Posted on 11/18/2004 5:38:25 AM PST by truthandlife
Britain will seek action from Spain after England's black soccer players were racially abused by the crowd during Wednesday's friendly international in Madrid.
England's Ashley Cole confronts Spain coach Luis Aragones. (MikeHewitt/GettyImages) Monkey noises were heard when Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips touched the ball during England's 1-0 defeat and regular chants of 'If you are not f**king black jump up and down' were sung by parts of the 55,000 crowd at Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium.
'There is no place for racism in football or modern society, and I strongly believe that action needs to be taken at the highest level,' British Sports minister Richard Caborn told the BBC.
'I will be writing tomorrow (Thursday) to the Spanish sports minister to express my outrage at their behaviour.'
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was 'very disappointed' by the chants and Minister for Europe Dennis MacShane had telephoned his Spanish counterpart on Thursday to tell him of the 'outrage across Britain'.
The English FA had already complained that racist chanting marred Tuesday's under-21 friendly between the two countries and will contact world body FIFA after Wednesday's scenes.
'We will be making a full report on this to FIFA and to UEFA and will be sending a letter of complaint to the Spanish Federation. Football as a whole should stand up and express its disgust at what has gone on here,' FA spokesman Adrian Bevington said.
The Spanish Football Federation's press officer Fernando Garrido said some of the blame lay with English reporters, a sentiment echoed by the Spanish press on Thursday.
'Were there racist chants against some players? This hasn't happened in the Spanish league and Spain for many years,' he said. 'So you (English reporters) should ask yourselves what you have done to contribute to all this.'
FIFA said it would issue a statement later as it had not yet received formal correspondence from the English FA.
London and Madrid are battling to host the 2012 Olympics and the aftermath of Wednesday's scenes could spice up the rivalry. The International Olympic Committee said it would also issue a statement later.
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who experienced racist fans when he was at Italian club Lazio, said: 'The issue of racism is big. There must be a protest through official ways.
'I am against racism and it should not happen in 2004 in any country.'
England captain David Beckham said: 'It's disappointing when it happens anywhere in world football because we all know how wrong it is - and so many people are working so hard to cut it out of the game.'
Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballer's Association which represents English players, said the team should have been taken off in protest.
'The message should have come down from the FA directors, to say we will take responsibility for this and take them off,' he told the BBC.
Spain coach Luis Aragones was only prepared to answer questions on his team's performance.
'I've always said my conscience is clear and I only want to talk about football,' he said.
The 66-year-old was at the centre of controversy last month when he made racist remarks about France striker Thierry Henry in an attempt to motivate his Arsenal team mate Jose Antonio Reyes.
The British press grilled Aragones on the issue before the game and reacted angrily to the scenes at the Bernabeu.
'England lost a football match last night but Spain shamefully lost something more important - Spain lost their right to be considered a civilised football nation,' the Daily Telegraph said.
In the 1980s racism, along with hooliganism, blighted the English game but campaigns have helped to all but eradicate it, making the scenes in Madrid all the more shocking for British viewers.
'Sanctions should include stopping all Spanish participation in European football until Spain comes up with an action plan,' Piara Power, director of 'Let's Kick Racism out of Football', told Reuters.
The Spanish national side has no black players but Brazilians Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos at Real Madrid, as well as Ronaldinho of Barcelona, encounter few problems in La Liga.
Cole: Children took part in racial abuse
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=316758&cc=5901
Carlton Cole has revealed the extent of racism he suffered while playing for England Under-21s in Spain, saying that even young children were joining in with the abuse.
Spain's Carlos Garcia and England's Carlton Cole battle for the ball. (MikeEgerton/Empics)
The Spanish football federation and media have reacted defensively after overt racism by fans in Madrid at the Spain vs England friendly - with some even claiming that there was no such abuse at the under-21 game on Tuesday.
However Cole, the Chelsea striker who is on loan at Aston Villa, was in no doubt about the events.
He told the Evening Standard: 'It's unbelievable that it's still going on and even the little kids were doing it. It was going around the whole stadium.
'I tried not to take it to heart and just concentrated on my game. There's not much we can do and it's up to the Spanish FA. They really have to start taking racism seriously.
'I don't know what's going on with Spanish football at the moment and they need to put a plug in it.
'If they carry on the way they are they'll be seen as a racist nation and they surely don't want that. Football's very big over there and they don't want to be seen as racists.
'It's unheard of in England at the moment so why should racism exist in Spain? They've got enough black players in their league and they need to sort it out.'
Cole revealed the abuse was clearly audible every time he, Darren Bent and Glen Johnson received the ball.
He added: 'It wasn't really direct in my face but I could hear it every time I was on the ball.'
Amazing. The Europeans plume themselves on their so-called enlightened attitudes toward such things as race, yet I guarantee you'd never see any such spectacle here in the U.S.--not even at an Eagles game!
Yep, that's the way it is.
We used to have a problem with racist taunts at football matches twenty or so years ago here, but it doesn't happen now. One particularly nasty stunt that used to happen was to throw bananas on the pitch when black players came on. One black guy (forget his name) used to pick them up and start eating them.
Nowadays the crowds content themselves with cruel jibes about some of the players wives.
For example..."Posh Spice..." (married to David Beckham)..."takes it up the ----!"
'I will be writing tomorrow (Thursday) to the Spanish sports minister to express my outrage at their behaviour.'
They have a government SPORTS MINISTER???
And I thought our socialized publicly funded stadiums were bad.
Racism in this country PALES against Spain and Italy.
If African-Americans think America is so oppressive and horrible, they should try to spend one week in Italy..
The situation in Italy makes the 1865-1960 look like a walk in the park for blacks here.
Europe is on the brink of disaster...
Racism among the Euro-weenies? You mean the same folks who are anti-semitic are also anti-black? My , my.
Here, we have a naked white woman jump into the arms of a black athlete as part of a pre-game PR stunt and the only conversation is about what she was(n't) wearing.
But we're the racists!
Another longstanding MSM coverup: European racism.
Black players entering the field are usually greeted by thrown bananas.
America is morally superior to Europe.
You try such a stunt at any major sporting event in the USA and every sports commentator will denounce you and the ACLU would be after your rear end in no time flat. Now you know why Europeans think sports fans at American sporting venues are just too civilized.... 
I guess it chants better in Spanish.
Nice to know the sensibilities of the Zapatero voters.
I'm not sure what the four dashes is supposed to represent, but I can't think of anything that rhymes.
I'll give you clue...
it starts with an A.
ends with and E
and the middle two letters are R & S
Oh..and it doesn't rhyme
It is not a ministry, it is a branch of the Culture Ministry. The proper name for the guy running it is not minister but secretary.
It is basically in charge of the affairs related with the national teams.
Oh, but Zapatero's Spaniards think they are oh so morally superior to us evil Americans because they up and ran from Iraq in response to Al Qaeda's bombing!
clue - the British spelling of the word you are looking for has four letters, the American spelling has only three..
There is a fundamental difference between American Football and European soccer crowds, American crowds do not chant and sing like soccer crowds do. The supporters of a soccer team will have a whole catalog of team songs that they will sing periodically during the game as a section of the crowd, or the whole stadium, becomes an impromptu choir. They will also chant in unison, some of the chants are extremely amusing and/or ascerbic. European soccer does not have bands and Cheerleaders to entertain them, so they entertain themselves, and provide huge encouragement for their respective teams. By comparison American Football crowds just produce "white noise" or the occaisional chant of "de-fence"
Having said that, There is no excuse for racism in any of this and should be dealt with severely.
If anyone is a monkey surely it is the Spanish surrender monkeys that fit the bill.
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