i’m a bit late, but the UK’s National Anti-Racism Week of Action ran from 17th October to 27th October. In commemmoration of the week (and especially after the treatment of Emile Heskey from particular spectators at that recent match), here’s some info.:
Kick It Out
Football Against Racism in Europe
Football Unites, Racism Divides
‘We have to tackle these problems at home before criticising Europe’]('We have to tackle these problems at home before criticising Europe' | UK news | The Guardian), Vivek Chaudhary (Chief sports correspondent), The Guardian, 19 October 2002
The monkey noises could be heard in the distance, and then the abuse started. But when he heard the words “f***ing coon”, for striker Colin Charles it was just too much to bear.
This was not Slovakia last Saturday or any other European nation where black British footballers have been abused over the past few weeks but Berkshire, on a cold, wet Sunday afternoon last December.
“I just turned around and hit him,” said Mr Charles referring to the defender who had been abusing him throughout the division three Reading Sunday league match. “I know I should have told the referee and walked away from it but when he called me a ‘coon’ I couldn’t take it any longer. I’d been putting up with the abuse from him for quite a while.”
Top black footballers will meet to consider Europe boycott, Vivek Chaudhary (Chief sports correspondent), The Guardian, 15 October 2002
Leading black footballers are to hold a meeting to consider a possible boycott on playing matches in Europe unless more action is taken to clamp down on racism in stadiums across the continent.
Following the weekend’s events in Bratislava, when England’s Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole were the victims of severe racist abuse, a number of leading black footballers have contacted Kick it Out - Britain’s leading anti-racism football organisation - to express their anger at what they say is inaction by the game’s governing authority to stamp out such behaviour.
Sir Herman Ouseley, chairman of Kick It Out, said yesterday that plans were being made to hold a meeting of leading black footballers in the next few weeks, to discuss action against the continuing racist abuse they face when playing on the continent.
Sir Herman said some black players, including the Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry, had already expressed support for a boycott. He said that unless Uefa, European football’s governing body, took firmer action, there would be a boycott by black footballers playing in Europe.
Sir Herman said: "Black players have had enough of putting up with racial abuse. They feel that not enough is being done and that not enough progress is being made to tackle racism on the continent.
"This is not about what happened over the weekend during England’s match against Slovakia. Many black players have been abused consistently every time they play in Europe.
FA should look closer to home, Denis Cambell, The Observer, 20 October 2002
Emile Heskey described the boos, chants and monkey noises from the home fans in Bratislava last Saturday night as the worst racially motivated abuse he had ever experienced. By way of contrast, the Liverpool forward explained, that sort of behaviour had all but disappeared from stadiums in England - a verdict endorsed by his England team-mate Sol Campbell.
Their comments reflected, and will strengthen, the widespread perception that English football is ‘clean’ of racism. Gone are the unenlightened days of the 1960s, '70s and '80s when bananas were thrown on the pitch, entire stands would make ‘ooh, ooh’ monkey noises and National Front newspapers would do a brisk trade outside grounds. The general view is that if racism is still a problem, it is a serious one only abroad, not here.
The Football Association are doing their best to reinforce that impression. In one of the most ill-advised ‘spinning’ manoeuvres in recent FA history, they even told the media that the trouble involving England fans inside the stadium in Slovakia was sparked by the home fans’ abuse of Heskey and Ashley Cole. The way the FA told it, all those socially aware young men in Burberry caps and Hackett tops took umbrage on the players’ behalf.
If only. Sadly, Heskey and Campbell are wrong, and so is everybody else who thinks racism at English football grounds is a thing of the past. Sadly, it took less than four minutes after the kick-off last Saturday for a hardcore of idiots in the England end to start calling Heskey a ‘nigger’ and a ‘black c***’.
Sadly, the cosy notion that racism has been ‘pretty much eradicated here’ is nothing more than a complacent, self-serving myth. Sadly, racism is still alive in English football and, criminally - in its literal sense - it almost always goes unpunished.
