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Tag: Racism

  • Players should stage sit-down protests against racism – Capello

    Footballers in Italy’s Serie A should stage sit-down protests on the pitch if there is racist chanting during a match, former Juventus coach Fabio Capello suggested on Monday.

    Italian football has struggled to stop racist behaviour by fans.

    The problem returned to the spotlight on Boxing Day when Napoli’s Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly was taunted during a match against Inter Milan at San Siro.

    Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti said his team would walk off the pitch if there was a repeat, leading to a debate as to whether teams should take the law into their own hands.

    Inter Milan were ordered to play two home matches behind closed doors but Koulibaly also banned for two games, after being sent off for dissent late in the game.

    This sparked criticism that Serie A punishes the victims as much as the culprits.

    Ancelotti blamed Koulibaly’s loss of temper on the treatment he received from the crowd.

    “The players should sit down on the pitch, and they shouldn’t be punished for doing it,” Capello who was also at AC Milan and Real Madrid said in a radio interview with state broadcaster RAI.

    “That would help the fans who are behaving and want to watch football and force those guilty of animal noises to stop and feel ashamed of what they’re doing.”

    Capello, who also coached England and Russia during his long career, added that the hardcore “Ultras’’ had too much power in Italian football.

    “Italy is the only place where the ultras run the show and the players go the curve (stands) to wave at them,” he said.

    The 72-year-old added that “85 to 90 percent of Italian fans are important — not these gentlemen with their banners, slogans and too much power given to them by the clubs.”

    Match officials in Italy are expected to report racist incidents to public security officials who have the power to stop games, although that did not happen during the Inter-Napoli match.

    The guidelines were introduced in 2013 after the AC Milan team walked off the field during a friendly match in protest at racist insults aimed at several of their players.

    There was another outcry two years ago after Ghanaian player Sulley Muntari was booked and then sent off after complaining about racist abuse while playing for Pescara at Cagliari.

  • Newspapers fuel racism, says Raheem Sterling

    Newspapers fuel racism, says Raheem Sterling

    Newspapers are helping to “fuel racism” by the ways in which they portray young black footballers, says Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling.

    Sterling, 24, posted on social media a day after suffering alleged racist abuse from Chelsea fans during City’s 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.

    Chelsea and the Metropolitan Police are investigating the allegations.

    All I have to say is have a second thought about fair publicity and give all players an equal chance,” he said.

    In a post on Instagram, Sterling said he “had to laugh” when he heard the alleged racist remarks during the game because he expects “no better”.

    The Football Association said on Sunday it would support the investigations.

    On Saturday, police in Scotland arrested two fans for allegedly directing racial abuse at Motherwell substitute Christian Mbulu during his side’s defeat at Hearts.

    In his post, England international Sterling cites newspaper headlines about team-mates Tosin Adarabioyo and Phil Foden buying houses.

    The headline referring to 21-year-old defender Adarabioyo – who is on loan at West Brom – focuses on how he spent £2.25m on a property “despite having never started a Premier League match”.

    By contrast, midfielder Foden, 18, “buys a £2m home for his mum” and is later described as having “set up a future”.

    “You have two young players starting out their careers – both play for the same team, both have done the right thing, which is buy a new house for their mothers who have put in a lot of time and love into helping them get where they are,” Sterling said.

    “But look at how the newspapers get their message across for the young black player and then for the young white player.

    “I think this is unacceptable, both innocent, have not done a thing wrong but just by the way it has been worded, this young black kid is looked at in a bad light, which helps fuel racism and aggressive behaviour.”

     

  • Russian club deny racism after cancelling deal for black player

    Russian third-tier side Torpedo Moscow have cancelled plans to sign defender Erving Botaka-Yobama – denying that they have done so because he is black.

    Torpedo faced fan protests after announcing the signing of Botaka-Yobama – who is Russian and Congolese descent – last Saturday.

    The club said the deal for the 19-year-old, a former Torpedo youth player, had been cancelled for financial reasons.

    “Skin colour is never a criterion when selecting a player,” the club said.

    “Racism has no right to exist. We adhere to this point of view.”

    The club added that Lokomotiv-Kazanka Moscow, who the player was joining from, had demanded a transfer fee, causing the deal to be called off.

    Earlier in the week, a group of fans known as the Zapad-5 Ultras wrote on Russian social media site Vkontakte: “Black may be one of our club’s colours, but we only want whites in our ranks.”

    Those comments were condemned by Alexander Zotov, head of the All-Russian Union of Footballers.

    He said: “There have been changes in the minds of people after the World Cup but there is still a group of idiots.

    “I read a lot of statements about the football player. Some were openly racist. These people with limited horizons exist in any country. We saw how open our society and people are [during the World Cup].

    “There are fans of Torpedo who are normal, and do not welcome the behaviour of that group in relation to Botaka.”

    The Russian Football Union was fined £22,000 by world governing body Fifa in May for racist chants by fans in Russia’s friendly with France in March.

    Liverpool complained to Uefa about alleged racist abuse directed at winger Bobby Adekanye during a Uefa Youth League match at Spartak Moscow last September.

    And in January, Spartak Moscow were criticised for a ‘racist’ tweet about their own players.

  • Swiss court fines man $4,000 for ‘liking’ defamatory posts on Facebook

    Swiss court fines man $4,000 for ‘liking’ defamatory posts on Facebook

    Be very careful what you “like” on Facebook.

    A court in Switzerland has convicted a man on several counts of defamation after he “liked” libellous comments on the social media platform.

    The court in Zurich found that the man indirectly endorsed and further distributed the comments by using the ubiquitous Facebook “like” button.

    The man, who was not named in the court’s statement, “liked” several posts written by a third party that accused an animal rights activist of antisemitism, racism and fascism.

    In court, the man was not able to prove that the claims were accurate or could reasonably be held to be true.

    “The defendant clearly endorsed the unseemly content and made it his own,” a statement from the court said.

    The court fined the man a total of 4,000 Swiss francs ($4,100). He has the right to appeal his sentence.

    Facebook said the case had “no direct link” to the company, and a spokesperson declined to comment.

    The case is believed to be the first time a court has interpreted a “like” as an explicit endorsement of a post.

    The Zurich court said the “likes” in this case were made between July and September 2015, before Facebook broadened the range of emotions that users can deploy when responding to a post.

    Until February 2016, the “like” button was the only way to react to a post, and it had been used to show a range of emotions, including concern.

    Users can now trigger “Love,” “Haha,” “Wow,” “Sad,” and “Angry” buttons.

    Facebook spent more than a year preparing the “reactions”. They worked with sociologists, consulted focus groups and conducted surveys to determine which emotions would make the final cut.

    Critics say the range of reactions needs more work because it doesn’t include important emotions such as fear and disagreement.

     

     

    CNNtech