Disclaimer: this article is not in support of Sepp Blatter.
Our world of football is in a hectic state of disorder and there has been a unified call for the blood of Sepp Blatter. The problem of racism looks like it’s going to consume football and has already left FIFA’s global reputation tarnished. What Blatter said last week was reckless and ignorant, but he has raised another concern in my mind.
From the outside looking in, football must seem like a world (some would say a religion) ravaged by racism. Constantly the press push the problem of racism to the front and the seemingly endless stream of campaigns against it. When in fact, it is a rare occurrence and when it is thought to have occurred it is rarely proven.
John Terry and Luis Suarez are both under investigation and these, combined with Blatter’s comments, all tend to imply that football is a place where racism is accepted. Not accepted in the sense that people have no problem with it, but accepted in the sense that it happens and it isn’t going to change.
Suarez has been charged, but if his side of the story is to believed then it was no more racism than it was a clash of cultures. Suarez claims he used a term which is widely accepted in his home land as a playful bit of ‘banter’.
However, in Terry’s case things may run a little deeper. There is the possibility that in the heat of the moment he lost control, let his emotions get the better of him and said something he immediately regretted. Almost everyone will have been in that position and said something they really wish they hadn’t, be it racist or not.
There is another possibility, one which would prove far worse for football. That some players who use racial slurs on the pitch are, in fact, racist at heart. I don’t feel this is the case with Terry, but surely there are players out there who fall in to that category. In my life I’ve encountered many people who truly seem to have a flare of racism within them and that must spill into the world of football.
Racism is a deep seated prejudice towards those of a different race and is based on a person’s beliefs. So knowing that I can’t help but think that racism will never be removed from football. Certain individuals are racist and there is no changing their beliefs.
Yes, Sepp’s comments were ridiculous, but whether Sepp’s time is up or not is not the problem here (although it most certainly is), the problem is the stance taken towards racism. For things to change football needs to forget ‘Kick Racism Out Of Football’. It needs to become ‘Kick Racists Out Of Football’.
Rhys Morgan @rhysjmorgan