Black players being racially abused during a game in Eastern Europe is not a new thing. It has been happening for as long as I can remember.
UEFA and FIFA talk a great game when it comes to fighting racism. The banners, the adverts, the arm bands. But when it comes down to it, and a racist incident occurs, they fold.
In 2012, UEFA it fined Nicklas Bendtner around £80,000 for exposing the waistband of his underwear to show a Paddy Power logo during a goal celebration.
A year earlier, the Bulgarian FA were fined just £34,320 after their fans directed monkey chants at England trio Ashley Cole, Theo Walcott and Ashley Young during a Euro 2012 qualifier in Sofia.
In a more recent incident, the Montenegrin FA were fined just £17,396 and ordered to play one game behind closed doors following their racially abusing England’s Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The reality is, UEFA are more interested in protecting their cooperate partners than punishing racism.
The continued racism towards black players in Eastern Europe really shows how bad things are outside of the UK.
We saw this week Slavia Prague racially abuse former Arsenal player Glen Kamara. The response from Slavia Prague was disgraceful.
These clubs and countries do not recognise the acts of their players and fans as racist because they are normalised actions.
They put out statements saying “we did nothing wrong” because they genuinely believe that there is nothing wrong with the comments or chants.
We often forget how tolerant a society the UK is.
I get highlight offended when people attempt to label the UK as some sort of racist hell hole. It really is not. Go spend a minute in Eastern Europe or Russia. Then you will see racist hell holes.
Arsenal have drawn Slavia Prague in the next round of the Europa League. I expect Arsenal’s black players to be racially abused. I expect UEFA to brush it under the carpet.
UEFA need to stand up properly against these offenders. Ban the clubs from entering European competition. Ban the countries from European Champions or World Cups.
I stand with Glen Kamara, and with any other player racially abused.
I would rather Arsenal walk off the pitch against Slavia Prague and forfeit the game rather than play under the expected torrent of racist abuse.
And maybe that is what is needed? A big club to make a stand. To walk off.
Would UEFA then award the game to the racists? Would they demand it replayed in front of an empty stadium? Or would they do the right thing and award the game to the club taking the stand.
Watch this space.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Love Arsenal
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Hello,
I would like to add my opinion and perhaps a different view that share a lot of people in my country – Czech republic
We have certainly problem with racists, but I feel that we are presented as much worse people that we actually are. There is almost a seditious sentiment and even a lot of hate from western football fans and even media, and we feel that there are even prejudice towards Eastern Europe and injustice in the ways we are presented – the very things a lot of here claims they are fighting against. And when all that you are recieving is hate and personal attacks, it is really hard to say, yes, you are completely right, we are eastern european racist scumbags just as you say and we are sorry for it.
We certainly don´t like the one sided view at the Rangers – Slavia game. The alleged racist insult is a big problem, but we genuinly feel that there were a lot of other bad things happening on the field and that the brutal Rangers game that in the end led to the goalkeeper injury and the disrespectful behavior of Rangers which btw. were a reason for the inslut in the frist place (not and excuse for it!) shouldn´t be forgotten just because of the insult. This style of playing with the intend to injure the players should be also adressed! Yet everytime someone said something about it – he is accused of being racist himself if the only thing he cares about is not the insult! One wrong doens´t erase another wrong”
Another thing to concider is much different historical experience in Czech Republic. We are far les multicultural country than Britain, we don´t have colonial past and we don´t suffer some kind of collective guilt. Racism, while not in any kind officialy tolerated, is much less sensitive topic than in the west. And, I think west is loosing detached view and is already oversensitive. Things like the claims that a white person cannot dub a black cartoon character or even traslate a black person art into another language add to the feeling of some kind of hysteria and it actually do a lot of damage to the fight towards actuall racism. People in the west lose their job for trivial things that are supposedly connected with racism, but often it only shows that when you want you can see racism literally anywhere. Ironicly, people fighting against racism are becoming racists themself. This is to demonstrate that we are now more conscious and supsicious when someone is accusing someone else from racism in the west.
Sorry for my English, and I hope you can take from this somthing esle than just confirming your opinion about primitive Estearn-european countries
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Would be nice if we could just hammer them, then stop accepting sponsorship from any corp’ that doesn’t hammer uefa to do the right thing.
As you said, it’s the corporations that influence uefa, not the racists.
Could that be the way to go?
This is our only real route to CL football next season. If we can win the EL, we can get better players in the summer, and really start making our mark again.
I’m not saying walking off wouldn’t be the right thing to do. I’d be proud if that were the reaction.
That said, it may also be another way of shooting ourselves in the foot if we let them win.
Just throwing an idea out there…
🤷♂️🤔
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Edit*; when I said ‘not the racists’, I meant to say the players making a stand.
Soz. Wifey distracted me while I was typing!
🤦♂️🙄
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What a stupid, arrogant, uneducated, dishonest post by a fucking heckler. Disgusting
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Edit*; sorry for calling you names, but your attack on our players (many of them black) and my country was absolutely uncalled for and indeed disgusting.
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Racism is wrong and should be punished! That is the fact.
There were many things absolutely wrong in the game between Rangars and Slavia, yet due to the strong campaign against Slavia and Kúdela, we only hear about racism. That is the case of your article- Glen Kamara was probably victim of racial abuse, but he is not innocent either.
I understand that the fight against racism is number one topic right now, but there are things as bad as racism- among others violence and sentence without trial. These should not be brushed under the carpet as well.
My only hope is that UEFA stays neutral and punishes anyone, who deserves to be punished.
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*everyone
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You smart English fans, if you look at Europe, then the Czech Republic belongs to Central Europe and not to Eastern Europe !!!
Is Austria in Eastern Europe? Your knowledge is probably very limited. Go back to school.
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Hello,
I would like to add my opinion and perhaps a different view that share a lot of people in my country – Czech republic
We have certainly problem with racists, but I feel that we are presented as much worse people that we actually are. There is almost a seditious sentiment and even a lot of hate from western football fans and even media, and we feel that there are even prejudice towards Eastern Europe and injustice in the ways we are presented – the very things a lot of here claims they are fighting against. And when all that you are recieving is hate and personal attacks, it is really hard to say, yes, you are completely right, we are eastern european racist scumbags just as you say and we are sorry for it.
We certainly don´t like the one sided view at the Rangers – Slavia game. The alleged racist insult is a big problem, but we genuinly feel that there were a lot of other bad things happening on the field and that the brutal Rangers game that in the end led to the goalkeeper injury and the disrespectful behavior of Rangers which btw. were a reason for the inslut in the frist place (not and excuse for it!) shouldn´t be forgotten just because of the insult. This style of playing with the intend to injure the players should be also adressed! Yet everytime someone said something about it – he is accused of being racist himself if the only thing he cares about is not the insult! One wrong doens´t erase another wrong”
Another thing to concider is much different historical experience in Czech Republic. We are far les multicultural country than Britain, we don´t have colonial past and we don´t suffer some kind of collective guilt. Racism, while not in any kind officialy tolerated, is much less sensitive topic than in the west. And, I think west is loosing detached view and is already oversensitive. Things like the claims that a white person cannot dub a black cartoon character or even traslate a black person art into another language add to the feeling of some kind of hysteria and it actually do a lot of damage to the fight towards actuall racism. People in the west lose their job for trivial things that are supposedly connected with racism, but often it only shows that when you want you can see racism literally anywhere. Ironicly, people fighting against racism are becoming racists themself. This is to demonstrate that we are now more conscious and supsicious when someone is accusing someone else from racism in the west.
Sorry for my English, and I hope you can take from this somthing esle than just confirming your opinion about primitive Estearn-european countries
LikeLike