Search: ' BNP'

Anti-racism initiatives in football should be applauded, but it's only scratching the surface

The press lounge at a Premiership ground one evening a few years ago. Journalists gathered for a midweek game are looking at a TV screen that is replaying goals from the previous weekend. Dwight Yorke scores against a team supported by one of those watching, who walks up to the screen and says loudly, in mock indignation: “Yorke, you black twat!” In the wake of last month’s friendly in Mad­rid, the journalist in question was one of many who set about suggesting various forms of action that might be taken against Spain for the Bernabéu crowd’s racial abuse of black England players. It is fair to assume, then, that he has long since seen the error of his ways.

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In the first of a series of articles looking at how the tournament was received at home, Al Needham strokes his chin, sifts through the discarded plastic flagpoles and wonders where all those crosses of St George came from. And does it mean anything anyway?

It’s good for a country and its people to take stock and re-evaluate its sense of identity every now and then, and I did just that in a bus shelter last month, sitting next to an elderly Jamaican woman, watching the endless procession of cars with plastic white flags with red crosses clipped to their windows. Where had they come from? It wasn’t this bad in 2002. Had a giant sandcastle firm been made bankrupt, or something? Was it just a local thing? And what did it all mean? “Look at these fools,” said the Jamaican woman, all of a sudden. “They don’t know what it means to be patriotic. In Jamaica, we have the flag up all year round, not for some… pussyclaat football game.” Then she sucked her teeth. For a very long time.

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The recent racism row between Millwall and Burnley overlooked the work both clubs do to improve community relations. Glen Poole reports from the Lancashire town on their current equality projects

What are Burnley doing to tackle racism? Alastair Camp­bell sparked a major incident in March when he accused Millwall fans of racism towards Burnley players in his Times column. Stan Ternent, Theo Paphitis and even former Radio Four bad-boy Rod Liddle waded into the fight. But Campbell – a lifelong Burnley fan – had raised an important point that was lost amid the sound of handbags clashing. It isn’t just clubs that have to take responsibility for the problem, but also fans and communities. The issue of racism beyond the terraces is particularly pertinent in Burnley, where the disturbances of 2001 and the subsequent BNP electoral gains have placed the town in the media spotlight. 

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As the anti-racism organisation celebrates its tenth birthday, Tom Davies spoke to Kick It Out co-ordinator Piara Powar about progress made and the battle still ahead

With the well established Kick It Out campaign now ten seasons old, it’s easy to forget just how mar­­ginal an issue anti-racism in football once was. In the 1980s it took the brave efforts of supporters them­selves, often at the places with the worst reputations such as Leeds and Chelsea, to drag the issue to public prominence. And it’s tempting, now, to congratulate ourselves on just how far we’ve come.

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Dear WSC
At the time of writing it is Thurs­day, September 11, 2003. Last night I along with 8,815 others ventured to Windsor Park, safe in the knowledge we could finally put to rest the 11-game goal drought. After all, we only lost 1-0 away to Armenia and we hit the post and crossbar and we mis­sed a few chances. Two hours later we had lost 1-0 again and we hit the crossbar and hit the post and missed a few chances. The media has generally chuckled at our plight, and who could blame them. BBC Northern Ireland is running a phone poll on whether or not we should scrap the Northern Ireland football team in favour of an All-Ireland -Team. This in itself is a quite ludicrous, deliberately contentious and politically loaded question from a supposedly public service broadcaster. I don’t recall a similar poll in favour of a British and Irish Lions team poll when the Irish rugby team lost to Argentina in a World Cup game. A plus point about the goal drought is that for the first time in years what little publicity we have received hasn’t been about problems with sectarianism and the national team. To an outsider it probably seems that Northern Ireland home games are a seething cauldron of bigotry and hatred.In fact, anyone attending a game without preconceived ideas would be surprised at how good the atmosphere is given the terrible ground, poorly performing team and crowd size. We are now just known as being useless, not useless bigots. I hope one day soon to look back and laugh about when we couldn’t score as Andy Smith nods another past a hapless Barthez on our way to automatic qualification for the World Cup in Germany…
Jim Lockhart, Banbridge, Co Down

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