Ten of the most shameful incidents in football’s recent past.
Racism is unfortunately still massively prevalent in football. Whether it be in the form of visible abuse on the pitch, to institutional problems in the boardroom, the notion that racism is no longer an issue in football is simply a fallacy.
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(Video) Chelsea fans racism – Blues supporters kick a black man off a Paris Metro
(Video) West Ham fans sing anti-semitic chants
(Video) Racism at Feyenoord vs Roma
Oguchi Onyewu vs Jelle Van Damme
The big American defender had a run in with the Belgian striker in 2009 when he was plying his trade with Standard Liege. According to Onyewu, who has also been physically attacked by racist fans in Jupiler League, claimed that Van Damme called him a ‘dirty ape’ during a championship game between Standard and Anderlecht.
Van Damme attempted to counter by claiming the USMNT star had called him a ‘dirty Flemish’ first. Two weeks later Onyewu sued Van Damme in an attempt to highlight the case.
John Terry vs Anton Ferdinand
During a game between Chelsea and QPR in 2011 Ferdinand claimed that Terry had called him a “f*****g black c***”.
The investigation was swift, and came down harsh on Terry who was found guilty and subsequently stripped of the England captaincy, fined £220,000 and handed a four-match ban. Hardly anyone’s favourite player, Terry’s reputation has never quite recovered despite hitting a rich vein of form in his twilight years.
Lokomotiv Moscow fans vs Peter Odemwingie
In 2010, Lokomotiv Moscow striker Peter Odemwingie left the club to join Premier League minnows West Bromwich Albion. Despite being Soviet born, the Nigerian international was still abused by fans glad to see the back of him, which they displayed with a banner saying “Thanks West Brom” with a picture of a crudely drawn banana in the middle.
Kevin Prince Boateng vs Pro Patria fans
Whilst with Milan in 2013, the KPB took part in a friendly game with the Lega Pro 2 side during the Italian winter break. However, midway through the second half, the game proved to be anything but friendly as the Ghanaian orchestrated a walk off due to continued racist abuse from a section of the home side’s support.
Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Philips vs Spain fans
During a 2004 friendly between England and Spain, the Spanish support were particularly keen on abusing black players Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Philips. Audible monkey chants could be heard whenever the pair touched the ball, but instead of stopping the game the referee let things progress into a bad tempered affair.
Luis Aragones vs Thierry Henry
Just before that friendly in Madrid, then national team coach Luis Aragones attempted an ill-advised piece of advice to motivate Arsenal youngster Jose Antonio Reyes by taking a massively racist swipe at Thierry Henry.
“Demuestra que eres mejor que ese negro de mierda”, he said, which translated as “Show that you’re better than that black s***”.
Ron Atkinson vs Marcel Desailly
At one time ‘Big Ron’ had done so much for emerging black players in the racist backdrop of the 1970s, but he quickly undid all that good work with a poor choice of words regarding Chelsea stopper Marcel Desailly. The comments hadn’t been picked up by viewers in the UK, but fans in the middle east heard it loud and clear as it leaked its way back home.
Luis Suarez vs Patrice Evra
A heated affair between rivals Liverpool and Man United in 2011 was exasperated even further by Patrice Evra accusing striker Luis Suarez of racially abusing him. Suarez had apparently called Evra “negrito”, which is said to be a term of endearment in South America – but he apparently didn’t realise the connotations of the word in Europe.
The Uruguayan was fined £40,000 and given an eight game ban, all whist his club launched an embarrassingly cringe worthy defence of him.
Paolo Di Canio’s Nazi salute
This doesn’t need much explaining. Di Canio scored against Roma, and flashed a very recognisable salute towards his own fans.
And he tried to claim he was simply waving at friends.
Malky Mackay’s racist texts
Cardiff owner Vincent Tan promised all would become clear as to why he relieved the Scot of his duties in 2013, but he was quickly dismissed.
However, in August 2014 he and assistant Ian Moody were exposed sending each other a series of racist/sexist/homophobic text messages to each other. This didn’t stop him getting a job with Wigan, though, and owner Dave Whelan even chimed in with some choice racist comments of his own. A dismissive statement from the LMA only served to highlight how much work there is still to be done to eradicate racism from the game entirely.