The Warm-Up: Why are we giving racists three chances to be racist?
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Updated 15/10/2019 at 09:31 GMT
England won in Bulgaria on Monday night, if you care about that sort of thing. But we'll get nowhere if people continue to ignore the obvious.
A general view of the segregated stands during the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier between Bulgaria and England on October 14, 2019 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Why are we giving racists three chances to be racist?
Let’s get the football out of the way first. England won 6-0 in Bulgaria last night, showing some verve and pep after the drowsy showing against Czech Republic on Friday night. Granted, they were essentially playing against 11 vaguely sentient traffic cones, but a couple each for Raheem Sterling and Ross Barkley, plus strikes by Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane, made sure of the victory.
Obviously though, that’s not the most important thing to take from Monday’s events in Sofia. The game was stopped and nearly suspended entirely because of clear racist chanting, monkey noises and Nazi gestures coming from the Bulgaria fans, on this occasion seeming to be aimed directly at Tyrone Mings but really attacking every person of colour and whatever remains of the general sense of decency and dignity throughout society.
The officials followed the mandated UEFA three-step protocol of first warning the racist attendees that if they continued the game would be stopped, and didn’t ultimately get to the second step which would have been to take the players into the dressing room, and after that end the game entirely. Whichever suit came up with that official process may well be slapping themselves on the back this morning, thinking that because the racists broadly stopped, their process succeeded.
But is this really the best way to deal with it? Even if the PA announcement did actually work, that’s basically the equivalent of sticking some gaffer tape over a leaking pipe and deciding it is fixed. But it isn’t: the gaffer tape will quickly come loose, and everyone will be covered in water. Why are we giving racists three strikes? Why are we giving racists another chance to be racist? And then another before the game is stopped? Which is assuming they care about the game being stopped in the first place.
It’s not worse, but almost as bad was the stubbornness of Bulgaria coach Krasmir Balakov. “I personally did not hear the chanting,” Balakov said. “I saw the referee stopped the game but I also have to say the behaviour was also not only on behalf of the Bulgarian fans but also the English fans, who were whistling and shouting during the Bulgarian national anthem. During the second half they used words against our fans which I find unacceptable.”
And there we have it, the inevitable cap to all of this: the suggestion that being accused of racism is worse or equivalent to racism. With people like this in the game, it sadly feels like there’s a long way to go.
St Pauli release Sahin after supporting Turkish invasion
St Pauli are, of course, not like most football clubs. Most football clubs would not dream of releasing a player on moral grounds, unless there is a criminal conviction involved, but they have done exactly that after their Turkish midfielder Cenk Sahin expressed support for the Turkish military’s invasion of Kurdish regions of northern Syria in an Instagram post. “We’re on the side of our heroic military and armies. Our prayers are with you!” Sahin wrote.
St Pauli took a pretty dim view of that, saying in a statement on Monday:
Sahin has been released from his training and playing duties with immediate effect. The prime factors in reaching the decisions were his repeated disregard for the club’s values and the need to protect the player. After numerous discussions with fans, members and friends whose roots lie in Turkey, it has become clear to us that we cannot and should not attempt to gauge nuances in perceptions and attitudes from other cultural backgrounds in detail,” St Pauli said. “That we reject acts of war is not open to doubt or discussion, however. These acts, and the expression of solidarity with them, run counter to the values of the club.
Fortunately St Pauli don’t have any other players in the Turkish national team at the moment, for they celebrated their goal against France last night (a 1-1 draw which keeps them top of their Euro 2020 qualification group) thus, raising their fists in apparent solidarity with their military.
Alexis Sanchez out for two-three months
Alexis Sanchez just can’t catch a break, can he? After his Inter career has started so promisingly, and frankly they look much better with him up top than Romelu Lukaku, the Chilean has suffered an ankle injury while on international duty that will probably put him out for the meat of the year.
Sanchez suffered the problem during Chile’s 0-0 draw with Colombia over the weekend, and the Chilean FA confirmed that he had “dislocated tendons” in his left ankle, and while the Warm Up is very much not a medical expert, that doesn’t sound that good to us.
“He could end up under the knife,” Chile manager Reinaldo Rueda said. “Inter, his club, will decide. We could lose him for two or three months. It’s a shame because he had started playing again with Inter and scored two goals, while also playing in the Champions League.”
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: Raheem Sterling
We usually don’t need a specific reason to declare this hero a hero, but his response to the events of Monday night were textbook Sterling.
Zero: Mark Bowen
We should probably put ‘Bulgarian racists’ in this section, but that feels far too glib. Instead, let’s go for Mark Bowen, who a few weeks ago was brought in at Reading as their technical director earlier in the year, his job description in part to ultimately look for a new manager after Jose Gomes was dispensed with. And he didn’t look very far, installed in the dugout after what was presumably an extensive and wide-ranging recruitment process.
RETRO CORNER
It’s a very happy birthday to Paul Robinson. Here he is spotting Ben Foster off his line, and expertly using the bounce of the White Hart Lane pitch to lob him.
HAT TIP
The two Koreas meet on Tuesday in Pyongyang, where officials will hope that this World Cup qualifier ends in a better fashion than the last. The abiding memory of the Seoul game in April 2009 was the eternally glum North Korea coach, Kim Jong-hun, striding into the post-match press conference flanked by two minders. Taking no questions, the trench coat-wearing tactician accused the hosts of poisoning his players and then stormed out, pushing bewildered South Korea FA officials out of the way.
Big game on Tuesday, as North and South Korea face each other. For the Guardian, John Duerden sets the scene.
COMING UP
The last batch of Euro 2020 qualifiers in this international break, where Sweden can effectively seal their place in the finals if they can beat Spain, Finland can do the same with a win over Armenia, while Ireland are in Switzerland to see if they can take a big old hop towards the finals too.
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