Rio: Get Rid of Racism
I had written on resisting evils earlier. Rio Ferdinand has asked UEFA to stop the lip service and act. Racism was shown to Eto’o months ago and the South African team during their tour to Australia recently. There have been so so many incidents even if we chalk out only incidents from post January 2005. Wasn’t it only a year ago when Ashley Cole and Shuan Wright-Phillips were abused by Spanish supporters in a friendly in Madrid? It is time sport starts acting. Football excites as few sports can and it is in this excitement that inherent biases surface from the deep core.
Zidane is seen here with a T-shirt which calls to stamp out racism:
Racism is a crime. There is no place for it.
Update: FIFA has decided to take real actions to stamp out racism. Definitely a positive move.
Tags: Football, zinedine zidane.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:01 pm
I agree. Doesn’t matter what sport, or what the context. It should be eliminated.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Done by the spectators. Will it be that easy to eliminate? After all, spectators bring money and sponsorship to the game. Australia could throw out some of the spectators during the recent matches because they were only few in number. What would happen if almost the whole crowd turns like that (like the way English football fans turn out when they go on supporting their team on the continent)? The mass needs to be educated, I guess.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Chemosit: Good to see you around.
KL: This is exactly why I wrote regarding resisting evils linked on the post. As a game becomes bigger, the evils of society become bigger problems to tacke. Sport has to be strong and tacke issues which have no place - like racism.
You rightly ask if we can eliminate it. We cannot as racism is so deep rooted in the society. But at least we can make an attempt to decrease it as much as possible in the sporting arenas of the world. As you said, the mass needs to be educated, there has to be more awareness created.
April 20th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
[…] The key would be to impose severe penalties on players using the outstretched leg. A ban of 6 month at the least. The risks would thus increase tremendously and we would see a more cleaner football. FIFA should take this matter, not getting any where near the the spotlight the racism issue is getting, much more seriously before some one gets seriously injured. Tags: Alessandro Nesta, Ban, FIFA World Cup 2006, Outstretched Leg, Ronaldinho. […]