Walk Off or Shut Out?

For those of you who read this and do not know me, I am an Anglo-Saxon white person, raised in England and living in Australia. I have in my life as far as I can remember only ever experienced racism directed at me specifically on two occasions. There may have been more, but these two stand out. I am extremely lucky in that respect.

Have I been guilty of racism? Yes, regrettably I have. The truth is I think all of us have at some point in our life been guilty of racism. Some people do not even realise that a comment that they felt “was nothing” could be conceived as racist.

There are numerous quotes that are applicable to trying to understand how another person may feel. “Don’t judge me until you walk a mile in my shoes or live a day in my life,” or “Don’t judge someone’s attitude until you’ve felt their pain.” Insults of any nature affect all of us differently. The pain they cause is different, and therefore it is hard to generalise over such issues.

Yet one question that has been raised recently is whether sport truly takes the issue of racism seriously?

Football as a sport was ravaged by racism in the 1970’s and 1980’s. It has battled hard to combat it with programs such as “Kick it Out,” but as was witnessed a fortnight ago there is still a long way to go.

Racist chanting was directed at black players wearing the England shirt during their Euro2020 qualifier against Montenegro in Podgoricia, which England won 5-1.

England Captain Harry Kane was asked in the aftermath if his team would walk off the pitch if there was a repeat of such behaviour. He was reported as saying “Yeah, well I’m supportive of my team mates and if it happened again and they weren’t happy and wanted to talk about it or take a breather I would fully back them.”

“We are a team, a unit and we stick behind all of our players.” He added. “Hopefully it will never happen again but if it did, I would take their lead on that and whatever they wanted we would support them in that.”

UEFA has charged Montenegro with racist behaviour and the response from the Montenegro FA is that they will ban any supporters that they found to have racially abused England’s Black players. The case is due to be heard on May 15th.

Should a team walk off in such a situation?

Yes, they should. The problem with this however is it opens the door for a team that is losing, to abuse the situation and walk off claiming that they have suffered abuse.

Having interviewed athletes of colour from a number of sports on this very issue, it was interesting to hear from nearly everyone that the abuse they received from opposition players was minimal. “You could count the number of times on one hand” was the response from one.

However all were in agreement that the abuse they received from the crowd was worse, and happened on a regular basis. The anonymity of being a face, or voice in the crowd appearing to give people courage to shout abuse, and feel that they will not have to face any consequences.

Technology means that at stadia today those managing the venue can zoom in on fans and identify all specatators, but is simply weeding out a few from the many and holding them accountable enough?

There should be no place for such behaviour in sport today. The Montenegro FA’s assurance that they will ban supporters that were found to have racially abused Danny Rose, Raheem Sterling, and Callum Hudson-Odoi, is simply not good enough.

The powers that be need to issue serious penalties to clubs and national associations where such behaviour occurs. For example Montenegro have three more home games to play in their Euro 2020 qualifiers, why not force all to be played behind closed doors? The loss of revenue to their National Association would be bad enough, but their fans will feel the pain more by not being allowed to watch their team in action.

Of course such actions would penalise the away fans from their opponents. To only allow those fans in could present a logistical nightmare. As local fans would be sure to attempt to infiltrate the visiting fans. However such a ban needs to happen to stamp out such behaviour and send a message to the clubs and nations where such behaviour exists that it is no longer acceptable.

Alternatively, could such behaviour lead to the national team being ejected from the qualifiers altogether?

Of course there have been walk-offs in sport before, and especially in football. Believe it or not, but on December 12 1891, Burnley’s game at home to Blackburn had to be abandoned because the Blackburn Rovers players left the field. The reason for their departure was they said ‘the numbing cold.’ So the story goes only their goalkeeper remained on the pitch, and he would not have had gloves in that era. When he appealed for off-side and was awarded a free kick, but had no one to pass to, the referee was forced to abandon the game.

At the 1982 World Cup Kuwait threatened to walk off during their match v France. France were leading 3-1 when Alain Giresse skipped past the Kuwaiti defenders to hammer home a fourth. The Kuwaitis immediately complained that they hadn’t tried to stop him because they thought they had heard a whistle. Prince Fahd Al-Ahmed Al-Jabar, the president of the Kuwaiti Football Association, who was in the crowd threatened to withdraw his team if the goal wasn’t disallowed. After a short delay the referee eventually agreed to cancel the goal. IT cost him dearly as he never officiated another World Cup game.

In Cricket in 1971 the third Ashes Test in Melbourne had been abandoned due to rain, so both boards agreed to schedule an unprecedented seventh Test. England captain Ray Illingworth famously lead his team from the field late in Australia’s first innings. Fast bowler John Snow had bounced tail-ender Terry Jenner, who had ducked into the delivery and was struck on the head. Snow was warned by umpire Lou Rowan for excessive use of short pitched bowling, a warning that Illingworth did not agree with and protested against. In the next over Snow was fielding on the boundary fence, and was grabbed by a spectator. Illingworth led his team from the field he claimed for their safety. The players return but only after the umpires warned the England Captain that they would award the match to Australia if he didn’t!

Interestingly just last week a team did leave the field due to racist abuse. An amateur cup final in Leicester was abandoned because a supporter allegedly made racist remarks towards a player.

Newspaper reports claimed that “the incident occurred last Wednesday after the Wymeswold Reserves striker Linford Harris was sent off during the 78th minute of the Saturday Vase final against Cosby United Development.”

It was reported that as Harris was leaving the field of play he was then racially abused by a fan. This led to a confrontation between the players and some of the 200-strong crowd also became involved. As a result, the Wymeswold players walked off in protest and the referee was forced to abandon the game. Cosby were winning 1-0 at the time.

In the professional game it is hard to find an example of a side leaving the field of play because of repeated racial abuse of their players. If it were to happen it would certainly leave the powers that be with a major headache.

England’s FA Chairman Greg Clarke has urged a lowering of UEFA’s threshold to allow referees to take players off the pitch if they heard racist abuse. Will that solve the problem?

This behaviour should not be happening in 2019. If it reaches a stage where a team does feel that the only way to make a point and protect their team mates is to walk off, then those running the game only have themselves to blame, as it will be their failure to administer severe penalties that will be the cause.

If true fans are prevented from watching their team play because of a minority who think it is OK to abuse opposition players because of the colour of their skin or religious beliefs, they will soon speak up and stop the minority. Attempts to simply punish a few people has shown it has little effect. There is still the anonymity of the crowd that the players who have suffered abuse talk about, that protects the few.