Fight against racism has come a long way in the last two decades

John Terry‘s ban of 4 games and a fine of £220,000, is being termed as soft by a lot of people. Many black players are set to skip the annual event of ‘Kick It Out’ campaign in protest. Even the bad boy of EPL, Joey Barton, tweeted that a 4 match ban for a racist abuse is a joke. People feel that Terry has been let off lightly after comparing his ban to Suarez’s ban of 8 games. The whole attention, because of this issue, is on the wrong thing. Instead of questioning the judgement (whether it is right or wrong) of the FA, we should all be happy about the fact that something is finally being done against racism.

This privilege of punishing a guy who racially abused you, wasn’t even there 20 years back. Just ask Paul Canoville, the first ever black player to play for Chelsea, or ask Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson – the first black players who became regular starters for a team – whether they could do anything against the blatant racism in their times. Ask any black player who played in the 1980′s, or before, the same question. Their answer is, there is nothing that they could do. The John Terry judgement shows us how the times have changed.

Chelsea player Paul Canoville was racially abused by his own fans

Back in 1980′s, when Paul Canoville played for Chelsea, he was abused by his own fans. This thing is hard to imagine in a time when Chelsea is a black dominated team. Whenever Paul went out for warming up, he was greeted with the chants of - ‘You black ****, you golliwog’. ‘Go back home you n****r’. After the abuse continued for a long time, the former Chelsea chairman, Ken Bates, was approached. However Bates found nothing wrong with the abuse. This issue was never paid much attention because, racially abusing a player was accepted by the society. Everyone saw what was going on, but no one decided to act.

West Bromwich Albion players Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson were victims of racism too. Even though all three of them were regular starters for West Brom, the abuses didn’t stop. When Cyrille Regis made it to the England team in 1982, he received a bullet through the post as a threat. Not that it mattered to Regis, but there was nothing he could do about the situation. Racism was so rampant in England, that even legends of the club and national team players failed to escape abuse. In 1987 John Barnes was pictured back-heeling a banana off the pitch during a match for Liverpool against Everton, whose fans chanted ‘Everton are white’. Every fan of every club in England wanted his team to be free of all black players. The whole Suarez and John Terry incident may be called as kindergarten incidents by the people from the 1980′s.

Lord Herman Ouseley

After all the years of unpunished racism, one guy decided to do something. He was the same guy who approached Chelsea chairman Ken Bates to talk about the Paul Canoville issue. His name is Lord Herman Ouseley. In 1993, Lord Herman started a campaign to combat racism in football. The name of the campaign was – Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football. In 1997, the organization ‘Kick It Out’ was established. Kick It Out changed the way how racism was tackled. It did not change the people, but it ensured that the racist abuses were now being punished. Today, Kick It Out is supported and funded by the Premier League and the Football Association. Football clubs have a zero tolerance policy on racism and 25% of premiership players are black or from ethnic minorities.

The fight against racism has been very successful. However, after every few years, there is a racist incident which reminds us that work still has to be done. In 2004, Ron Atkinson, working as a commentator, said , “He’s what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy thick n****r”, referring to Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly. After the incident, Ron Atkinson had to leave his job. What we should be happy about is that this racist remark was not accepted by the society. In the case of Liverpool striker Suarez, he was punished for using a harmless word in native language which sounded like an English racist word. Now that is a lot of progress from the 1980′s.

Although the progress has been good in the last two decades, there are some areas where work is still needed. The FA and the boardroom hardly have any black directors. Only three of the 92 English league clubs have black managers. This issue cannot be tackled by punishing people for being racist or implementing an American NFL style Rooney Rule. The only way to address this problem, is through education. Unless the people are made to realise that skin colour doesn’t affect a person’s ability, blacks will never be truly accepted in football. It is good to see the ‘Kick It Out’ campaign working along the same lines.

There will always be people like Terry and Suarez, whether rightly or wrongly, who will fall. Sometimes, extreme measures have to be taken so that real racists do not find an escape route. This is why the FA does what it does. It is not the job of the court to remove racism from football. It is the job of the FA to do so. Hence, even if there is a slight doubt, the FA dishes out a ban. So instead of criticizing the FA, it is time we appreciate the work which has been done, so that we can work together towards removing racism from football.