“I think English fans should stay at home and watch England on TV, because they might come back in coffins from EURO” said former England captain-Campbell. “I will walk off the field and leave EURO if I am abused because of my skin colour” “if someone throws a banana on me I will kill them” said Italian-Mario Balotelli. These were signed that EURO 2012 is overshadowed by racial abuse in Ukraine and Poland.
Our very own Danny Jordan has given away his tickets for the quarterfinals till the final, thanks to this racial abuse.
Sighting that he can’t go to a country that is faced with racial abuse while his country South Africa has fighted and won the skirmish against any kind of abuse, so what has the two countries done to prevent this abuse? I haven’t had any from the two countries except from EURO, so do they care? If yes, so why are they unvoiced about it?
EURO has said if any player leaves the field because of abuse, he will be yellow carded, but they also given the referees a licence to stop the game if abuse of a player(s) occurs. Currently EURO is investigating claims that Italy front man Balotelli was racial abused during their first game. Netherlands team also faced the same crisis in their first open training session, where their black players were the subject of the matter.
For me, I doubt the two countries have done enough to try and prevent the issue-I think they have run away from the predicament. Two countries football associations are the guilty are on the guilty side as well. Most nations did face the same dilemma sometime in their history, they fighted and won it, that’s why today it is easy for any player to go and play in England, for an example, so as in South Africa regardless of their skin colour.
Leading up to the 2010 soccer World Cup here in SA, everybody was talking about crime-but our Government and LOC stood up and assured everybody who was attending the tournament that they’ll be protected in every possible way, so what stopped Poland and Ukraine to follow suit? Or they just don’t care-there’s always a way, but only if you try, what have they done up too far? I haven’t heard of any.
Unfortunately we will only remember UERO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine through racial abuse and people cancelling their visit there as a results. We’ll forget quickly how the champion emerged because of this racial abuse. I believe that their football associations and Government could have done better. As Billy Ocean, says-“when going get tough the tougher keeps going’ But it’s not an impossible situation-a better plan of action is all what was needed.
Maybe FIFA and EURO will take some lesson from this, whenever they award host Nations in big tournaments, countries that will display fairness in all material should get the nod first. We hope lesson learned-never to be repeated again…
Till next time…
Its always looks impossible until its done” Fanele “thenatureboy” Mbuyazi
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