It’s thoroughly depressing that we are seeing racist incidents in football on an almost daily basis this season. You can blame the clubs and leagues for not doing enough to combat the issue, or even the senior politicians in certain countries who incite hatred, but something has to change.
It’s also not an issue that one single club can be expected to resolve. This needs a united effort with everybody showing they will not stand for it. There were allegations of an incident in the Roma vs Sampdoria game today.
The response from the clubs has been so different to some of the recent denial or blame shifting we’ve seen in recent incidents. The Bulgaria manager denying all knowledge of hearing anything was particularly shameful.
READ MORE: Football “fans” disgrace themselves yet again as Arsenal star subjected to horrific online abuse
At least Roma have come straight out and vowed to do something about the issue:
AS Roma would like to apologise to Ronaldo Vieira for the racist boos he was subjected to. Roma does not tolerate racism of any kind and the club will support the authorities in identifying and subsequently banning any individuals found guilty of racially abusing the midfielder.
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) October 20, 2019
One of the saddest things about this is that the Roma response should be a fairly standard response to this kind of thing. It’s a damning indictment that a club apologising and threatening to ban those involved is seen as a positive thing just now.
Sampdoria also showed some class by displaying a united message:
We are united in saying no to racism. #NoRoomForRacism https://t.co/MUWW018lFp
— Sampdoria English (@sampdoria_en) October 20, 2019
Hopefully this can now be the standard for all clubs to follow. Once fans are banned and arrested this kind of thing will stop happening. The people doing it are morons and cowards who think they can hide in a crowd, it’s time to show it will not be tolerated by anyone at any level.