There have been many discussions on Just Arsenal about the levels of racist abuse shown in England during Premier League matches, but our fans behaviour is dwarfed by the size of the problem in other European countries as we saw in Sofia last night, and the football took second place although we saw our players destroy Bulgaria 6-0 in the end.
No-one is going to talk about the match, so let us have some first-hand descriptions of what happened. The Football Association chairman Greg Clarke was disgusted by a section of the crowd, most of whom were ejected from the ground at half-time. “I heard examples of appalling racist chanting,” he said on the BBC report.
“I was looking at a group of people, all in black – about 50 of them – who were making what looked like political fascist gestures. I couldn’t be sure, it was 100 metres away but it looked appalling.
“I’ve spoken to one or two of the players and I’ve also spoken to one or two of the backroom staff, because we don’t just have a multiracial team, we have a multiracial backroom staff.
“They were visibly emotionally upset, and I spoke to Gareth after the game too and I offered him our full support.”
“Uefa, who I’ve spoken to throughout the game, at half-time and at the end of the game, will be carrying out a thorough investigation to make sure this appalling scene of terrible racism is treated appropriately,”
One of the England players Tyrone Mings was making his debut for England reported that he was happy how the team dealt with the situation after the match was stopped just before half-time: “Just before the end of the first half the appropriate next step was to return to the changing room,” he said.
“We made a common-sense decision to play the remaining few minutes and decided at half-time. Everybody made the decision. The manager, the team, the supporting staff. We spoke about it at half-time and we dealt with it and escalated it in the right way.
“I am proud of how we dealt with it and took the appropriate steps.”
The England manager Gareth Southgate said: “I explained to the players that if anything else did happen in the second half we would be coming off.
“We all saw the second half was calmer and that allowed our players to do their talking with the football.”
This behaviour certainly makes a mockery of the statements from the Bulgarian coach Balakov, who made this very rash denial before the game. He said (also on the BBC): “What I can say is that I don’t think we have a problem.
“In the Bulgarian championship, we have a lot of players of different ethnicities and skin colour. I don’t think that we have this big problem like, for example, England do.”
When asked to explain, Balakov continued: “What I meant was that in the Bulgarian championship we’ve not had such problems while there have been incidents in various levels of English football involving racism, which I consider something normal because it’s a big country with a very diverse population.
“But we don’t have this problem in Bulgaria, I can assure you of that.”
Well, we certainly are assured right now that he was talking complete codswallop!
until the authorities take drastic decisions and stop slapping out meagre fines,racism wont stop!!…although there are pockets of racism in england,bulgaria has serious issues,they need to look at it
Right on Simon, but can we really expect responsible proactive action by an organization such as UEFA, a sub branch of the corrupt FIFA?
One can hope, but after the debacle of awarding the World Cup to Qatar, its hard to be positive.
Before coloured players came into the game Football was driven by hate.
Fans want titles and glory yet trophies are few so the majority of fans
support teams who don’t win titles this is why most fans are permanently angry.
Real football fans hate.
If you don’t hate the local rival you are disloyal not a real fan.
If the team loses it is because the opposition cheated and the ref was biased.
Gang rules and tribal intelligence rules the heart and logic has no place in football.
If its not colour its race or religion or politics or social or economic class.
The football fan will always find a reason to hate it is in his dna.
A very good point.
Hogwash – you don’t have to hate to be a foobll fan. But what you do need is to be civilised and to have respect. But then, as they say, common sense is not so common.
Simon, we will never see the end that as long as media exists. What is this news doing in justarsensl you will ask. I’m of the opinion that there is no racism in football and I will stand by my opinion. I will like any Bulgarian here to please tell me if there are no black players in Bulgarian league. I doubt if there isn’t any. Which means these Bulgarian racists must have once in their life time chanting the name of one monkey lookalike player that put smiles on their face with match winning performance for there club. No racist will ever do that. English media and players incited this prior this match by talking about working away from the match for any racist attacks. Besides, are black English players not attack by their own people. The solution to this non issue is don’t report it, don’t give it coverage and don’t write about it. #blacksndproud
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