FIFA president's gaffe on racism and matters arising KAYODE KETEFE This certainly is not the best of times for the President of the world football governing body, federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Joseph Blatter. His organisation is just slowly shaking off the smears of the scandalous allegation of bribery and corruption which rocked the soccer house to its foundation over award of hosting rights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. While FIFA could not be said to have emerged unscathed from the mess, Blatter recently became a butt of severe criticisms over his comments that racism is not a problem in the game of football and that insults hurled on players on the pitch can be redressed by a handshake at the final whistle. Amidst calls in some quarters for his resignation, Blatter has tendered apology but insisted he would not resign. As the President of FIFA which governs the most popular sport in the world, Blatter is the symbol of football royalty; he ought, therefore, to be above impulsive faux pas capable of giving unnecessary offence and assaulting the sensibilities of soccer stakeholders. Unfortunately, Blatter seems to have developed the hunger for courting controversy through careless remarks. It was the same Blatter who, upon being asked by journalists to give a tip on how women football could be improved, said To boost interest in the women games, let them (female footballers) wear tighter shorts and low-cut shrits That remark elicited the outrage of not only the gender activists but also all androgynous-minded people who construed it to be downright sexist. As this writer had one said, anybody who is acquainted with the principles of sport sociology would readily agree that politics and racism are an intractable recurrent decimal in sports. Thus, in spite of Blatter statement, racism does not only exist on the pitch, it has continued to erode the pleasure of the beautiful game. To mention just a few, in October 2000, Arsenal playmaker, Patrick Vieira, accused Lazio Sinisa Mihajlovic of racial abuse during a 1-1 draw in the Champions League at the Stadio Olimpico. He accused Mihajlovic, of calling him a "f***ing black monkey." The UEFA banned Mihajlovic for two matches. In October 2004, Spain manager, Luis Aragone, was caught on camera calling Thiery Henry a Black shit the Spanish Football Federation fined Aragone £2,060. In November 2004, the talented English footballers, Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips were taunted with the monkey chants by Spanish Fans at Bernabeu stadium in Madrid when Spain edged England by 1-0. FIFA fined Spain £44,750. Similarly, in September 2010, the Bulgaria fans subjected the English trio of Ashley Young, Ashley Cole and Theo Walcott to racial taunts in Sofia, Bulgaria during a qualifier for Euro 2012 which England won 3-0. EUFA fined Bulgaria £34,000. It seems strange that a man of Blatter calibre would have the gut to say that racism does not exist on football pitch. The problem of racism in football is real, damning and ought not to be triavialised. From Nigeria perspective, when the Nduka Ngbade led a team of youngsters (then known as Baby Eagles) to a maiden U-16 World Cup triumph in China in 1985, the competition, then being sponsored by Kodak, was known as Kodak/FIFA U-16 World Tournament. Immediately the unexpected happened as Nigerian won the inaugural edition, Kodak withdrew its sponsorship. Reason? Nigeria was not considered as a heavy consumer of Kodak products and the sponsors reckoned it a loss for anoutsider black nation like Nigeria to emerge beneficiaries of its sponsor deal. But two years later in Canada, when the competition was being sponsored by another multinational giant, JVC, Nigerian lads, called Golden Eaglets then, still went the all way to the final, leaving in their trails as casualties countries like Boliva, Australia and Italy. Nigeria last opponents were the defunct USSR. Within the first few minutes, Russia had scored! Nigerian fighting spirit came to the fore and Philip Osondu leveled the score. Then, after intense ding-dong affair, Oladimeji Lawal collected the ball, dribbled past three opponents into the USSR goalmouth and was just about to unleash a rocket into the Russians net when the Brazilian Referee, Jose Ramiz Wright, blew his whistle to stop the move. Nobody has been able to explain why the referee took that decision till today, what everybody however knows is that Nigeria lost that cup as the USSR went ahead to win through penalty shootouts. A similar scenario occurred in 2005 during the final match of the FIFA U-20 World Championship in Holland. While it may be difficult to prove racism intentions on the grounds of controversial decisions of referees, racial comments made by players and fans are easy to discern and remove platform off the feet of those denying it. |
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