Mark Stein, the South African-born former Chelsea striker who has demanded a transfer from Dagenham & Redbridge because of the manager’s alleged racism, claims that other black players may follow his example.
‘It’s not like the 1970s and 1980s. Black players have more confidence in their ability and they will not tolerate racism. We live in a multicultural society and we don’t have to put up with it any longer,†said Stein. ‘Black players will walk out on clubs if they are racially abused.â€
He said that he had been informed by at least two white team-mates that they heard the Dagenham manager Garry Hill hurl racist abuse at Telford’s former Manchester City midfielder Fitzroy Simpson when the two teams met in the Nationwide Conference on September 6.
Hill is believed to have confronted Simpson at the start of the second half. It is alleged that the manager called the player a ‘black bastardâ€.
Hill has denied that he made any racist comments and he is being supported by the club’s chairperson, Dave Andrews.
‘I’m fully behind Garry — I know he’s not racist,†Andrews said recently. ‘Whatever was said I don’t know to this day. There was certainly swearing … but you get that at every football match.â€
Stein has been put on the transfer list at his own request and his black teammate Mark Smith has asked for his contract to be terminated. They say that they cannot carry on playing for Hill. It is believed to be the first time that black players have decided to leave a club because of alleged racism.
‘I made it clear to Dagenham & Redbridge that I could not play for a manager who holds those views,†Stein said.
Simpson, a former Jamaican international, has written to the Football Association, the Nationwide Conference and the Professional Footballers’ Association asking for a full investigation into the incident.
Stein said that he would like to have seen Hill suspended and a full investigation carried out by the club.
During his three years at the club Stein had never had any reason to believe Hill was a racist and had enjoyed a good relationship with officials and supporters.
Stein, aged 37, was born in Cape Town, where his father was an anti-apartheid campaigner. He was capped by England at youth level and played more than 450 league games, starting and ending at Luton, and scored 152 goals.
He spent five injury-interrupted seasons at Chelsea after they paid Stoke City £1,5-million for him in 1993, scoring 25 goals in 64 games. He was Dagenham’s leading scorer with 19 goals last season, when they finished runners-up in the Conference.
Stein is not worried about being labelled a troublemaker.
‘Sometimes you have to take a stand,†he said. —