Random Rants on the Beautiful Game

Onyewu is another victim of slurs that must be stricken from soccer.

By Chris Courtney
SoccerTimes

BRUSSELS (Wednesday, April 5, 2006) -- There are times when the beautiful game can be incredibly ugly.

For example, when Barcelona's prolific striker Sammy Eto'o played at Zaragoza this year, the Cameroon international endured monkey chants and peanuts thrown at him from the crowd. The punishment handed down by the Spanish soccer federation? A fine for a paltry 600 euros ($712) for the first offense and 9,000 euros ($10,860) for the second -- chump change in this big money business.

Over in Italy's Serie A, Messina and Ivory Coast defender Marco Zoro has endured similar treatment when playing against Inter Milan. In both cases, Eto'o and Zoro wanted to leave the field until fellow players convinced them to stay and play on.

If these were the only two cases of racist fan incidents, it would still be too many, but sadly, these cases are just a drop in the bucket. Cameroonian and Brazilian players for the Croatian League's Dynamo Zagreb were recently treated to monkey chants by fans of their rival Hadjuk Split. Recently in Belgium, a group of Club Brugge followers accosted Standard de Liege defender Oguchi Onyewu and his girlfriend as they left the stadium in the American's car.

Onyewu, who is African-American, was attending the March 26 Anderlecht-Brugge game to watch a couple of Anderlecht players, his friends, in action. After the match, they all walked to the parking lot together where a few Brugge fans recognized Onyewu and, according to him "asked for my autograph and congratulated me for how Standard is doing this season."

A few more fans showed up, but then started cursing and shouting racial epithets at him. "I did not want them to see which car was mine, so I tried to get away from them so we could get into the car and leave," Onyewu said.

Since the exit to Jan Breydelstadion in Brugges takes one through a bottleneck of fans, Onyewu was recognized again as he drove out. This time, a fan jumped in front of the car, forcing Onyewu to stop while the group of rowdy fans then pelted the vehicle with food and beer, while shouting more curses and racial slurs. "They were banging and kicking my car, and broke a piece on the back bumper." he said. "What really got me was that the local police were standing along the road, only four feet away, and did nothing."

Onyewu kept his cool and remained in the car, slowly working his way out and onward toward his home two hours away.

In looking at the Onyewu case, what motivated the fans was perhaps a combination of sectarianism and racism. The American is a star player for the best team in the French speaking part of Belgium, Wallonia. The aggressive fans were from Brugges, in the heart of Flanders, the Dutch speaking northern half of Belgium. It is no secret that the Walloons and Flemish are not particularly tolerant of one another in an arrangement, which resembles a conjoined-twin pairing of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Sure, we can say that racism in soccer is just as bad as sectarianism -- where identity with the team means dehumanizing the opposition, its fans, and all they represent. But can't one just love his or her own team without hating their opponents? Isn't sport supposed to be the substitute for sectarian violence and hate? The Old Firm derby between Celtic and Rangers is surely a good substitute for Glasgow's Catholic and Protestant youths fighting it out with bottles and chains.

The difference between the problems of sectarianism and racism in European football is that with racism, individual players are singled out for who they are, not who they play for. It is one thing to be slurred for being part of a group when surrounded by others of the same group. The abuse is spread among the group, so it is easier to brush off and stay focused. "Don't like me because my team is from the south end of town? So what! The rest of my team and the fans we brought along are the same as me."

It is a completely different situation when someone is slurred for his or her race when perhaps only a handful of the 60,000 people in that stadium are of the same background or color. One must bear it alone.

And racism does not just come from opposing fans. In the case of Espanyol keeper Carlos Kameni, a Cameroon international, the racial abuse came from his own fans who taunt him during home games while he keeps the ball out of their net. According to some, Kameni's strong play is one of the reasons Espanyol manages to stay up in the Spanish Primera. The fact that he has managed to stay focused and give his best each week speaks volumes for his character.

But aren't fans expected to wind up the other team's players using whatever means necessary? Getting inside their heads and making them lose concentration is what the 12th man is all about, right? How far is too far? Attacking someone's racial heritage and making noises to indicate you don't even think he is a human being is going way too far. Unfortunately, some fans still don't get it. At the same time, other fans are pained to see their beloved players treated in such a way. American expatriate and Barcelona resident Mary Fulé, whose daughter Emily sports a Sammy Eto'o jersey, told SoccerTimes, "Sammy is a great player, but even more importantly, a fair player whom we really respect. To see him treated that way makes you ashamed to be a part of the whole scene."

Recently, world governing body FIFA rolled out a new set of rules intended to curb racism in soccer. FIFA president Sepp Blatter even made sure he had his picture taken next to a black player, France's Lillian Thuram. But take a look at the picture -- and it could be seen how uncomfortable Blatter was (especially in his eyes) standing next to Thuram. Sorry Sepp but you need to do better than the PR equivalent of the "but some of my best friends are black" line.

OK, maybe I am being a bit too harsh on Blatter, but after years of FIFA sloganeering and photo-ops, I remain skeptical that it means business this time. If Blatter is truly serious about stamping out racism in soccer, especially in Europe -- the epicenter of the game -- he must follow through on what these proposals promise.

To affect change, federations need to levy larger fines, deduct points in the league standings or make the team play their home games in an empty stadium. In some cases, suspend offenders from playing in the European governing body UEFA-sponsored tournaments such as the Champion's League or UEFA Cup. Then teams will quickly figure out a way to deal with the problem. The new FIFA rules call for these types of punishments, but until they are actually enforced, it remains to be seen just how effective they'll be.

Of course we can't let the actions of a few fans speak for the whole team. Most fans in Europe are disgusted by this behavior and want to eradicate it. If a few fans throw out racial slurs and are removed by the stadium stewards, the team has kept up its end of the bargain and should not be punished. It is when the authorities stand by and do nothing, tolerating this blight on the game and society, that they should be punished.

Groups such as Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) have supported a number of initiatives, some of which are making decent strides to eradicate this stain from the game. That having been said, I've stood in stadiums where fans were given red cards to hold up (against racism) only to later hear the stadium announcer mock the name of an African player as he is introduced. We have a long way to go, but if we want the game to help us tap into the better side of ourselves and enjoy the beauty of the sport, it is worth the effort. Some say that racism will be with us as long as football exists. Maybe so, but does this mean we should just quit and accept it? No way.

Chris Courtney is an expatriate American living in Brussels, Belgium. E-mail Chris Courtney.