Over the last few days, the world has been talking about Kevin-Prince Boateng. The AC Milan footballer was involved in a friendly football game recently against Pro Paria, in which he was subjected to racial chants from the crowd.
In the 26th minute Boateng kicked the ball out of play and proceeded to take his shirt off and walk off the pitch being followed by his team mates. I think Boateng took a stand that needed to be taken. There needed to be a player that didn’t just threaten to walk off, but someone who actually followed through and led by example. The fact that his team mates were in full support and joined him was great to see too.
There have been many discussions about the incident and I was shocked to see that some people thought he should have stayed on the pitch and ignored it. They thought that he let the racists win.
But, he didn’t let the racists win. In fact, he punished them because they didn’t get to see the rest of the game. I wonder whether any of these people would take being racially abused at work? I think not. I don’t think staying on the pitch would have benefited the other 3 players that were also racially abused during the game.
I think this incident has been long time coming and nobody should have to endure racial abuse directed towards them when they are on a pitch, playing football for fans to watch.
If you are racist, it’s simple: don’t go to the game. That is a much better solution than lowering yourself to a level of stupidity that ends up resulting in a game getting called off. Racists are people who don’t know any better and compromise their intelligence everyday. So, treat them as they deserve: they don’t get to see the football, if they can’t respect the players playing.
I wholeheartedly admire Boateng for walking off that pitch. He set an example that all of the footballing world should sit up and take notice of, especially FIFA. I really hope that Boateng has paved way for a change in football, I hope that other footballers everywhere will see that they are supported by everyone and not only players.
Many people in the footballing world united in their support of Boateng and that was brilliant to see. There has always been a mixed reaction in the discussion of ‘walk-offs’ prior to yesterday, but I think this may be that moment where it could possibly seen as a more positive thing.
Last year was marred by racist events in football and FIFA are completely failing to deal with the racism issue in a sufficient way. In 2012 Plantini said that all players that walked off a pitch in the Euros due to racial abuse would be booked and banned. Does that sound like an organisation united against racism?
In 2013 you would hope that FIFA would have a decent system in place to deal with racist fans and racism in general, but they seem to be failing on the most important issue in football. This makes me wonder what Blatter and Plantini do everyday, in their big offices, with their big salaries?
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