The world of soccer just had another case where British fans disgraced themselves. White Chelsea supporters attending a game in Paris repeatedly blocked a black man from entering the Metro, shouting racist slurs at him and chanting “We’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we like it”. A bystander on the platform recorded the event and uploaded it and it went viral.
This has caused considerable disgust and a swift reaction from the Chelsea management and other fans and calls for swift action to identify and punish those who did it, with even the French president weighing in. After initially keeping a low profile, the 33-year old butt of the racist taunts has now spoken out about what happened, although he only wants his first name Souleymane published for fear of further attacks.
I am not that well informed about soccer but I was under the impression that there is a great deal of diversity in soccer teams, way more than in cricket, with players from all over the world playing in practically all the major club teams. I would think that Chelsea was no exception. Do these racist fans not cheer for a player of color on their own team?
Nine of the 24 players in Chelsea’s first team squad are African or with significant African ancestry, including long-serving stars John Obi Mikel and Didier Drogba.
I think a major part of it is the general reduction in individual intelligence that occurs in some groups situations. I know I did some stupid things in my youth that I knew were bad but was nevertheless impelled by the temporary stupidity of groupthink. You only need one person to start it and no one to have the presence of mind in the moment to say no, and it snowballs into an appalling display.
Is it possible that Chelsea see the players of African heritage as servants, so would have no issue being racist and cheering on their playing servants?
“Do these racist fans not cheer for a player of color on their own team?”
Do you think racist fans care about consistency?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaHbo-zJd4
Racism and fandom are strongly connected about everywhere in Europe.
Don’t expect civilized behaviour of British football fans. It is the traditional sport of the working class. Universities play rugby.
The management signs contracts with these players because of the success they’ll bring to their business in goals and thus market value. The racists discriminate them be cause of their skin colour. Don’t mistake one group for the other. There is no mystery here.
these aren’t “Chelsea fans” per se but a group of violent thugs who latched onto the Chelsea club in the ’70, and call themselves the Head Hunters.
They don’t wear anything that identifies themselves as Chelsea fans and travel independently from the legitimate fans, who will have joined official Chelsea travel packages (travel, match ticket , hotel).
Some may try to buy match tickets from touts but the real reason for travelling is to meet up and fight with PSGs own group of “ultras” to prove dominance.
Football fans (and I don’t really count myself as one) have an ambivalent relationships to the these violent groups know as “firms” who are attached to their clubs. They realize that they are an anachronistic reminder of the bad old days of football riots that brought the game into disrepute, and yes they were quite often racist although two of the most violent firms of the 70s and 80s were led by black men. However, there’s little more important than history and tradition to the follower of a sports club, so a club’s fan that had a powerful firm in the past will often acknowledge the fact.
Brian E
I’m not sure if that is satire :/
The days when the followers of London clubs like Chelsea , Arsenal and Fulham could afford to live in the area their club is situated in have long gone. These people are following the club their fathers and grandfathers followed before they moved into the suburbs surrounding London. So no, they wont have servants.
LH @5
Football is not just a working class game and rugby isn’t only a university students game. What makes you think that the working classes don’t go to university? I was born to a single mother on a social housing estate and followed and played rugby as long as I can remember.
ooops! sorry, from my background you will expect me to be uncivilized so fuck you , you ignorant classist piece of shit.
LH @5: Gormless prat.
Lassi,
I think that generalization is manifestly false. The upper classes in England were riddled with racism. For a long time cricket was the province of the upper classes and was absolutely racist and classist, to the extent that English teams had different dressing rooms for the ‘Gentlemen’ (amateurs who did not have to work for a living and could spend their days playing cricket for no pay) and ‘Players’ (people needed to get paid for playing because that was their main source of income). Only Gentlemen could captain the teams since it was unthinkable that they would take directions from a professional player.
The film Invictus about Nelson Mandela and South African rugby made fun of the old and deservedly discredited cliche that “Football is a game for gentlemen played by thugs and rugby is a game for thugs played by gentlemen.”
Danny Butts, I said nothing about how rich or not those suburbs or their residents are. Racists think they are better than those at the receiving end. So, if they’re racist, they think they’re better than those players and commuters of African origin. Now, if you’re better than someone, their ‘natural’ place is servitude in the mind of the racist. So, if they’re playing for your team, they’re the hired help, the servants, right where they belong. Thus I see no contradiction in a racist fan supporting a team of African origin.
Why you would draw a long bow and think Downtown Abbey (not seen the show, but it appears from the ads that’s what you’re aiming for) is beyond me. Do you think a redneck in the U.S., or a bogan in Oz, who have no money don’t see people of African or Aboriginal origin as uppity when they won’t do menial tasks?
Nope. When a non white player (well Mediterranean is still allowable) shows they tend to jeer & whistle at best.
Aside from that they use the soccer club as the central building point for a tribal identity. Quite a few measures have been taken to get rid of these people, up to an including locking known hooligans up for the duration of certain matches (These British ‘fans’ had a history of waging war, no exaggeration, in name of their club) . In this case expect anyone, excepting the victim, in that video that can be identified to get a ban from going to Chelsea matches if not already banned.
The problem is that that doesn’t stop them from going to other places. Case in point is what happened last week, Wednesday and Thurday, in Rome. Feyenoord (Dutch soccer club) was playing against AS Roma. They arrested about 33 ‘fans’ for trying to wreck the city. Not a single one had tickets for the match.
“I think that generalization is manifestly false.”
Of course it is. I was giving the racists the same treatment they give to others.
Brian
A simple “no, its not satire” would have sufficed.
That is something that bothered me to no end. They kept calling the Feyenoord hooligans ‘fans’ or ‘supporters’ when they clearly aren’t. They don’t give a shit about the match, they just go to wherever the club is playing in search of people of the opposing team to fight them. They’re a roving tribe of vandals, not fans.
@sumdum
I’m sorry to say that these idiots are planning their “revenge”. They’ve produced a t-shirt which contains a threat to AS Roma fans
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/25/dutch-police-on-alert-as-feyenoord-fans-produce-t-shirt-threatening-roma-fans
The first 8 charged were given the choice of 6 months in jail (where they won’t be popular) or pay a 45,000Euro fine.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/19/feyenoord-fans-arrested-rome-europa-league-match-roma
I’m a Feyenoord fan but these idiots make me sick.
Oh, my God.
First we had racist chanting aimed at Gervinho. Then an inflatable banana was thrown in his direction. Absolutely shameful.
Then in the second half, te Vrede was sent off for a foul. Arguably harsh, but as people say “I’ve seen them given”. The crowd reaction was extremely hostile and the ref suspended the game. The players are coming back on after 13 minutes.
Sanctions will follow.
We have a very poor history.