I sat down as usual on Sunday evening to catch up on La Liga. Real Madrid were playing Valencia away, and, if you’re unaware, the game was marred by the racist abuse Vinicius Jr suffered from the Valencia fans.
Footage showed that even as the Real Madrid bus was pulling into the stadium, the home fans were chanting mono (monkey) and making monkey noises. Throughout the game, they continuously chanted monkey towards the Madrid player.
Eventually, Vinicius Jr had enough. The game stopped, and Vini approached the fans behind the goal, pointing at those who were racially abusing him. Lucas Vazquez and Thibaut Courtois, two white team-mates, were also trying to point out fans, protect their team-mate and instruct the referee to do something about it.
The protocol in Spain is as follows – alert the referee, an announcement will be made asking the fans to stop, the teams can walk off if it doesn’t stop, and then the match will be abandoned. There’s plenty of commentary around the protocol, with many saying that it puts the onus of reporting the racist abuse on the victim.
The other argument is that by walking off the pitch you let the racists win, a point of view I fail to understand. Surely by taking the thing that these fans love so much away from them due to their ignorance and racism means the ‘fans’ lose.
The truth is that racism is embedded into our society and as a result it’s crossing the lines into sport.
I attended an intercounty Gaelic football match recently and when a black player was brought on, some fans started hurling racist insults and saying the most outrageous things.
What was equally upsetting was how many white people, myself included, sat there uncomfortably hoping that the idiots would just stop or that someone else would be brave enough to stand up to them. Oddly enough, it’s still something that haunts me that I didn’t engage with them.
Watching Vini Jr being helped out by Courtois and Vazquez is inspiring. Call it naivety, call it blind optimism, call it whatever, but watching white team-mates step up to support their comrade is a positive thing.
We saw with the English men’s team how Gareth Southgate, Jordan Henderson and others rallied behind Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Tyrone Mings while they suffered racist abuse.
Think about what some football fans thought about after three black England players, Bukayo Saka, Rashford and Jadon Sancho, missed penalties at the Euro 2020 final.
We can all safely say that most of us knew the pile-on would be worse because of the colour of their skin. Missing a penalty and cursing about it isn’t a problem, but immediately adding a comment about the colour of their skin makes it a big problem.
We’re not immune to it either in Ireland. Lee Chin was subjected to racist abuse during an exhibition game in Tipperary. The perpetrator received a 48-week ban, which, to be truthful, isn’t actually enough.
The GAA recently upgraded any act by deed, word or gesture of a racist, sectarian or anti-inclusion/diversity nature on an official or opponent be upgraded to a Category VI charge, which can result in a 48-week suspension, rising to 96 for a repeat offence.
It’s still incredibly uncomfortable asking yourself how you would react, respond or even go towards reporting it. The Wexford hurlers challenged the perpetrator in Tipperary and informed the referee. People condemned it on social media.
The GAA have set up webinars with Sports Against Racism Ireland to help volunteers deal with the issue. Naturally, you’d think that common sense would say find the perpetrator, toss them out and impose a heft ban and a fine. But how often have we heard it at matches and mumbled ‘Oh God’ while doing little else? How often have we sat there, twiddled our thumbs, and thought, ‘Well, at least it’s only one idiot’.
Watching the images of Vini Jr with tears in his eyes at Valencia showed the impact it has on players; watching Carlo Ancelotti, the coolest cucumber in town, almost shaking with anger during the game and also refusing to talk about football indicates that no punishment actually fits the crime.
La Liga has now been tarnished globally because of its ineffectiveness in tackling racism. Yet, in Spain, both in the media and on the streets, fans are still justifying Atletico Madrid fans hanging a dummy of Vini Jr over a bridge. They’re still defending Atletico Madrid fans shouting racist insults at Vini Jr. They are still hoping that by painting black players as troublemakers and effectively asking for it, they can show that there are two sides to the story.
There are no two sides to racism. Bringing up a person’s skin colour is racist. While Spain and La Liga are extreme versions of the problem, they’re a lesson to countries who refuse to act.
