Racism in Football.

by M Kamil Tariq
I would start by stating Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion “For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction”. Although this law was proposed and used for a totally different purpose but we can apply this law in football, it fits on to football so nicely it seems that this law was developed for football.
Controversy has always been a part of the game, on more occasions it may be valid regarding the referees, lines men, players but on some rather berserk occasions regarding the grounds or the playing conditions, draws generated in club competitions, match outcomes.etc. Similarly another controversial yet sensitive topic is the existence of racism in football. Discrimination on the basis of skin color, race, nationality etc, still sadly exists in football today. Football is a sport and it’s just like the sky above us it’s the same for all whether he’s black, white or yellow. From what we see, we believe because the reality is not presented to us if it’s a normal person that we’re talking about, but if it’s an enthusiast that we’re talking about who looks into the game deeply then we’ll get to know that racism is still talking its toll.
Although there have been efforts by the ruling body FIFA but still it’s up to the fans to turn over a new leaf. The players put their differences aside when they are on the same field with players belonging to different races. The fans should follow the players in this matter also. Acts of racism are really embarrassing for the game and for the fans. Just to state some previous acts of racism, Michael Essien who plays for English club Chelsea and the Nigerian national team, was chanted as a monkey by some sections of the crowd, the same happened with Gerald Asamoah who’s also black. Similarly Samuel Etoo who plays for Italian club Inter Milan and the Cameroon National team when playing for FC Barcelona in Spain was hit by bananas when coming out of the locker rooms. Also acts of racism are performed by the players themselves, Paolo Di Canio who is an Italian footballer while playing for Italian club SS Lazio and also in his time at English club West ham was banned for a few matches and also fined for carrying out Nazi Salutes after scoring a goal. It’s ironic to see all this negativity in such a beautiful game.
This was the actions that were talking about, now the reaction to this action is the resulting violence that takes place. Acts of violence have been at an increase in recent times, mostly hostile crowds burst into brawls in the stadium stands, other than that fights outside the stadium also take place resulting in injuries and sometimes few deaths. Just recently in match between Manchester united of England and AS Roma of Italy a Roma fan was stabbed to death.
As I mentioned early it is irony that just a game can cause someone so much agony and can take lives away it is our responsibility to keep it a game and nothing more than that.