Let’s Kick It Out – The Prof’s View

Most people of colour will cringe at the ‘kick racism out’ campaign, all players just want to get on with their game without being reminded about the colour of their skin whether that be a racist idiot in the crowd or an anti racism campaign, they are both distractions from a players ability as a footballer.

All anti racism campaigns do is highlight the problem not deal with the problem, during the world cup they had team captains reading out a load of anti racism crap before the match – all that does is piss everyone off – The problem is this, all footballers want to be recognised for their ability not their skin pigment right, so to make skin colour an issue is self defeating and telling people to stop being racist is pointless because chances are, those who judge a footballer by their skin colour aren’t going to listen to anything, and an anti racism campaign only does two things – preach to the converted and bring politics into a scenario where politics should not exist.

So what’s the solution? Well the problem is much deeper than a few racists at a football match which is why ‘kick out racism’ is misjudged. It’s no coincidence that the racism is coming from countries who have no history of racial and cultural integration, Italy, Spain, many eastern European countries etc remain very secular.

The UK is way ahead of these countries in terms of social development which is why racism in football has been by and large dealt with in this country, not because of some well meaning campaign but because socially we made progress outside of football. Until places like Spain and Italy make progress socially then there is absolutely no way on earth that some campaign is going to change anything.

So just to confirm my stance on this situation, ‘Kick Racism Out’ is pointless, ineffective and it pisses off both black and white players and fans alike because: A) It doesn’t change anything at all and B) it distracts the beautiful game by dragging a lame political duck onto the pitch rather than trying to deal with the real problem which exists outside of football.

Article submitted by Professor Calculus.

Articles submitted by Vital Arsenal members are based on the opinion of the member and not necessarily the view’s of the network itself.