OPINION
England scored five goals for the second successive match in their 5-1 demolition of Montenegro on Monday night, but all the headlines have been about the racist abuse suffered by Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
And that’s a tragedy for the game.
UEFA have now charged Montenegro with racist behaviour and the incidents will be deal with on May 16.
According to the Guardian, both Rose and Sterling were subjected to monkey chants from the crowd late on and it’s now up to UEFA to prove that they are willing to do something about it.
Sterling called for teams to be hit by having their stadiums closed after the England game last night and we think this is the least the authorities should do.
“You can fine people but what’s that going to do?” Sterling said. “It needs to be a collective thing. This stadium holds 15,000 and I think the punishment should be that, as a nation, if your fans are chanting racist abuse, it should be the whole stadium can’t watch it.”
The whole world will be watching UEFA and how it reacts to this, and the punishment must be strong.
There should be no place for racism in football, no matter where you’re playing. But let’s not kid ourselves that this is a problem that only happens outside England.
Chelsea suspended four fans in December last year after Sterling was allegedly racially abused in a Premier League game. And that’s not been the only incident in England this season.
There might be some places that are worse but racism needs to be stamped out wherever it’s found.
And, if that means that innocent fans suffer too, that’s the price that has to be paid.