February 20 – One of Europe’s leading anti-racism chiefs believes the episode involving Chelsea supporters blocking a black man from boarding a Paris Metro train is part of a wider problem of racism in football despite stringent efforts to cut it out.
The Chelsea incident came in the same week that former Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi was quoted as saying there were “too many black players” in Italian youth football.
Piara Powar, executive director of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), says that those in authority need to set a better example.
“We are seeing a lot of football leaders who are making racist comments,” Power told England’s Press Association. “There’s a whole range of people in prominent positions in football who are making out and out racist comments. The comments by Arrigo Sacchi and before Sacchi we’ve had Carlo Tavecchio, Willy Sagnol, Dave Whelan, Malky Mackay. We’ve had John Terry, Luis Suarez.
“One feels that this is one of the things that keeps the link between racism and football alive.”
“This is the big challenge that football has: how do you deal with the big issue of racism at the top level, from football leaders across Europe, and therefore begin to unpick the wider issues of racism that we have?”
Powar believes the lack of ethnic minority individuals in senior positions in the game is also a contributory factor.
“I also see a link between the lack of black and other ethnic minority leaders in football, so people don’t respect ethnic minorities, except as players. It’s about the wider picture at the moment.”
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