There are so many different opinions involved in football that almost everything tends to be open for debate. One thing doesn’t need to be debated – Unless you are a total moron, there is no place for racism in football or life.
There has been a lot of talk about how English players would react if there were any issues with racism during their game with Bulgaria on Monday night. The BBC reported that the English players were concerned after they received racist abuse from the Montenegro fans in an earlier qualifier.
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Bulgaria do have previous when it comes to racist behaviour from fans so it’s completely understandable why it has been a talking point.
That hasn’t stopped a furious Bulgaria manager hitting back at the English claims. Some of Krasimir Balakov’s comments have been commented on by The Mirror, and it’s clear he feels England should be focusing on sorting the racism in their own leagues before attacking others.
He said: “What I can say is that I don’t think we have a problem in the Bulgarian championship. We have a lot of players of different ethnicities and skin colour. I don’t think we have as a big a problem like, for example, England do.”
He went on to say: “In the Bulgarian championship we have not had such problems while there have been incidents in all levels of English football involving racism.”
Obviously any incidents in Bulgaria can’t be ignored, but he absolutely has a point when he talks about issues in English football.
We’ve seen issues at a Hartlepool game recently and there are regular reports of racism between fans or players, so it’s ultimately hypocritical for anybody in the English game to talk about how they will react in Bulgaria as if it’s not a problem that needs to be sorted at home too.
Let’s just hope for everyone’s sake that the game passes without incident and we see the authorities actually start to take proper action against any future racist incidents. Ground closures and bans are the only way to put an end to it.