While I was driving home tonight listening to Talk Sport, I heard Adrian Durham talking about the UEFA's 3 match stadium ban on Atletico Madrid for racist chants aimed at black Marseille players.
Oh good, I thought, it's important that an anti-racist stance is promoted as often as possible.
Then I did a double take.
Adrian Durham said "What you have to understand is Spain is several years behind us. I don't believe the fans knew what they were saying was racist"
What???!!!!
Do you know - sometimes even I am lost for words!
8 comments:
I can almost believe that...whereas here racism has been made into a massive totally unacceptable taboo over there it just isn't.
They are absolutely pathetic over there, they don't even really see it as a problem.
The closest analogy is the way 30 years ago drink driving used to be frowned upon but not villified. Now it is totally beyond the pale.
Look at what the Spanish basketball team did before jetting off to the Olympics :
http://garstontowers.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-am-supporting-anyone-who-is-playing.html
As Stuey said, the Spanish fans are just as big a bunch of children as you could wish not to get stuck with.
Racial sensitivity in Spain might also not be as big an issue as it is in this country. I don't know what the non-white population is in Spain. Without a notable presence and a government around to tell you how to behave around them, how will you know what's racist?
Never mind drink driving, look at our TV programs 30 years ago. Bernard Manning, Stan Boardman, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Till Death Us Do Part... They're not even repeated these days, let alone have modern-day versions.
Racism = bad. Over-reaction also = bad. And it's a damned fine line between the two.
Having said all that, I approve of the punishment if it's the only way to teach clubs to teach fans (although I doubt it'll work in honesty), but it's a kick in the teeth for *other* fans - such as Liverpool who've already paid for and organised travel and hotels for their trip there.
Surely due to the logistics, this match could have been made exempt from the ban? Or the ban could have been brought in, say, 3 weeks hence rather than immediately so as not to inconvenience non-Madrid/Spanish fans who wouldn't have been involved in the first place?
No, wait. We're talking about a football authority. Fans are the lowest of the low in their estimation.
Down there with the racists.
According to Wikipedia, there were 4.3 million "foreign residents" in Spain, or 11% of the population. In the UK, that figure is 8.1%.
Of that, 500,000 were Moroccan.
Cheers, Andy - feel free to reply on my blog as well as I've x-posted my comment on there.
Bear in mind "foreign" residents would also include British ex-pats and the like. Then there's the fact that Spain is approximately twice the area of Britain and that "ethnic" populations tend to group together, it's fair to say that the chances of a Spanish person in Spain interacting with a "person of colour" are less than a Briton in the UK?
Again, not that I'm condoning racism - just playing devil's Advocaat.
You have to remember it was TalkSport . Not a big surprise.
Notwithstanding the fact that "ethnics" tend to congregate in large groups in the UK as well (25% of Londoners are non-white, versus 1.3% in Belfast), you're probably right. Plus of course Spain was a Fascist dictatorship until the 1970s, so it's probably working its way through a few things.
still makes my shoulder shudder when I see things like what Stuey linked to.
All well made comments IMHO.
Welcome almostwitty.com
Mosher - welcome back
Stuey - hello again
Jim - indeed. Bless 'em!
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