No more racism in football

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These 5 players have had to face racial discrimination and insults

Racist actions on the football field have been seen for decades, both done by the fans and the players. For example, Mario Balotelli, the Italian striker, has been one of the main victims of this discrimination as he is of black race with Italian nationality but Ghanaian descent.

Leer en español: ¡No más racismo en el fútbol!

To fight against racial discrimination in football, FIFA has taken action against fans and teams that encourage any type of comments in this style. Likewise, in 1999, the organization Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) was founded, which is fighting for equity in this sport and is currently asking FIFA to impose sanctions on teams whose fans commit some type of discrimination.

The last episode occurred on Saturday, December 8, in the English league match between Manchester City and Chelsea when a Manchester City player, Raheem Sterling, received insults from the opposing fans because of his skin color. The player's reaction was to ignore the insults, but after the game he referred to racism in football and said that, to a large extent, the English media encourages this discriminatory environment.

From what happened, both the police and the Chelsea authorities are looking for the person responsible for the insults to punish him. In the case of the soccer team, they said they will ban the entrance to the stadium for life to the person who attacked the player.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated episode. Below, we show other cases that have happened in football.

1. Frank Fabra

The Colombian defender, current player of Boca Juniors, was victim in 2017 of insults for his skin color during a match against Estudiantes de la Plata. The fans of the rival team began to shout from the rostrum racist messages, including also phrases like "Go back to your country". The player, after enduring the whole game, left the court and began to mourn.

During the match and after finishing, several of the players from Boca claimed the referee did not stop the game because the insults lasted 90 minutes of the game. After that, the directors of the Fabra team issued a statement demanding the Argentine Football Association (AFA) that "the referees act with more precise instructions in this type of situation, which they described as "inadmissible", according to Fox Sports.

2. Sulley Montari

The Ghanaian player of the Pescara team, from Italy, received insults during a match in April 2017. Since he came from Ghana, he has had to constantly receive comments of this type. On this occasion, he complained to the referee about the insults and he ended up getting a yellow card. Not caring, and seeing that the insults were going to continue, decided to withdraw from the meeting. What led him to get a red card and be suspended.

After his act, he pronounced himself saying that he will continue the fight against racism and that he would withdraw again from happening again, because no one should face such insults.

3. Patrice Evra

The  Senegalese player, known for his performance at Manchester United, was victim of a racist attack by a player from another team, the Uruguayan Luis Suarez, in 2011. After a match between Manchester United and Liverpool, Evra claimed that Suarez had called him "black" contemptuously on several occasions during the match.

From the report sent by the referee, the English Football Association decided to sanction the Liverpool player, suspending him 8 matches and with a fine of 40,000 pounds sterling.

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4. Dani Alves

In 2014, the Brazilian player from Barcelona received a banana from the audience as a representation of him being a "monkey". Alves' response was clever: in the middle of the match he took the banana, opened it and took a bite. Although he did not let himself be affected by the racist gesture, he indicated later that in Spain there are many cases of racism and that this was not an isolated event.

Likewise, more players from Brazil have been victims of insults because of their origins and have also received bananas in a derogatory manner. The same happened to Marcelo, Real Madrid player, who also received insults in front of his son, and Roberto Carlos, who decided to leave the game when it happened.

5. Mario Balotelli

The Italian player has been, perhaps, the player who has had to endure more insults. Only in 2018, he has already had several circumstances in which he has been the victim of comments and even discriminatory banners.

For example, in February 2018, he got a yellow card for complaining to the referee when fans of the Dijon team in France shouted insults at him. When not receiving support from the referee, he approached the band and responded to those who insulted him. A few months later, he saw in the stands of a stadium a banner that read "My captain has Italian blood", to which the player of Ghanaian descent later responded by instagram: "These in 2018 guys, enough! Let's wake up, please! "

LatinAmerican Post | Juliana Suárez
Translated from "¡No más racismo en el fútbol!"