Of course this kind of abuse is totally unacceptable. However, the moron element in any crowd love to get a reaction. They love to feel that they've influenced a game, put a player off his game, etc. I can still remember when the chants were directed at Beckham about where his missus liked to take it! The more he got angry and gesticulated at those taunting him, the worse it got. My feeling is, that with the technology available today, every attempt should be made to identify those responsible, prosecute them, and ban them for life. It's simply not possible to go on abandoning games when this kind of thing happens. There are those idiots in any crowd who would try to do that, if they thought they would get away with it.
I admire KPB for doing what he did, racism should NOT be tolerated anywhere and the authorities really need to act on this, HOWEVER!!! I think players need to (as hard as I'm sure it is) try to ignore the idiots, for every idiot there's a thousand fans who'll chant your name with high praise. What I'd like to know is what happened to the fans who weren't chanting the obscene abuse? Were their tickets reimbursed? End of the day, the players need to realise that the majority of fans just enjoy and love watching the sport and don't need to shout obscenities of that nature, and while I've already said racism should not be tolerated and needs to be dealt with tough penalties, it's the well behaved fans that always seem to suffer because of the dickheads.
Yes, it's bad whichever way you look at it, however it would cause all sorts of problems doing that in a competitive match.
I agree with this point. Identify the culprits and punish them - don't make innocent fans suffer as well. Also, if players are going to walk off the pitch after suffering abuse from the crowd then it might lead to fans trying to influence games by deliberately abusing players. For example, if the home team was losing 3-0 then the home fans could start shouting abuse - rascist, homophobic or otherwise - to get the away team to walk off the pitch. Conversely, if the home team is winning 3-0 what is to stop the away team players from saying they heard abuse and walking off the pitch?
Action will be taken, rightly so. This does open the door for more abandoned games though. If a player is abused he reports it, he doesn't kick the ball at the fans and call the game over, he should have informed the officials and went from there. Police move into the section and start arresting folks. This opens the door to purposefully abusing players to get a game abandoned. It opens the door to players in general doing this for being abused. Being abused is what it is regardless of what the abuse is, racial cultural physical trait, it is all the same. Gay players if abused can surely call a game off then for being abused by fans. Ginger players? By the guys reaction to the abuse it would seem like he is truly pissed off with it as it's probably been going on for some time. Even if it was not racial this would wear you down over time and you'd snap
AC Milan 2 0 up in final of CL and the same player gets racially abused, do you think he'll call the game off? Not on his life. It was a pissy game, with a few local ignorant racist scumbags
I know what you're saying, even if your concerns are a bit overextended. Gingers aren't a race though and discriminating against them isn't against the law like racism and homophobia is.
seems like alot of people are worried about games being called off and the genuine fans missing out etc etc. however this is what it is going to take for the stupid people running the game to act on it properly..let the clubs get in a wrangle,let the innocent fans demand refunds..its obvious civilised ways dont work with anyone and the issue just gets brushed under the carpet. Let me see some racists get some chairs thrown in their heads..thats a good start...let the innocent fans use their energy for something useful.
I think that Boateng chose the perfect occasion to walk off. It acts as a warning now and UEFA have to pull their head out of their arse and do something. Nobody's been compromised, no major decisions have to be taken about the result and there's little to no controversy. I doubt he planned it that way, but it's the right time and place.
Sorry, I completely disagree with this. I am sure that you are using hyperbole to emphasise your argument but racists getting chairs thrown at their heads at a football match is the last thing that I would want to see happening and I would not regard innocent fans as "innocent" if they took part in this behaviour. Verbal racist abuse is vile, but it does not fracture anyone's skull.
ok aim for their arses with chairs then..plenty padding no doubt..and no not really using hyperbole having been at the end of racist taunts for many years of my life in the most unexpected scenarios. Last one being when i was at the train station in Blackburn and some scummy little arsehole walked past me and whispered 'your dead'..so i couldnt care less about them you heard about the straw that broke the camels back?
It is completely wrong that you have had to suffer racial abuse. Period. However, I still cannot agree with the sentiment that physical violence is ok in these cases. I think NowsufferinginSpain has the right solution for how clubs should deal with those who do it - along with reporting offenders to the police at the same time. Points deductions, bans from Europe etc for clubs who do not clean up the actions of their fans.
i agree violence is wrong and there was hyperbole without a doubt..however it is something that can disturb the mind when it happens to you. i suppose when these idiots are not brought to justice as im still to be convinced then some folk get a tad irate like myself...however i agree with you about violence.
The chair over the head was a foolish statement mate. A chair is a useless weapon. A chair leg, on the other hand, could do a lot of damage if used correctly, although on balance a life ban from all football stadiums is probably a more appropriate - though less satisfying - response to racist abuse.
I would be irate if the same thing happened to me - especially if those doing it did not get punished.
What makes racism ease, or for that matter appear, is a difficult question to answer. Romans and American Indians didn't, I believe, have any concept of race, just nation and tribe. They were right, of course. Race is an illusion, a popular fiction, as geneticists have proved. But classic Greeks and historic Europeans were intensely racist. In America racism reached its greatest depths, and now we're the greatest example of electing a member of an minority ethnic group to be our leader. I put it down to us having more experience with more different kinds of races than anyone else. It took us a long time, but experience is finally teaching us. I've felt the UK has always done relatively well with racism, tending consistently to be less racist than most at the time. In the case of Italy, Spain and Greece, I think you're seeing a typical reaction to societies experiencing a signficant influx of people of a different race for the first time. The yobs feel threatened by change and lash out like, well, I'd say like animals except animals would never dream of doing anything like that. Like subhumans. It changes when the kids of the subhumans feel sincerely disgusted by their parents. That's my two cents, anyway.
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