Soccer season has come upon us once again. Technically, it never really stopped with the World Cup this summer, but now club teams are back in action, and the season has had a few weeks, so it's safe to say we're in full swing again.
Several issues have occurred in the last little while that I wanted to touch on. One of them is from the World Cup.
The World Cup is the single most watched sporting event in the world. Although the average American may not be a soccer nut, the rest of the world is. I once heard the comparison that the World Cup makes the Super Bowl look like a coffee shop performance. It's literally the world's biggest stage- so I knew something was bound to happen.
Overall, as I watched, I didn't see as many incidents as I thought. Most of the incidents in the World Cup happened regarding the taxes in Brazil to pay FOR the World Cup, not racial incidents. One thing I did notice was very obvious, however.
If you had the sound on while you were watching a game, especially a Brazil game (home field advantage), you noticed that every time there was a goal kick, the crowd was yelling, then all chanted something as he kicked the ball. Being a soccer fan myself, I know how this goes (UMD soccer fans yell "you suck *goalie*" on goal kicks), so I wasn't surprised. I just didn't know what they were saying, since it was in Portugese.
Well, a commentator helped me out on that one, and on the broadcast said they were yelling an "anti- homosexual slur." Think about it for a minute, and the word that comes to mind: it's that word. It begins with f. It's bad.
This is one example of crossing the line. I understand competitiveness. I understand supporting your team. Believe it or not, I understand going all out and dressing up for a game (shout out to the Brazilian guy who dressed as the Hulk to support the player Hulk), and I understand yelling at the other team- to a point.
That point ends at abuse. It's not okay to yell that at any player, or person. It doesn't matter what their orientation is. It's awful.
There were, for the record, several occasions of fans dressing in black face when they played against certain teams.
That's another case of crossing the line. Face paint and black face are not in the same category. One is fun. The other is racist and abusive.
The problem is that people either don't get that, and those are the people that we have to wonder if they have to remember to breathe and blink: OR that people just don't care, because sports.
Seriously.
And I would say it's the latter, because sports (especially soccer, where there's so much pent up tension and emotion built into the sport) can bring out the best and worst in people. We only hear about the worst.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
The Beginning- Mario Balotelli and Milan v. Italy
The first incident that comes to my mind about racism in soccer is that of Mario Balotelli, for AC Milan, that occurred about a year ago today.
As background, Balotelli was born to Ghanian parents, and was raised by Italian (and white) parents in Brescia, about an hour and a half east of Milan.
He is recognized as one of the top young players in the world, was bought by Milan from Manchester City in the 2012/2013 winter transfer window to help salvage an awful season.
Just before he arrived, Milan played a small team called Pro Patria in a friendly over the break. About 20 minutes into that game, Kevin Prince-Boateng, another Ghanian player, kicked the ball into the stands and left the pitch with the rest of the team.
He did this because he was being abused by the crowd.
They waved bananas at him. They made monkey noises at him.
All in 20 minutes, so Boateng did all he could- leave.
He was applauded and supported by his teammates, coaches, fans (of both Milan and Pro Patria), and everyone in between. Since then, he has been a bigger and bigger part of anti- racism campaigns in Europe for UEFA and FIFA. He's essentially the anti- racism spokesperson in the soccer world, and this was one of the incidents that brought even more attention to this issue.
Fast forward about a month, to when Balotelli arrived in Milan. His first game, what came from the crowd?
Monkey noises. More racist chants.
In his first game in Italy, Balotelli was racially abused through the whole game.
He managed to handle it well both on the pitch and in his press conference afterwards. But as the season went on, he was abused pretty much every game.
I'm not even exaggerating.
He took racist abuse in at the very least every away game.
A few home games he even took racist abuse from the away fan sections.
And, as expected, he became more and more bothered by it. However, he said he would not let Milan down, so he continued playing. The culmination of the season came in Milan's final home game, their second to last game.
This was about a year ago or so today. Milan was playing Roma in Milan, and Milan needed a win. As a fan, I had the game on.
In the second half, in the middle of play, the referee took the ball and blew his whistle. Everyone stopped. Both coaches looked around, confused. The Milan players went to the ref and pointed at a section of the crowd, looking enraged.
Balotelli looked at the same section, put his hands on his hips, and then threw his hands up at them. He then signaled to them to be quiet. The Roma players talked to the ref, and the ref sent Roma captain Francesco Totti to the section.
It was a Roma fan section that had been chanting racist things at Balotelli and other black Milan players for 10 minutes.
The announcers described that the game could be stopped entirely.
After five minutes, the game resumed. After the game ended, every player and coach on the pitch said the same thing- that should not have happened.
The fans, obviously, should not be doing this. Every player has the same stance- that it needs to stop.
The problem is that, to my knowledge, there was no punishment handed down for Roma.
At the most, there was a fine for the club. The players all apologized on the part of the fans and said it was ridiculous and shameful.
But there was nothing else.
This is a huge, recurring problem, but nothing is done about it that does anything, as I'll talk more about in my next post. But this was the incident that sparked action on the part of many, and brought even more attention to an issue that has plagued the world's sport for years.
As background, Balotelli was born to Ghanian parents, and was raised by Italian (and white) parents in Brescia, about an hour and a half east of Milan.
He is recognized as one of the top young players in the world, was bought by Milan from Manchester City in the 2012/2013 winter transfer window to help salvage an awful season.
Just before he arrived, Milan played a small team called Pro Patria in a friendly over the break. About 20 minutes into that game, Kevin Prince-Boateng, another Ghanian player, kicked the ball into the stands and left the pitch with the rest of the team.
He did this because he was being abused by the crowd.
They waved bananas at him. They made monkey noises at him.
All in 20 minutes, so Boateng did all he could- leave.
He was applauded and supported by his teammates, coaches, fans (of both Milan and Pro Patria), and everyone in between. Since then, he has been a bigger and bigger part of anti- racism campaigns in Europe for UEFA and FIFA. He's essentially the anti- racism spokesperson in the soccer world, and this was one of the incidents that brought even more attention to this issue.
Fast forward about a month, to when Balotelli arrived in Milan. His first game, what came from the crowd?
Monkey noises. More racist chants.
In his first game in Italy, Balotelli was racially abused through the whole game.
He managed to handle it well both on the pitch and in his press conference afterwards. But as the season went on, he was abused pretty much every game.
I'm not even exaggerating.
He took racist abuse in at the very least every away game.
A few home games he even took racist abuse from the away fan sections.
And, as expected, he became more and more bothered by it. However, he said he would not let Milan down, so he continued playing. The culmination of the season came in Milan's final home game, their second to last game.
This was about a year ago or so today. Milan was playing Roma in Milan, and Milan needed a win. As a fan, I had the game on.
In the second half, in the middle of play, the referee took the ball and blew his whistle. Everyone stopped. Both coaches looked around, confused. The Milan players went to the ref and pointed at a section of the crowd, looking enraged.
Balotelli looked at the same section, put his hands on his hips, and then threw his hands up at them. He then signaled to them to be quiet. The Roma players talked to the ref, and the ref sent Roma captain Francesco Totti to the section.
It was a Roma fan section that had been chanting racist things at Balotelli and other black Milan players for 10 minutes.
The announcers described that the game could be stopped entirely.
After five minutes, the game resumed. After the game ended, every player and coach on the pitch said the same thing- that should not have happened.
The fans, obviously, should not be doing this. Every player has the same stance- that it needs to stop.
The problem is that, to my knowledge, there was no punishment handed down for Roma.
At the most, there was a fine for the club. The players all apologized on the part of the fans and said it was ridiculous and shameful.
But there was nothing else.
This is a huge, recurring problem, but nothing is done about it that does anything, as I'll talk more about in my next post. But this was the incident that sparked action on the part of many, and brought even more attention to an issue that has plagued the world's sport for years.
Friday, May 9, 2014
About Me and Why I'm Here
Hello there! My name is Patrick Stoll, and I am a Journalism major at the University of Maryland,
College Park.
I am also in the Honors Humanities Program, which allows me to look at things in a
more "humanistic" and deeper way, like a liberal-arts college while still having the benefits of a large
university.
One of the things we do is a "Keystone" project, a two-year project where we take some
aspect of the humanities and work with it in our own personal way.
Here is where the blog comes in:
This blog will serve as my Keystone project.
And about what, you may ask?
I'm glad you asked.
I will be talking about, as the title suggests, the world's biggest problem in the world's biggest sport, or rather, racism in soccer.
I am an avid soccer (and sports in general) fan. My club is AC Milan, who I support even in the darkest of times in the club (like right about now, but that is a different subject).
While watching soccer, I have seen the problem of racist abuse on the part of fans, and players as well, develop into a constant problem that plagues the entire soccer world.
Everywhere from Spain to Germany, Italy to France, England to Russia, and even Brazil and Argentina.
What I want to do is analyze this issue.
I will be posting every week (I hope) about any new incidents that happen in the soccer world that relate to this issue.
I wish I had a solution to propose for these incidents, but I don't, at least not right now.
So on that note, welcome to my blog, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
-Patrick
College Park.
I am also in the Honors Humanities Program, which allows me to look at things in a
more "humanistic" and deeper way, like a liberal-arts college while still having the benefits of a large
university.
One of the things we do is a "Keystone" project, a two-year project where we take some
aspect of the humanities and work with it in our own personal way.
Here is where the blog comes in:
This blog will serve as my Keystone project.
And about what, you may ask?
I'm glad you asked.
I will be talking about, as the title suggests, the world's biggest problem in the world's biggest sport, or rather, racism in soccer.
I am an avid soccer (and sports in general) fan. My club is AC Milan, who I support even in the darkest of times in the club (like right about now, but that is a different subject).
While watching soccer, I have seen the problem of racist abuse on the part of fans, and players as well, develop into a constant problem that plagues the entire soccer world.
Everywhere from Spain to Germany, Italy to France, England to Russia, and even Brazil and Argentina.
What I want to do is analyze this issue.
I will be posting every week (I hope) about any new incidents that happen in the soccer world that relate to this issue.
I wish I had a solution to propose for these incidents, but I don't, at least not right now.
So on that note, welcome to my blog, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
-Patrick
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