Chelsea/racism
Now that I live in LA I don’t get quite the same opportunities to chat about football, so when this week’s Chelsea fan racism piqued my interest I wondered how I could engage in a forthright debate on the topic. Unfortunately for those among you who aren’t into football or racism, I have selected this blog as the forum for that debate. The rest of you, please read on, and do add to the chat in the comments section.
I should start by making two things clear: first, I support Arsenal; second, I dislike much of what Chelsea does, stands for and represents.
Now that’s clear, here’s a video of what some Chelsea fans did on the Paris Metro last week. Further information has since come out about this incident, regarding the people involved and their connections to certain political parties (AHEM – UKIP). You can Google the heck out of it if you like, but a few additional facts:
they were singing a song about how they love their team captain John Terry because he’s racist.
John Terry was found guilty by the FA – but not by a court of law – of ‘using a racial insult’ in 2011.
The FA fined him two weeks’ wages and stripped of the England captaincy.
If Chelsea punished Terry for this they did so ‘in private’. It’s possible did not punish him at all, particularly as several senior employees of the club acted as character witnesses in Terry’s cases; more here.
So those are some facts. Now for some opinions:
Had Chelsea had publicly punished, or even fired, John Terry (after all, many people, if found guilty of using a racial insult by their industry administrative body, would be fired, and if this had been a reserve goalie rather than the team captain it feels a tad more likely that Chelsea might have done that) then it might have sent a message of zero tolerance with regard to racism and reduced the delight these fans seemed to take in having a racist captain.
You might reply that Chelsea does indeed have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy regarding racism, but I would argue that the Terry punishment shows clearly that instead they have a ‘slight tolerance’ policy towards racism. Of course, it would be insane for anyone in this day and age to claim anything other than zero tolerance when it comes to racism (‘Yes, well ‘zero’ seemed a bit much for us, so we do allow the occasional cross burning by the corner flags’), but when push comes to shove what does that actually mean, and what are the consequences?
As the Telegraph article suggests, Chelsea do indeed do many nice things, such as paying the Living Wage, something no other club does, apparently. It has also saved Aldershot FC from bankruptcy and raises a lot of money for charity (not so unusual). They also condemned the racist thugs from the Paris Metro and have banned them from the ground pending further investigation. Then they invited the victim to come to Stamford Bridge and see for himself how lovely the non-racist Chelsea fans really are.
All well and good, but there is now news of further racism, as well as many eye witness reports of other acts of racism amongst the fans that happen with great regularity:
As a lifelong Spurs fan I, and many thousands of others, have been the victims of vitriolic antisemitic abuse at Chelsea FC on a scale not even matched at similarly racially motivated West Ham Utd. For the 30 years I have followed Spurs to away games – in pubs, around tube stations, on the streets around the ground and within Stamford Bridge itself, the venom, ignorance and breathtaking casualness of Chelsea fans’ references to Jews, Auschwitz, the Holocaust and foreskins, often accompanied by a hissing simulation of gas chambers, is simply shocking – not least because it goes unchallenged by police, stewards or the club itself, bar a token reference furtively hidden away in the match-day programme.
I’m certainly not saying that Chelsea is the only club with racist fans, indeed I’d bet all the money I have that there are even some who support Arsenal, but Chelsea seem to have the most obvious and the most deep-rooted. They even have a famous group of supporters, the Headhunters, who have links to the neo-Nazi group Combat 18 (the 1 and the 8 refer to the position in the alphabet of Adolph Hitler’s initials). So Chelsea have a history of strong racism and indeed the crowd shouted abuse at Anton Ferdinand, the victim of Terry’s racist insult, the following time Chelsea played his team, QPR. The club then promised to root out the offenders, but unless that also happened ‘in private’ that didn’t actually happen, suggesting a little more tolerance to annoying old racism.
So tough on racism, but not really on the causes of racism. Zero tolerance so long it doesn’t weaken their team or displease their fanbase. All the right gestures but little effective action. And that’s strange for a team that’s has had many great black players and is owned by a Jewish man.
This weekend they play Spurs, the team famous for having the most Jewish supporters in the league. I assume the club intends to place staff amongst the fans and call for the arrest of anyone who chants about the Holocaust or hisses like an Auschwitz gas chamber.
Actually, I assume it’ll be business as usual, and anyone who feels uncomfortable about that can rest assured Chelsea will be handing out a few more of these on its next ‘Equality Day’:
Three cheers for that…
It’s not too long ago that I saw Nazi salutes from fellow Gooners whilst in the North Bank at Highbury playing Spurs. That’s just not called for. So yes, there are racists (or to be more specific, anti-semites) amongst Arsenal fans. But Chelsea have always had a rep for being THE racist club. Donal MacIntyre’s exposé of the Headhunters should have been a wake-up call, but as normal, there’s merely a load of tutting and sorrowful head-shaking, but bugger all gets done. I’ve spoken to a couple of Chelsea fans since this video hit the news and they feel powerless to do anything about it (or profess to be).
Are they racists though? Aren’t they just trolls?
As a Gooner I’ve heard the Adebayor song sung too many times at Emirates unfortunately…
just lot of chavs go to all football games.
Never get it at rugby games. but then rugby players don’t act like cunts on the pitch either.
Never hear any racist chants at the darts either.. and the darts is as if they let chav football fans drink at games. So who knows…
@Anon2: ?
I liked this. West Ham fans showing Chelsea fans how to let a black man onto a train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DD4vIIJTS4
Would have been even better if it were Millwall fans.
@malcome I’ve never thought about it until now, but darts is probably one of the whiteist sports out there… (if that helps your point in any way)
When I was growing up, it was never the racists that might shout something in the street or mutter something under their breath that scared me. Those people were just a joke. The powerless underclass externalising their own self-hatred.
No. What genuinely gave me the fear was the idea that the far more polite, insidious and acceptable faces of institutional racism might close doors in my face before I’d ever thought about opening them.
And so it is in modern football. 25% of players are black, yet there are only about 3 black managers in the whole professional game. And the number of black faces in boardrooms and executive suites at clubs around the country? Don’t make me fucking laugh.
Give black people a stake in the actual power of running clubs and the thugs outside (and inside) the grounds will start melting away.
@Malcome to assume all racists at football games are ‘chavs’ is completely ignorant point to make. The main person under investigation for the Paris tube racism went to a school where fees are £11,500 per term. Is he a ‘chav’? Racism terribly comes from all social classes and to blame lower classes is rather pathetic.
4. Not condoning it. Just questioning it. I’m not into football and don’t go to football matches and I’ve never hurled abuse at anyone let alone racist abuse. I just wonder if you can yell the N word at someone without being a racist and I think you can, if your only objective is to piss them off. You’re using what you know works without scruples.
It’s still horrible and unacceptable.
Here are some Rugby players NOT behaving like cunts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frqdj2x8–A And this is not uncommon is it?
So sticks and stones v name calling?
Football is so much clearer of racism than it has ever been. I think (it can be checked) over 35% of premiership football players are black. That has to help right, in the long run. Do you know any other business that has 35% black employees with such high salaries? *Coughs and looks at advertising*
In the last 40 odd years football has become the adopted event for some of the more unsavoury folk amongst us to vent their particularly bigoted and anarchic spleen.
It’s not a Chelsea problem and it’s not an Arsenal problem. It’s about how football works in our society at large. It’s a bizarre soap opera fuelled by gluttony and avarice. And as long as the money keeps getting pumped in, who the hell is going to tell John Terry (or any of the other racist shits) to bugger off? Richard Scudamore would have them in his office faster than his own hand could slip up his secretary’s skirt.
Football club’s do the absolute, bare fucking minimum to stop themselves facing sanctions as an employer (or to prevent any harm to their brand recognition in Malaysia) but they are laughing all the way to the bank in the meantime.
Malky Mackay back in management before the ‘investigation’ into his racist text messages has finished? Give me a fucking a break.
On some level, we collectively say… that’s OK. Not that it’s right, nor that it should continue. But that it’s OK. Please just keep scoring the insanely good goals. Please Luis. Oh Luis, please don’t say that, but if you do, remember you’ll never walk alone. Oh and sorry Ched, you’re just not quite good enough.
Football broke clear from the moral and ethical obligations we choose to live by a long, long time ago.
The only way I can see it changing? Collective fan abandonment. Imagine if 40,000 fans said ‘no, you’re not getting our money’. For a season, for longer, for ever? Then again, some clubs would have enough corporate interest that the teams and stadium could be hired to play for sponsors. And then those fans could sing whatever they want. Oh wait…
Racism is everywhere and not just in football or at Chelsea FC. Not enough is being done by the government, the clubs, the fans or the general public to help eradicate it. The 3rd most popular political party (and the most popular in a lot of places) UKIP, practically condones it and people stand around talking about how helpless they feel to make a change (did you report the last racist chat you heard at a match or the last racist remark made in public?). What a shit bunch of cowards we all are.
@Anonymouse I always thought a ‘chav’ football fan was someone who wears Burberry and chants bile. My old art History teacher at uni was one such person, apparently. And he was lovely during working hours.
And a wealthy season ticket holder who used to sit near me owned a very lucrative business and shouted quite unruly things and was considered a chav but was very middle class at least.
To say a chav represents a class I think is unfair. I think it is just a derogatory term for a specific type of unsociable person/crowd/behaviour. And they come from all backgrounds. I guess we used to call them scumbags, but the Daily Mail latched onto chav.
Of which the expensively educated chap you referenced is just one of these chavs
Maybe we need a new term to describe these types of characters.
If you know someone who proudly refers to themselves in person as a chav, I apologise. And if the term Chav has any long standing religious/community connections with which the modern media has failed to mention or associate them with, then I am indeed ignorant and I apologise again.
But if a multi millionaire, like John Terry, can be described as a chav, then I think that he is a chav. Whatever that is…
Is the west ham fans showing chelsea fans how to let a black guy onto a train not racist in itself? Surely using the black guy as the but of the joke without his knowledge could be seen as racist even if it is meant to be satire.
Today in UEFA Feyenoord fans threw an inflatable banana onto the pitch at a black Roma player.
It doesn’t end.
*sigh*
How are you handling that performance by Giroud and the boys against Monaco?
Trying to look on the bright side: no racism.
Spurs fan moaning about anti Semitic chants is a bit rich. You can’ t go on and on about being ‘yids’ and not expect to be called a yid in return on the terraces. The terrace tensions are what make football great anyway. Fuck sitting in a McStadium while politely applauding the heroic efforts of the opposition. I can go to cricket when I want that.
The ‘terrace tensions’ may be exciting, but racism and violence veer more towards unpleasant and scary.
And many black people refer to themselves as ‘Niggas’. Does that mean they should expect white people to do the same?