Last week the England football squad got its Euro 2020 qualifiers off to a flying start with a 5 goal win over the Czech Republic followed by a 5 : 1 victory over Montenegro. I was saddened however but not surprised to hear monkey chants emanating from the Montenegro supporters end of the stadium. These chants seemed to be directed towards Danny Rose, one of the 6 or 7 black players in the England squad.
It didn’t end there however, the chants grew louder has Raheem Sterling, another black England international, scored a great goal from a superb cross.
Fifa are resolute in their condemnation of the Montenegro fans and are seeking to impose tough fines and sanctions. But it was the comments made by John Barnes a retired black England international with a dozen England caps to his name that really struck a chord.
Black footballers have endured endless monkey chants, bananas thrown onto the pitch, racial abuse and all manner of indignities since the football league began and it continues to this day. Football clubs in the premier league have started to take action but these incidents are still being reported. Perhaps we should, and this is the point John Barnes is making, seek to completely solve this problem within our own country before we lecture other nations on race relations, after all our record on racism and discrimination lies some where near the bottom of the league table, slightly above Spain and Portugal.
Untill we have completely eradicated racism from every sphere of our society and created a equal society with opportunities for everyone, then we are only paying lip service to campaign’s like kick racism out of football and doing a disservice to all the black players and fans who turn out every week.
A Black Perspective 