Racism in Football - Will it Ever End?

Racism and football - two words that should never be heard or used together in my book. Yet, so often it is that our wonderful game is plagued by racism, that I am left wondering will there ever come a day when racism becomes a thing of the past as far as football is concerned.

Some of the events of this past week have left me truly gobsmacked, and as a mixed race man myself, I felt it important for me to pen my thoughts.

When I first started going to Goodison Park as a child with my dad in the early 90s, racism was commonplace. Sat in the Family Enclosure, hearing racial slurs shouted at the players by people sat around me was a regular occurrence. This may well have just been a sign of the times, and thankfully, we have made huge strides as a club in this regard. Now as an adult season ticket holder I can say with confidence that I would not expect to hear any racist remarks at all when I am at the match.

But with the 25 year anniversary of the Show Racism the Red Card campaign coming up next year, just how far have we actually come in eradicating racism from football? The evidence of this past week would suggest that the progress has not been as ground-breaking as most may think.

When the news started filtering through on Saturday that Millwall fans, finally allowed back into the stadium after the ban on fans attending games during the pandemic, had booed while the players took the knee, I couldn't believe my eyes. Then, to my dismay, I started to see people actually DEFEND their actions! And I'm not only talking mindless tweets from random people. I even heard a former Premier League chairman (who shall remain nameless) on a popular sports radio station say politics has no place in football, and Black Lives Matter as a movement is "ambiguous".

Now I'm sorry, but this is complete and utter nonsense. There is nothing political about football players taking the knee to show support for their black colleagues. Just as there is nothing ambiguous about a movement intended to fight for equality for black people. It has never been about only black lives matter, or other races' lives don't matter - simply that black people should be treated equally to everybody else, which in so many walks of life we are not. To boo players kneeling and what the kneeling stands for is quite frankly a disgrace, but to defend it is even worse.

What made this situation worse was the fact that Sky Sports then took it upon themselves to allow the Millwall fans more airtime, showing the Millwall v QPR game live on Tuesday night. Of course, what followed was the Millwall players not taking the knee and the fans applauding. Whatever the reasons for the players deciding not to take the knee, this sends out entirely the wrong message, and the actions of the fans once again appalling.

In my view, this is an example of everything that is wrong with the mainstream media in this country, sacrificing any sense of ethics or moral principles for a few extra views. I stand by what I tweeted at the time - Millwall should not have been shown live on TV again this season after Saturday, let alone the next game.

Then there was the incident in the Champions League game between PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir, in which the fourth official referred to Istanbul coach Pierre Wome as "the black man". Again, I could not believe that this had actually happened. Rightly, all 22 players left the pitch and refused to finish the game, with the game now being played out tonight with a different set of officials.

And as with the Millwall incident, seeing people all over Twitter then seemingly unable to comprehend why the players had walked off and why referring to a blank man as "the black man" is racist, was baffling to me. And that was when it dawned on me that the only way racism can ever be eradicated from football completely is if it is eradicated from life in general. This is not just a football problem. Far from it. And the only way racism can be tackled with any force is through education.

Proper education around racial issues and stereotypes has to be the way forward. Proper education so that children as young as 12 aren't arrested for sending racist abuse to players like Wilfried Zaha, as happened back in July. Proper education to give people the awareness to know why referring to someone by the colour of their skin, however factual the statement may be, is racist. As Demba Ba said at the time (and I applaud his strong reaction to this by the way) you would never hear a white man referred to as "the white man". Like it or not, this would just never happen.

Sadly, whilst racism may not be as common on the terraces now as it was back in the day, it is still rife in football. Make no mistake. And if anything these incidents are becoming more and more regular, particularly I believe, since the Brexit referendum, which I think has contributed to an increase in racial tensions in this country.

Until such time as the education around racism is there, which may take generations, the footballing authorities must take a much stronger stance on incidents of racism. It is not enough just to condemn the acts of the racists. The punishments need to hit them where it hurts, and all too often they are not fit for purpose.

You cannot expect to instigate any sort of positive change when countries are fined less than £20,000 as punishment for their fans racially abusing players, or Championship teams are shown live on Sky, days after their fans carry out what must have been a planned racist act.

It will be interesting to see where we are at in another 25 years, and whether Show Racism the Red Card will be able to move us any closer to a racism-free sport. My hope is that as people become more informed around the subject, this notion that racism in football is not a thing anymore will disappear, and people will start to understand and appreciate the more subtle racist incidents which at the moment some do not seem to get.

My own view, regrettably, is that as long as there is racism in society, there will always be racism in football, which is why education is of such vital importance.