By Andrew Warshaw
March 29 – England’s leading fans group and Europe’s anti-racism network are going head-to-head over claims that racist abuse was directed at England defender Rio Ferdinand during the recent 8-0 thrashing of San Marino.
The Manchester United centreback turned down the chance to be recalled to the England set-up for the back-to-back World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Montenegro and instead took up an offer to work for the Al-Jazeera broadcaster during the first of those games.
But while Ferdinand was in the studio in Qatar, the ‘bonfire song’ – most often used by Manchester United supporters and directed at Liverpool and Manchester City fans – was adapted and sung at Rio and his brother Anton by a section of England supporters, prompting Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) to file a complaint to FIFA.
Fare executive director Piara Power said he felt the song had an “undercurrent of race” but the Football Association said it had “not found any recorded evidence of the specific discriminatory chanting referring to Rio and Anton Ferdinand” even though manager Roy Hodgson said after the game that he had heard the chanting.
Lord Ouseley, chairman of football’s anti-racism campaign Kick It Out, followed up FARE’s complaint by telling the BBC: “Do you want to have an army of fans who call themselves the England fans travelling abroad, being abusive to their own players?”
The allegations by FARE were made just as UEFA launched a new crackdown on racism but England’s Football Supporters’ Federation criticised FARE for reporting the alleged abusive chanting on the basis of “hearsay”.
“The idea that England fans should be reported for what is effectively hearsay is dangerous,” said chief executive Kevin Miles. “There was certainly a lot of antipathy towards Rio Ferdinand among the England fans in San Marino. From my experience, it was not racially motivated – it was much more to do with the fact that he chose not to join the England squad and was then summarising for Al Jazeera.”
“We have to make sure this is approached in a constructive and proportionate way – and I don’t think that’s been done in this particular case.”
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