Stand Up, Speak Up... part 3 by wongoz
I find it interesting and somewhat concerning that racism has become a big issue again in 2005. I don't remember reading about anything like this for the past few years when I really started following European football, but it's all just a bit disappointing, given all the other advances made by European society to this point.
For as long as I've been here in Aachen, Roberto Carlos has manned the left back position for Real Madrid, and I'm only hearing about the racist taunting that he has experienced this season. Did he not get taunted in previous years, or was it just not reported before? I think that's a big question that has been unanswered by the media so far.
What I don't understand is, why haven't we heard anything about other Madrid players being taunted aside from Samuel? Zinedine Zidane is French, but I think he's of Algerian background. Even Ronaldo hasn't been mentioned as a target, though he's Brazilian like Roberto Carlos. Given how the rest of the country hates Madrid, I see it rather odd that only certain players are targeted.
Most disappointing is the reaction of the Spanish football federation who, in the latest incident at a Deportivo La Coruña - Madrid match, fined the Deportivo club a grand total of 600 euros for the behaviour of its fans. 600 euros! Unbelievable. For something so bad that the referee had to stop the match and ask stadium personnel to confront the fans, the home club was fined an amount less than the cost of 2 Apple iPods. This was the 5th incident of racist taunting in Spain alone since December.
I cannot fathom why, in this day and age, fines for punishment in issues like this are so paltry. The fines should be at least 100K euros, increasing if this is a repeat offense, or the penalty of playing in an empty stadium, as AS Roma had to do earlier this season in the Champions League for fan abuse of the officials. Even better would be sanctions against the team in pan-European play, like forfeiture of Champions League or UEFA Cup matches. When the fans realize that boorish behaviour results in severe negative consequences for their beloved team, I think they'll be quick to hold their tongues. Either that or other fair-minded fans will help do it for them.
1 Comments:
While it's rather a cop-out, some football federations have collectively bargained or agreed upon fine limits. For example, here in North America, some sports leagues have a maximum fine amount for certain offences, so no matter how serious the violation, the maximum fine that can be awarded is $1,000.00 or something like that. I am not sure about the Spanish FA, however I did read that the 3,000 euro fine to Aragones was the maximum fine and that any further punishment would have to be through suspension.
The danger of course for football federations is that if they choose not to take matters seriously, then it would be theoretically up to UEFA and FIFA to impose their own sanctions over the domestic bodies. I'm not sure of the legality of that, but odds are the domestic leagues are banking on the fact that the governing bodies are reluctant to step in. In any event, the continued scrutiny of these matters is positive, if painful.
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