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Doberman23
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Doberman23
Post Number: 381
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 09:42 am: | 
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yeah i know i could have just made a link ...but whateva...just read it. it's still shorter than 90% of chrishayden's posts.
Soccer slide-tackles racism
FIFA to send out antiracism ambassadors, including Pelé.
By Bill Faries | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
BUENOS AIRES – Fans wave swastikas, coaches denigrate black players, and teams are forced to play before empty stadiums because of unruly crowds.
A year before soccer's World Cup is due to kick off in Germany, concerns are growing that Pelé's "beautiful game" is being marred by racism. As a result, soccer authorities, athletes, and sponsors in South America, Europe, and Asia are looking for ways to improve crowd and player behavior before the sport's reputation is permanently damaged.
Soccer officials have long kept their eye on the sport's worst "hooligans" - disruptive fans who often drink heavily and try to incite violence before, during, and after matches. During the 2002 World Cup, the host nations, Korea and Japan, sent dozens of known troublemakers back to their home countries. Now officials are focusing on acts of racism.
Here in South America, the issue received renewed attention last month when Leandro Desabato, an Argentine defender with the Quilmes club team, was detained by Brazilian police after making derogatory remarks toward the player known as Grafite, a black Brazilian player.
Less than a week later, fans watching a club match in the city of Cordoba, Argentina, were seen waving flags with swastikas on them. Argentina has a large Jewish population.
But according to antiracism activists, recent events go beyond a handful of unruly and intoxicated fans.
"Hooligans and racism have traditionally always been linked," says Leon Mann of Kick It Out, a British organization dedicated to eliminating racism in soccer. "But it would be naive to assume that this is a problem caused exclusively by skinhead hooligans. [These days], racist chants can be heard by a range of different supporters - young, old, rich and poor."
Kick It Out is part of a network of nine organizations with contacts in 35 countries calling itself Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE). Funded in part by national soccer organizations and players' associations, FARE is trying to raise awareness and to change attitudes.
Among antiracism activists, Spain, Italy, and Eastern Europe are often singled out as the worst bastions of racist crowd behavior. They cite, for example:
• Spain's national coach, Luis Aragonés, was recently heard using a racial epithet during a World Cup qualifier against Belgium. Spain's soccer federation fined Mr. Aragonés 3,000 euros ($3,850).
• In November, black English players were mocked with racist chants by fans during a match with Spain, prompting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to protest the treatment to Spanish officials.
• In the Netherlands, anti-Semitic chants by a group of Dutch fans against referee Rene Temmick led to the cancellation of a game in progress between club teams PSV Eindhoven and Den Haag.
FIFA, soccer's international governing body, condemns these and other incidents. In 2001, the organization began to require soccer organizers to refuse admission to fans who take part in racist acts or violence, and ordered coaches and clubs to "impose effective punishment" on players who indulge in racist behavior.
More recently, FIFA announced plans to create a group of antiracism "ambassadors." A FIFA spokesman said that the group's activities are still being defined but that they will be led by Thierry Henry, a black player on France's victorious 1998 World Cup team and one of Europe's top soccer stars. He will likely be joined by Pelé, the former Brazilian star.
Mr. Henry, currently playing for Britain's Arsenal team, has criticized the fine against Aragonés as "laughable" and helped persuade his sponsor, Nike, to undertake an awareness campaign dubbed "Stand Up, Speak Out" in Europe.
In addition to television ads featuring European soccer stars, the campaign has created a black and white interlocking wristband which it is selling through European sports retailers. The money raised will be distributed by an independent foundation to support anti-racism projects and initiatives.
Europe's soccer federation, UEFA, has also gotten involved, fining teams in Britain, the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, and Hungary for racism-related issues in recent years. The league has even forced some teams to play games in empty stadiums as punishment for racist crowd behavior. Earlier this year, the federation sponsored a conference in Slovakia to examine discrimination against Roma, or gypsies, in Eastern Europe.
Can soccer contribute to solving a much more general problem in a society?" asks William Gaillard, a spokesman for UEFA. "That's the question we're asking ourselves. We don't know the answer, but we're trying."
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2286
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 12:07 pm: |
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Soccer--is that a sport? |
Kenology
Regular Poster
Username: Kenology
Post Number: 39
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 01:42 pm: |
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^ LOL!
The rest of the world certainly would say so. |
Abdi85
Veteran Poster
Username: Abdi85
Post Number: 54
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 06:12 pm: |
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Racism in soccer is worse than this article seems to point out. I remeber watching a documentary on it a few months ago where the black players, I think it was England v.s France, had bananas thrown at them, spit at and the crowd of thousands started to holler monkey sounds. It was pretty disturbing. Not to mention that some of the black players were attacked after the game along with thier families. |
Jackie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Jackie
Post Number: 194
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 06:20 pm: |
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Abdi I saw that on the news. One of the players also did the Heil Hitler salute to his many many fans in the audience that were also holding up Nazi symbols. |
Anunaki3600
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Anunaki3600
Post Number: 172
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 03:42 am: |
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Soccer is a sport played by young girls in the USA. The rest of the world plays FOOTBALL. Don't mix these two up. LOL...HEE Hee heeee. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2292
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 11:34 am: |
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This same crap happens here in the U.S. in all sports to black players.
What are you going to do? The spectators are all half drunken retards who have come to forget the frustrations of their meaningless lives. In addition they have sometimes wagered the rent money on the games. In addition they are trying to psych the players from the other side out and try to get them out of their game. People have thrown insults, batteries, bottles and tried to run onfield and attack other players.
Soccer (or futbol or whaterver those sissies call it)has long been a venue for violence--people have been killed in the stands at games. Referees have been shot on the field. Getting called racial epithets? Need to thank God that's all those hooligans are doing.
Ask Barry Bonds what he is going through now. Ask Hank Aaron what he went through. All of them.
There ain't going to be anything they can do about it other than take it out on their opponents (what Jim Brown used to do) or quit. |
Doberman23
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Doberman23
Post Number: 392
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 12:58 am: |
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chris: i bet you if you where forced to take a kick in the nuts by an athlete you wouldn't pick a soccer player! (or a field goal kicker either) |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2295
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 12:00 pm: |
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None of those shrimps can kick that high. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 217
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 04:59 pm: |
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"Racism in soccer is worse than this article seems to point out. I remember watching a documentary on it a few months ago where the black players, I think it was England vs. France, had bananas thrown at them, spit at and the crowd of thousands started to holler monkey sounds. It was pretty disturbing. Not to mention that some of the black players were attacked after the game along with thier families."
There was a program shown on HBO’s “Real Sports” by Bryant Gumble a while ago about this very subject. I was surprised to see the level of racist ignorance and stupidity by the various Europeans. On Friday June 9th in Germany, the single most-watched sports event in the world began “the soccer World Cup”. Unlike America’s baseball's "World Series," the World Cup actually involves teams and fans from all over the world playing the world's most popular sport, “soccer” (or futbol as it's known in much of the world).
Although not as popular in the US, soccer is the worlds most popular and watched sport. Despite the attention focused on drunkenness and hooliganism among European soccer fans, overt racism has become a growing and persistent problem in the past 15 years. Players of color from Africa, South America and the U.S have increasingly been hired by European soccer clubs. Racist white soccer fans in Europe make monkey sounds and throw bananas at black players (I couldn’t believe it when I saw the actual film clips of black players being pelted). This is something that now happens with regularly in some European stadiums.
Fans in Spain, France, Belgium and in Eastern European countries have been the worst offenders. And the FIFA, the world soccer organization, has done little to address the overt menacing racism of the fans. The FIFA would do well to threaten serious sanctions against players and coaches who exhibit racism, and to deduct tournament points from teams whose fans engage in this pathetic racist behavior during the World Cup. But it’s obvious the FIFA doesn't want to do what I think would put this behavior in check: cancel games when disruptive and vicious racist behavior is exhibited by fans. If these incidents happen during a game, every player should have to leave the field and the game should be cancelled. Period!
What I personally find offensive is the fact that black players are expected to show that they are morally superior by continuing to play despite these inexcusable racist assaults (just like the American blacks during the civil rights protesters of the 1960’s). I guess the FIFA believes black players should behave like Jackie Robinson did when he integrated major league baseball in 1947. Absorb the taunting, spitting, banana’s, racist signs, hollering and physical assaults by racist whites and remain humble and passive.
For the most part, white players support their black teammates sometimes standing with them as racist assaults rain down from the stands and encourage the black players to ignore the inexcusable abuse. But they don't do what I think real teammates would do: leave the field in solidarity with the intended victim -the black players. If the fans want to indulge in orchestrated racist taunting and assaults, done deal. Game over!
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2308
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 01:22 pm: |
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Ntfs--
And if you leave you forfeit the match. And if you forfeit enough matches you ain't got no job.
Jeez! It's a sport not a religious or political ceremony. They are going to do something the players don't like--talk about their mothers, curse them, hold up humiliating signs.
The racism is another tactic. If the players don't like it they should quit.
This is why I don't go to Pro wrestling matches. The racial epithets and names (and assaults and fights) are flying thick.
The way to silence them is to stomp the hell out of their team on the field. |
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