Monday 15 October 2012

RACISM IN FOOTBALL : THE ROLE THAT SOCIAL MEDIA HAS PLAYED AND SUGGESTIONS OF ERADICATING RACISM IN FOOTBALL

         BY HADI HAMID
Over the past decade there have been a lot of issues in football with regards to racism. There have been blatant act of racism shown by football coaches, notably by Spain’s Luis Aragones in 2004, who was trying to motivate one of his players, named Jose Antonio Reyes,by saying that he is better that “negro de mierda” (referring to Reyes’ club team mate at that time Thierry Henry ). This incident caused a furore in the footballing world, as experts could not understand how someone of Aragones’ experience could something so shallow and pathetic. This event probably wasn’t the first ever act of racism in the game, but it was however, the first act of racism in football that got my attention. After this event, I noticed a trend of racism in the game which even included supporters who would chant monkey sounds when a black player has got a ball (noticeably in Spain).