Tag: England

There is something that has always been incredibly frustrating about footballers and the footballing world. I can only talk of modern times and my first club football memory was in 1992 when I was watching the news of Manchester United winning the Premier League for the first time, and the league title for twenty-six years. I’ve been a fan since. Total glory hunting six year old. I grew up in an era in which football was gentrified and became squeaky clean. This is all I’ve known. I have no idea of what depths it was at in the 1980s beyond the stories both damning and glorifying in equal measures. Even in the Premier League era there have still been numerous incidents, mainly from fans but from players too, and there has seemingly been a desire to at least on the surface stamp it out. I must also acknowledge that were the desire to expose inaction over the last twenty-five years this would be an easy thing to do. It has not always been a smooth journey as there will always be people whose existence depends upon the status quo remaining in whatever shape put them there to start with. I have been rather ambiguous so far over incidents because while I am going to focus on racism, it is important not to ignore homophobic attacks, Islamophobic anti-semitic, anti-traveller etc.

What is really interesting now though is how much the footballers are getting involved. I’m not talking about them all taking the knee before the game because I doubt any player would jeopardise their entire career by refusing to take part. That doesn’t dismiss the important message it is making though. Individually footballers are really stepping up. While racism is amongst many things a political act, in the world of football, in which footballers can be fined tens of thousands of pounds for political actions, anti-racism doesn’t fall into that category. The anti-racism movement in football did not begin in the last few months but has been around for years. The organisation Show Racism The Red Card was established in 1996 and there will most certainly be organisations fighting long before that.

There have also been footballers making anti-racism statements in that time but it does feel like they’re really getting acceptance and coverage in a way that would have been impossible in the past. Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford seem to get a large amount of the coverage, which is inevitable given they are such massive stars, but there are others like Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster, who is in the photo at the top, and who is only twenty years old. I remember when he was seventeen after England had won the under-17 World Cup I think it was, discussing the racism he has experienced growing up and in the footballing world. This was a seventeen year old boy discussing a serious issue in a way full grown men cannot. This was an interview hailed by many but in my memory it was still challenged, even subtly, by elements of the press as to whether it was acceptable or not. It’s amazing how people can react when being put in their place by a seventeen year old. These are young men who have a platform stepping up and finally being accepted unconditionally by those who matter. What comes next is anyone’s guess but it does finally feel there have been some real seismic shifts.

For those who enjoy podcasts and / or Louis Theroux, this is a link to an interview he made with Watford striker Troy Deeney recently. I have spent time disliking Deeney in the past, this is mainly down to him seemingly constantly scoring winning goals against my team but if I have to lay it all out I suspect there was some lingering unconscious bias which nobody likes to acknowledge but was interesting to see exist. Ultimately he is a man who has had to fight his way through life, and has a story and ideas worth listening to, Theroux does a good job helping bring it and them out.