Racism in European Football

Classical Mechanic

Full Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2014
Messages
35,216
Location
xG Zombie Nation
The fact that, as you say, his life experiences are quite rare should make people heed his words with a rather large pinch of salt.

The people calling him a monkey could give 2 craps about his dad, now he has every right to compartmentalise those slurs as he did & it was obviously a good coping mechanism but using the words of a ‘exceptional negro’ in cases like this isn’t particularly good faith, we’ve seen cases of black people with perceived talents being treated differently to the majority of the diaspora, Barnes comes across as privileged & removed from the trappings a lot of blacks encounter.
But then if in 10 - 15 years time when the black Africans that are excelling to the highest level in the British education system become a middle to upper class group (this is already happening see Badenoch and Kwartang) what then? Poor white people and poor black people will still be poor.
 

Foxbatt

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
14,297
This has been going on for a long time. Too long and some here have the gall to come here and defend it is mind boggling. Anyone who supports or defends racist acts are racists themselves.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

New Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2019
Messages
8,363
But then if in 10 - 15 years time when the black Africans that are excelling to the highest level in the British education system become a middle to upper class group (this is already happening see Badenoch and Kwartang) what then? Poor white people and poor black people will still be poor.
I’m struggling to understand the question in response to the post. There is already a black middle class. . .
 

Classical Mechanic

Full Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2014
Messages
35,216
Location
xG Zombie Nation
I’m struggling to understand the question in response to the post. There is already a black middle class. . .
You view society through a racial lens. Barnes offers a different perspective where class is a greater weight than race when considering inequality. What then happens to the movement for equality if a significant number of black people in the UK move into the higher social classes, which appears to be a real possibility. If society is split between racial lines then what hope is there for solidarity among the working classes?
 

KirkDuyt

Full Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Messages
24,913
Location
Dutchland
Supports
Feyenoord
Watch him get a fine from their FA and be reprimanded by his own ultra's.
 

giorno

boob novice
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
Messages
27,218
Supports
Real Madrid
They're going to try and identify the monkey droppings and then ban them for like 6 months, with a small fine, and everything is a-okay

Racism needs a zero tolerance policy, not this crap. Fans be racist - stop the league.

I see patetico fans racially abusing Vini hasn't made news outside Spain either...
 

golden_blunder

Site admin. Manchester United fan
Staff
Joined
Jun 1, 2000
Messages
121,157
Location
Dublin, Ireland

Withnail

Full Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
30,951
Location
The Arena of the Unwell
https://www.skysports.com/football/...tomatic-forfeit-when-fans-commit-racist-abuse

Infantino says that the clubs whose fans have caused the match to be forfeited should lose points

whilst I agree something new needs to be done, not sure how I feel about this. What’s to stop an opposition fan from putting on a top of his rival, sit in their section and make racist noises? The wrong team then loses points
The process would have to be a little more robust than one where someone could get away with that. Besides it's not just one person, we've seen in europe whole sections of the support making these chants.
 

golden_blunder

Site admin. Manchester United fan
Staff
Joined
Jun 1, 2000
Messages
121,157
Location
Dublin, Ireland
The process would have to be a little more robust than one where someone could get away with that. Besides it's not just one person, we've seen in europe whole sections of the support making these chants.
Oh yeah I agree with that, I’m just showing how it could be abused
 

Cheimoon

Made of cheese
Scout
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
14,388
Location
Canada
Supports
no-one in particular
Oh yeah I agree with that, I’m just showing how it could be abused
I think the idea would be to make the herd mentality work the other way: some idiot shouts something racist, and immediately the surrounding section is all over them to make them shut the feck up, cause they're harming the club. I can see that work - as long as you allow a moment for that dynamic to play out (and don't at that first shout).
 

matherto

ask me about our 50% off sale!
Joined
Nov 3, 2009
Messages
17,618
Location
St. Helens
Must be said that for once everyone did their job with utmost respect and dignity. Normally you've got other players/opposition players, managers, refs, etc telling the player who's been abused to stay on the pitch and doing everything they can to stop the abused from acting. With this, the ref communicated it efficiently and clearly (thought he was very good) and everyone backed Maignan. Very impressed with that side of it at least. The less said about the racist idiots the better.
 

top1whoisman

Meet the press(conference)
Scout
Joined
May 18, 2016
Messages
20,587
Location
Helsinki
Mind Boggling that this would be happening in Germany of all places. Mind you with the current political climate it’s even scarier
Indeed. And the survey was done by WDR who are part German ”BBC” ARD.
 

HTG

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Messages
6,183
Supports
Bayern
Indeed. And the survey was done by WDR who are part German ”BBC” ARD.
I don’t get the criticism for the survey. It was done for a documentary that deals with racist experiences German national players made throughout their careers. The survey itself shows how prevalent racism is in regards to the national team. I really don’t see what’s wrong about getting hard facts about an important topic.
The result is absolutely shocking (not surprising, though). But I fail to see what’s so problematic about the survey itself. I actually think it’s better to ask this bluntly and directly, rather than those surveys where there is some tiptoeing around the real topic. Because this way, nobody can deny the truth of the result or claim those who answered didn’t understand the questions.
 

TwoSheds

More sheds (and tiles) than you, probably
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Messages
13,115
Don't 10-15% of Germans vote for the barely disguised Russian fascist party, AfD? Doesn't seem surprising they'd have ignorant views about footballers tbh.

I wonder what the answer would be in England...
 

top1whoisman

Meet the press(conference)
Scout
Joined
May 18, 2016
Messages
20,587
Location
Helsinki
I don’t get the criticism for the survey. It was done for a documentary that deals with racist experiences German national players made throughout their careers. The survey itself shows how prevalent racism is in regards to the national team. I really don’t see what’s wrong about getting hard facts about an important topic.
The result is absolutely shocking (not surprising, though). But I fail to see what’s so problematic about the survey itself. I actually think it’s better to ask this bluntly and directly, rather than those surveys where there is some tiptoeing around the real topic. Because this way, nobody can deny the truth of the result or claim those who answered didn’t understand the questions.
I think the timing is awful. It’s a small, superficial survey that didn’t make any deeper effort to find out reasons behind the answers. I can’t see anything positive about the way it was done and the timing of it. I fail to see any real purpose in doing this a week before home Euros start.
 
Last edited:

HTG

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Messages
6,183
Supports
Bayern
I think the timing is awful. It’s a small, superficial survey that didn’t make any deeper effort to find out reasons behind the answers. I can’t see anything positive about they way it was done and the timing of it. I fail to see any real purpose in doing this a week before home Euros start.
It’s not superficial. It’s representative as far as I know. And what reasons could there be for wanting more white players other than racism?

I don’t get what’s bad about the timing. Do you mean we should just pretend that there’s no racism in our country for a few weeks so everyone is happy?
 

top1whoisman

Meet the press(conference)
Scout
Joined
May 18, 2016
Messages
20,587
Location
Helsinki
It’s not superficial. It’s representative as far as I know. And what reasons could there be for wanting more white players other than racism?

I don’t get what’s bad about the timing. Do you mean we should just pretend that there’s no racism in our country for a few weeks so everyone is happy?
1304 people were asked about it, I find that pretty small. If they didn’t go any deeper but just asked that one question, it’s superficial. They have had all the time in the world to do it, not sure it’s ideal for the team and its non-white players/staff to get this headline thrown in their face just before one of the biggest tournaments of their lives. Or white players or staff either for that matter.
 
Last edited:

black country red

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 10, 2013
Messages
1,048
Yaxley Lennon led a football lads March in London Saturday surrounded his self with his master race overweight bald men in xxxl stone island ranting at young girls in hijabs makes you proud to engerland
 
Last edited:

HTG

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Messages
6,183
Supports
Bayern
1304 people were asked about it, I find that pretty small. If they didn’t go any deeper but just asked that one question, it’s superficial. They have had all the time in the world to do it, not sure it’s ideal for the team and its black players to get this headline thrown in their face just before one of the biggest tournaments in their lives.
It’s not a small number. It is enough to be representative.
The survey obviously consisted of more than one question.
They chose this time because the attention is very high right now and the broadcaster has a series of shows planned regarding this topic. It is absolutely common for public German broadcasters to show critical documentaries and the like, right in time for big tournaments like that. There was a bunch of stuff regarding Qatar two years ago, for example.
So far I know of no instances wherein black national players were confronted with the survey. If they are, that might suck for them. But I really don’t see how that is an argument to stop critical coverage of the issue for now.
I honestly believe what your suggesting doesn’t make much sense. You want to purposely let go of an opportunity to create a huge debate at a time of high attention, because you think the debate might make some people upset? Doesn’t feel right to me.
In the same way you could argue that we shouldn’t have a debate about me too, because victims of sexual abuse might end up being asked about it at press events.
 

top1whoisman

Meet the press(conference)
Scout
Joined
May 18, 2016
Messages
20,587
Location
Helsinki
There was a bunch of stuff regarding Qatar two years ago, for example.

So far I know of no instances wherein black national players were confronted with the survey. If they are, that might suck for them. But I really don’t see how that is an argument to stop critical coverage of the issue for now.

I honestly believe what your suggesting doesn’t make much sense. You want to purposely let go of an opportunity to create a huge debate at a time of high attention, because you think the debate might make some people upset? Doesn’t feel right to me.
In the same way you could argue that we shouldn’t have a debate about me too, because victims of sexual abuse might end up being asked about it at press events.
Qatar were the organisers of the tournament, they were rightly confronted with the discriminatory policies they had towards oppressed minorities, the conditions of the migrant workers etc. But it’s not like their team had to face those.

I wouldn’t be surprised if journalists ask the non-white players about it during the tournament. I hope the DFB staff know better and don’t put them forward to interviews. Because that would be wrong towards them. The questions should be directed to white people who hold these views.

Again, I’m all for highlighting the fact that there’s so much racism and discrimination in the world. The more the better, as we’ve seen being silent doesn’t change anything.

So no, I don’t want to ”let go” of anything, just don’t think the timing is ideal.

If the victims of sexual abuse were asked about it just before they were about to shoot a scene of a movie, yes I don’t think that would be right.
 

stefan92

Full Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
7,049
Supports
Hannover 96
I think the timing is awful. It’s a small, superficial survey that didn’t make any deeper effort to find out reasons behind the answers. I can’t see anything positive about the way it was done and the timing of it. I fail to see any real purpose in doing this a week before home Euros start.
It's part of a bigger documentation about the national team and what people think about it. It was a survey the producers of this documentation made after hearing comments like that on multiple occasions. They did this survey because they exactly did NOT want to be superficial but wanted hard facts about how widespread this is.

And the timing? Well, it's a journalists job to report on what is important, and the national team is one of the most important things in the next week. Is it ideal for the team to be confronted with such a discussion? Probably not, but on the other hand it's not a journalists job to take this into consideration.
 

top1whoisman

Meet the press(conference)
Scout
Joined
May 18, 2016
Messages
20,587
Location
Helsinki
It's part of a bigger documentation about the national team and what people think about it. It was a survey the producers of this documentation made after hearing comments like that on multiple occasions. They did this survey because they exactly did NOT want to be superficial but wanted hard facts about how widespread this is.

And the timing? Well, it's a journalists job to report on what is important, and the national team is one of the most important things in the next week. Is it ideal for the team to be confronted with such a discussion? Probably not, but on the other hand it's not a journalists job to take this into consideration.
Fair enough. I agree that it’s the journalists’ job to ask awkward questions, dig deeper and confront people. Just not sure the team and the staff are the ones that should be confronted with this.
 

FortunaUtd

Full Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2023
Messages
804
Location
Rhineland
Don't 10-15% of Germans vote for the barely disguised Russian fascist party, AfD? Doesn't seem surprising they'd have ignorant views about footballers tbh.

I wonder what the answer would be in England...
Yep.
Unfortunately it really is not surprising. Somewhere about 20% of people have racist and xenophobic views to the extent that they would vote for a party that has racism and xenophobia as their main focus.
 

duffer

Sensible and not a complete jerk like most oppo's
Scout
Joined
Jun 24, 2004
Messages
50,883
Location
Chelsea (the saviours of football) fan.
Yep.
Unfortunately it really is not surprising. Somewhere about 20% of people have racist and xenophobic views to the extent that they would vote for a party that has racism and xenophobia as their main focus.
Way more than 20%.

You'll see in the upcoming election that the although the Tories and Reform will get battered, they'll pick up more than 20% of the overall votes.
 

FortunaUtd

Full Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2023
Messages
804
Location
Rhineland
Way more than 20%.

You'll see in the upcoming election that the although the Tories and Reform will get battered, they'll pick up more than 20% of the overall votes.
I was talking about Germany and the potential AfD vote percentage.

In the UK of course xenophobia has been even more dominant in the political decisions. Brexit happened mainly due to xenophobia, didn't it?
 

Ayoba

Poster of Noncense.
Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
8,692
Mind Boggling that this would be happening in Germany of all places. Mind you with the current political climate it’s even scarier
After what happened at the Sylt festival, i'm not surprised anymore.
 

G3079

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Nov 15, 2023
Messages
102
Supports
Nobody in particular
As I've already answered yesterday in the "German Football" thread:
This is lacking context:
ARD responded to this with a statement.
WDR head of sport Karl Valks explained: ‘Our reporter Philipp Awounou was confronted in interviews during the filming of the documentary “Unity and Justice and Diversity” with the statement that there are too few “real”, light-skinned Germans on the football pitch. We deliberately did not want to reproduce this anecdotally, but rather base it on sound data. That's why we commissioned the survey with our colleagues from Infratest Dimap.’
Translated from here: https://www.sport1.de/news/fussball...ulian-nagelsmann-ist-fassungslos-ein-wahnsinn
The documentary (for German speakers) can be found here.
The reporter who these racist bastards said this to the face: https://philipp-awounou.de/about


Personally, unlike Nagelsmann and Kimmich, who took to critisize the ARD for asking the question, I think that they are doing an important job shining a light yet again on the way too large amount of racists amongst the populace. I'd rather they drag it out for everyone to see, slap it into everyone's face again and again and again. The worst thing we can do is to ignore them and just pretend everything's fine. It isn't. The fascists and racists exist, they are way too numerous, and with the AFD they have a party that way too many people vote for.
As already said, I fully agree with the ARD/WDR in that they put hard numbers to the encountered racism, and I also see no wrong in bringing it up now. There is lots of talk about diversity and inclusivity before and around the tournament, and in my opinion it should be part of the discussion to show how frequent racist views are. It drives home that these topics are not idle talk about a non-issue, not some "woke" fashion trend, but that there is very good reason to have these issues brought up.

I also see no issue on the timing. It's perfect for drawing as much attention to the problem as possible. I'd rather they drag the frequency of racist views into the light when everyone is watching and takes notice, even people who usually might not care much for football. Better to keep the issue in the public focus as best they can rather than pretending that all is well.
I get that the national team might be unhappy with the timing when it comes to themselves, but I cannot imagine that the players with foreign roots are surprised or shocked by the findings. Pretty sure they've been plenty aware and already had more than enough encounters with opinions like that themselves. The poll numbers for the AfD aren't a secret either, and racism and nationalism make up pretty much their entire political manifesto.
 

top1whoisman

Meet the press(conference)
Scout
Joined
May 18, 2016
Messages
20,587
Location
Helsinki
As I've already answered yesterday in the "German Football" thread:

As already said, I fully agree with the ARD/WDR in that they put hard numbers to the encountered racism, and I also see no wrong in bringing it up now. There is lots of talk about diversity and inclusivity before and around the tournament, and in my opinion it should be part of the discussion to show how frequent racist views are. It drives home that these topics are not idle talk about a non-issue, not some "woke" fashion trend, but that there is very good reason to have these issues brought up.

I also see no issue on the timing. It's perfect for drawing as much attention to the problem as possible. I'd rather they drag the frequency of racist views into the light when everyone is watching and takes notice, even people who usually might not care much for football. Better to keep the issue in the public focus as best they can rather than pretending that all is well.
I get that the national team might be unhappy with the timing when it comes to themselves, but I cannot imagine that the players with foreign roots are surprised or shocked by the findings. Pretty sure they've been plenty aware and already had more than enough encounters with opinions like that themselves. The poll numbers for the AfD aren't a secret either, and racism and nationalism make up pretty much their entire political manifesto.
To be fair I can’t really disagree with any of this.