modern and equal society, racism is something in which many people naively think just doesn't exist anymore, and although i'll agree that there is a lot more racial tolerance in the world today, it still doesn't change the fact that racism is still live and kicking in today's society. I myself have even been subject to racist abuse before when I was on holiday, and from personal experience I can tell you it is not a nice feeling being marginalized because of where you're from, or because of the colour of your skin.
However in a sport like football, the worlds favorite sport, racism shouldn't at all be tolerated as I feel it sets a bad example for the younger generation. Look at it this way, if a child from a young age see's people of all races collectively playing a sport together they're much more likely to adopt the sort of mentality that supports and lives all races due to their love for football. From this we can then say that football doesn't only provide entertainment, it can also provide education due to its massive influence on the lives of so many people. Nevertheless, racism in football is kind of like a stubborn spot that just won't go away, which begs the question, will it ever?
I mean cast your minds back a few years ago when England came up against Spain in a friendly match, in which many of the black English players were subject to monkey whistles from the Spanish fans, I was only young at the time but was still very confused and sickened as to why people would act in such a manner. Another example of this can be seen through Italian bad boy Mario Balotelli, who until recently, was disliked by Italian fans not only because of his attitude, but also because of the fact he was a black Italian which for some reason shocked many Italians. Now whilst England is way more racially tolerant compared to places like Spain, Italy and Russia, we have to take it into consideration that football is a worldwide sport and so although racism doesn't affect the English game as much as it does other countries, we still need to realize that if it is affecting one league, then it is affecting all of them.
This is the reason why I was so happy to see the world cup in South Africa last year, I feel it represented what the majority of people want football to reflect now. That being racial tolerance, equality, unity and for us all to embrace our differences through the sport that we love, and damn do I love football.
Jazzy's Verdict: Will it ever stop? The simple answer to that is no because I don't believe racism can be eradicated from the minds of everyone, and for some people racial hate is rooted so deep inside of them that they find it difficult to ever change. However, I feel that whilst we as a society and football as a beautiful game moves on and improves, racial equality not only football but in society also will, and although their is still some ignorant enough to hate because of our differences, I know there are much more willing to love to embrace it, and all through the game I love called football.
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