DaMarcus Beasley scored a goal for Rangers on Tuesday but it wasn't his actions on the field that made headlines. Beasley was the target of several racist chants during Rangers' 1-0 Champions League qualifying win over FK Zeta in Montenegro.
It's absurd that this happens but it does. Though not rampant, racist fans are an unfortunate part of soccer. Players have dealt with fans making monkey noises before and even Spain manager Luis Aragones was involved in a racist scandal.
The problem isn't unique to Eastern European nations either. This has happened in Mexico, Spain and Italy among other places. FIFA needs to come down hard on this sort of behavior. It has no business in soccer.
3 comments:
It's a shame really. When I watched that ESPN report on racism in Europe I was sick to my stomach and angry..Who would have thought that Spain would have such open racism in their stadiums (not singling them out).FIFA and the clubs have the power to abolish this behavior, do they not?
the problem is especially rampant in the former yugoslavia. it seems like every time you read a story about a black player being taunted during a european competition he's playing away in serbia, croatia, slovenia, montenegro or one of the other republics. the great irony is that plenty of black players play in these leagues, and even for the teams for whom the racist chanters support. it's hypocritical at best, and despicable at worst. fifa and uefa need to start kicking these teams out of european competitions and docking them points at home, then maybe they'll find the impetus to encourage their fans to behave like they live in the 21st century.
Its not just Yugoslavia. Remember this happening to Bease when he first came to europe and PSV were playing in like Denmark or Norway and him and another guy were racial abused by fans there? This is happening all over the place. Its crazy. For everything thats wrong with the USA, at least this wouldn't happen at an MLS game.
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