Did anyone see the special segment on ESPN Sportcenter today and yesterday about racism in Soccer?? That was nuts! It unbelievable that people are allowed to act like that during a match! And also that others in the stadium let them do it!

I'm trying to find a link to the story for those of you who missed it, but they had clips of people throwing Bananas onto the field to taunt the black players. They would hold up Nazi banners and chant references about them working for "bananas and peanuts". Once segment on the Coach of the French National team making racist remarks about Thierry Henry (but caught on film), basically calling him a "black ******" and stuff. They even had a clip of Paolo Di Canio giving the Nazi Salute while ON the field.

WOW! When I find the story I'll post it...

I don't understand why some people are so racist. I love everyone!

That's so mean!!
If they are racist, they should keep it to themselves!!

Don't worry guys, racist fans this World Cup will think twice before chanting racist comments.

Here is why - http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=361998&cc=5901

/\ Yea they are going to deduct point from teams who have fans that are chanting racist stuff...

ESPN was saying today that some fans may be moved to chant racist things against their own players in order to have points deducted from the opposing team.

FIFA wouldnt put a rule out like that without guidelines, or everyfan would cheat the system.
Bearing in mind i loathe soccer, ive always hated the attitude of the fans and sometimes the players. Maybe elimination from competitions is the better way to go. Any hardcore soccer fan worth his salt will button it knowing his own club, his favourite team, will suffer because of his mouth. If he doesnt, other fans will and beat the crap out of him. The circle is complete.

Wasn't it the Spanish National team coach that said that to Jose Reyes about Thierry Henry?

Let's hope they won't breed.

I agree, everyone is entitled to be racist, as long as they keep it to themselves and do not exert misery on other people.

I am not saying racism is right by the way. I think football in general is a great way to give a negative perspective to racism, like with all the "kick racism out of football" promotions which are happening more and more often.

i thought they had a rule like that for a long time. sounds like a good idea. but man i didn't think it was as serious as this. i mean players giving the nazi salute while on the field???? wtf???

Umm I'm not sure...You would probably know better than me. This is the first year I've followed the sport, so I can't remember what team they said it was.

Yes, it was. He shouted something like "Don't fear the black / You're better than the ****ty black" (lit).

Yea, I think Spain is one of if not the area with the most problems.


It used to be a problem in the UK but has very much died down, in fact I've been to a lot of matches over 10 years or so and never heard anything racist. There is quite a bit movement in the UK with regards to getting racism out of football too. http://www.kickitout.org/

Althought I believe racism to be wrong, I find it unfair that a team must be punished for it. what are the players supposed to do? Go fight with a large number of neo-nazis?
They should just have police at the stadium kick these people out.

It all started because of racist comments by Yugoslavian fans towards Heskey in the U-21 championship 6 years ago.

What is very wierd is Henry is one of the best strikers in the game today, and yet his own team's fans act racist toward him, I mean, he's helping them win. Very good segment.

i think that you have this slightly wrong. Henry plays for arsenal and racism isn't a problem there.

The main problems are currently focussed around eastern europe, racism is almost encouraged at football matches, particularly against foreign opponents. It has appeared in a very ugly way in spain in recent times, starting with the national team coach and also including an international match vs england.

Until the problem is tackled by all Football Associations with clubs as well as managers severely punished it will continue unabaited.

I saw a documentary on this a while back, and was absolutely shocked at what I saw. I guess up until that point, I had only thought about racism as it is in the States, I never really thought about modern-day racism in Europe

There was and maybe a big problem in the dutch national team with rait too. I remember in USA 94, the black and white players never really interacted or mixed well.........

In ireland we can be abit too. Although we've been known to draft lots of black players from england with an irish granny.....were happy to have'em!!

Yes rasism is wrong but the FA's can't get rid of it out of football, the problems lays at the countries themselfs and how they are run.

You still get a few nasty coments from fans now and then in a match, When i was at Pompey VS Blackburn some pompey fans were shouting RAPIST to Paul Dickov, It was sort of unfair as it was a harsh chant. The normal chants like your rubbish or little ryhmes don't bother players to much as they are use to them

@spa2k

I don't mean Arsenal, I know he plays for Arsenal, I've seen him play quite a few times when I went to England, but I'm talking about his current situation with his Olympic Team in Spain. I can't believe he takes that crap from the coach. And as I was saying, he's a great player, yet even his damn coach is being racist considering the fact he has Henry, one of the best strikers in the world and maybe the best on the team. Just seems ridiculous that a man who has been coaching soccer for a long time and has seen talent come and go can't let the color of his skin go. He doesn't even care how good he is, except for the fact it's making him money if they win in the WC.

nevermind...

okay, i get you now....bit of crossed wires there.

As far as i am aware and as already mentioned i thought that it was the spanish coach that made the remarks to Jose Reyes......however it makes no difference who made the remarks and who about and who to. They should not have been made and it is just plain wrong.

what if you know you are out of the cup and you are a racist person going to a match anyways, then you will deliberatly cause trouble and the other team will retaliate and have points deducted

/\ I just heard on ESPN radio yesterday that the point deductions don't apply to fans...just to players/coaches making racist gestures or comments on the field. Fans can only be jailed or tossed out.

Thats me not me sticking a quid on Spain for the 4th consecutive world cup.

Ohh just players and coaching staff.

Spain would be out otherwise.


Just read above also.

Arsenal (the team I have followed for 30 years) do not tolerate racism.

Even if fans call Spurs fans what Spurs fans call themselves 'Yiddo' then they will be ejected and banned for life if caught.

Henry as my memory serves was a conversation piece with the Spanish coach calling Henry a 'you know what beginning with N', with Antonio Reyes.

its stupid, why why does there have to be racists, just like rapists and the rest of it then again, would seem pointless and meaningless to an extent if the world was perfect

Soccer this, Soccer god damn that.

There is racism in every sport on this damned planet. If not for the world cup, they woulda been complaining about it in NFL or some other sport.

It happens, its part of life, if people arn't used to racism, then maybe they should stick inside. Nothing will EVER stop it.

^ Good idea, so let's not do anything about it!

Haha, yeah.. *cough*

i have to agree tahtthere is racism in every sport on this planet. but also i will have to say that there is more racism in soccer....

lets face it, humans dont like each other. one thing that will solve 50% of all the world's problems is getting rid of racism. i only pray for it, and act non-racistly.

I agree its truly unbelievable that this sort of practice can go on. Racism is despicable full stop.

One point though, Paolo Di Canio was giving the Fascist Salute because he is Italian > he believes in the Duce's fascism. Hitler took his salute from Mussolini in the mid to late 20's.

Italian Fascists and German Nazi's are actually very different, and although some of their values are/were not democracy sound (hint: its fascism) they are/were not the Nazi's, and Di Canio shouldn't be treated like one, however if he is stupid enough to flaunt his far right opinions on the international football stage then maybe people should criticize him

its not realy mean its F up, racist people dont know its wrong their blind.
like 4 years ago i saw a thing on abc about that **it they were make monkey sounds.i was thinking thats europe for you, i dont mean anything.


i dont think racism is the only thing and most poeple in the world dont care about it other hate. but hate for people any reason besides their a holes or other reasons like that is crazy.

In Italy and spain they have been known to thro bananas onto the pitch at black players.
1 player from africa picked up the ball during a game and refused to play after the "monkey sounds", alot of times these idiots making the sounds are chating at their OWN teams players.

They are A-holes as far as im concerned. Just dog ignorant.

Good thing FIFA is cracking down on racism with heavy penalties.

I thought that the police of Germany said they would arrest anyone who did anything Nazi-related?

They did so after the Poland - Germany game.

every school in the world needs to address this issue. i know that many schools in the US do so, and it helps, but not all schools do it... and im talking about private schools as well.

If anything racist was said at a sports event in america, i can bet you that the person who said it would get their ass kicked, then have cops take them away. I know for a fact that if i heard someone say something anything close to racist at a game i would go crazy, i wouldnt be able to help myself for going at that person, and i wouldnt be the only person.



No you are wrong, their is no racism in the NFL, maybe someone will say something when they are at home, but I am 100% sure you would never see that in an NFL, NBA, or MLB game.

Your exactly right...maybe some redneck at home yells racist crap at the TV. But you will never never never hear something racist in a stadium. If someone does say it then basically they get their asses kicked by other fans and hauled of to jail by the cops.

I was talking about soccer scores to someone yesterday, and while doing so, I shortened the word "Japan" to "Jap" because I was typing on my PDA's on screen keyboard.

I was then informed that "Jap" is a racist slur, and I should use "Jp" to talk about Japan. I claimed that "Jap" does the job better, especially since it was the first time that had mentioned the team and that I meant nothing racist about it. I also mentioned that I intend to keep using the word "Jap" as an abbreviation of the word "Japan". I was labeled a racist and a slight argument broke out and it basically ended when I pretty much told him to go *** himself and I ignored him for the rest of the time because I thought he was being a high and mighty prick.

Do you think that getting down to minor details like that is taking this anti racism stuff too far? I am aware that Jap can be used in a racist context, but in this instance I meant nothing by it, I was simply saving myself 2 taps on my PDA's screen. I do refer to Japanese people as Jap's a fair bit of the time, but only to people I know and only in a situation where it's usage won't hurt somebodies feelings.

Football is an international sport, it's going to happen. It's not the sport, the fans or the players that cause major problems, its that clubs travel to all parts of the world to play. International events like the world cup are always going to attract certain mind sets.


Don't you think thats quite a xenophobic view to take wether you 'mean' something or not?


Americans playing in American teams in an American league. Are we seeing the pattern yet?


If it was a single guy standing in the crowd then we wouldnt get to the point where people are making documentaries about it.


Henry is French and I don't think France even have an Olympic football team. Most European countries don't bother and if they do it's mainly semi professional players.

I can't see why ESPN would run a 'soccer' special anyway, its like Match of the Day going to Nascar or something...

I'm pretty sure you didnt quite understand what we were saying.

What does that matter? Its not their nationality that causes racism, but the color of their skin. Soccer teams have fans throwing bananas at players and huge groups chanting racial slurs. The point was that something like that won't happen at an American sporting event.



That was my whole point...American sporting events won't ever have groups of people throwing bananas onto the field, chanting slurs, and holding up racist banners. People here wouldn't stand for it in such a public setting.



Ummm...because the World Cup was getting ready to start and they were discussing the "Beautiful Game" and the pros and cons of the sport.

True.

But the feelings are stil there.

I've been following football massively in the UK (as in being a season ticket holder and a neutral at many other games) for the past 10 years and I can count the number of racist incidents I have seen on one hand and still have at least a finger spare to poke stupid hippies who go mental about racism in the eye. The incidents I have seen would only be classed as racist by the jumped up politcally correct upperclass dimwits who ban you from taking cameras to your kids sports days, because obviously everyone is a peadophile these days too.

And lets get it right, its football. Hearing the word soccer has the same effect on me as kryptonite has on superman.

Before you say it, body armoured egg throwing is not football. Firstly an egg isn't a ball, and football implies the use of the foot, not your hands!




As for the olympics, I'd assume euro teams don't enter football teams because the standard is too low compaired to what you can watch week in week out anywhere in europe. Having said that, apparently for the 2012 in London, the UK is entering a one off football team just for the laugh.

Scrapped im told..

Maybe for some people? I see your point...people who are ractists will just do it behind closed doors. I don't really know alot of people who are racist though. Most people I know really just don't care. At least not enough to say anything about it.



Nope...it's soccer here. Don't blame us...you guys made the word up

DreAming in DigITal, the point I'm making which you seem so eager to ignore is that you don't get these problems when football is played in it's usual setting. The problem mainly stems from a TINY minority of 'fans' who are out to cause trouble.

They do not represent the feeling of football fans, football teams or the countries they're from.


Whats to stop a group of neo-nazis visiting a sporting event and causing trouble? They're going to stay away from large, organized and policed games but there is nothing to stop them appearing at smaller games as is seen in eastern europe for example.


Racism isnt football's fault.

I'm not eager to ignore anything. I'm not trying to bash soccer either. I love watching it. I think we can all agree that the majority of soccer fans aren't racist. I was under the assumption that it is a tiny minority. But these games aren't being played out of their usual setting. The clips come from leagues in eastern Europe, Spain, Portugal, etc...

And it must be somewhat out of hand when you have major soccer stars teaming up with Nike to make a commercial about equality...

Check out the page for more information....
Commercial...This is the one that has been aired in Europe.




Nobody said it was soccers fault...It was just part of the discussion on Sportscenter. I don't know if your familiar with ESPN or not but they do stories like this all the time about all sorts of sports. The point is to help make some changes (in terms of the fans)...not bash soccer.



**I found the ESPN clip that aired which lead to me posting this thread....check it out here