Racist taunts aimed at the black players on England’s soccer teams spoiled Spain’s impressive 1-0 victory over David Beckham’s team on Wednesday.
While the Spaniards outplayed England for long periods at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, their fans taunted Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole whenever they had the ball.
”It was very bad to hear,” said England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson. ”When you hear people doing it at players because of the colour of their skin, I am sorry to hear it.”
The British government is set to take up the issue with the Spaniards.
”I was absolutely appalled by the reaction of the crowd and I will be writing tomorrow to the Spanish sports minister to express my outrage at their behaviour,” said Britain’s Sports Minister Andrew Caborn.
”I would like to see him ask the Spanish FA [Football Association] to condemn the scenes we witnessed tonight in the Bernabeu.
”I also expect Fifa and Uefa to fully investigate the issue. There is no place for racism in football or modern society, and I strongly believe that action needs to be taken at the highest level.”
Row on two fronts
A race row on two fronts provided the unwanted background as two of soccer’s powerhouses met in a so-called friendly.
England also plans to complain to world governing body Fifa and its European counterpart, Uefa, about racist chants by Spanish fans at Tuesday’s meeting of the two nations at under-21 level.
And the English media was engaged in a stormy verbal exchange with veteran Spain coach Luis Aragones over a racist comment he made a month ago about Arsenal’s black French star Thierry Henry.
Aragones effectively accused the English of being the pioneers of racism, while the British tabloids hit back by saying that Spaniards had ”wiped out” the Incas and Aztecs of Central and South America.
The row took the spotlight away from the anticipated action on the field in which Real Madrid stars Beckham and Owen faced some of their clubmates on the Spain line-up.
The English FA feared that the racist chanting they heard at Tuesday’s game might be repeated on Wednesday, and they proved to be right.
”We will also be writing to both Uefa and Fifa to make them aware of the jeering that took place during the under-21 game,” said FA spokesperson Adrian Bevington. ”We would, of course, hope that this does not occur again this evening.”
The Spanish soccer federation responded by saying there was no evidence of racist chanting at the game and no initial complaint from the English.
”The crowd behaviour was correct and polite at a general level,” a spokesperson said with customary anonymity.
”There were no racist banners or chanting. There may have been something at an individual level, but we don’t believe there is any reason for a complaint to be made. No one from the English FA made any complaint last night.”
No escalation of racism
Fifa said it has not yet received a letter from the FA, but is expecting it.
”The FA press office has told us that they are likely to be sending a letter to Fifa but we can’t comment until we have received it,” spokesperson Andreas Herren said. ”When it arrives, it will be dealt with in the usual way.”
Herren said there is no evidence of an escalation of racist problems in soccer.
”The last thing brought to our attention was the Aragones incident [involving Henry] a few weeks ago, but we received no formal correspondence about it,” the Fifa spokesperson said.
”But it’s being debated in the public eye, which is a good thing because it makes people aware that it is wrong. Strong media debate means that there is a sort of self-regulatory effect.”
Media battle
While the two federations and Fifa debate whether Spanish fans hurled racist abuse at the English players, Aragones is having a running battle with the English media.
When asked to recall what he said about Henry, Aragones said that, although he used the word ”black”, had made the comment to try to motivate Jose Antonio Reyes, another Arsenal striker who plays for Spain and is white.
But he didn’t leave it there. Aragones suggested the English had been guilty of racism for centuries, especially towards Africans.
”I have black friends who lived in the colonies. They tell me the English chased after them like wolves. You can write that,” the 66-year-old Spaniard told reporters.
The papers responded with an attack on Spain.
Under a headline ”The shame of Spain”, the tabloid Daily Mail listed what it called ”a long and discreditable history of imperialism and cruelty that far outweighs any abuses carried out under the British flag”.
The list referred to the Spanish Inquisition and the conquest of Central and South American nations in the 16th century.
Meanwhile, Piara Power, spokesperson for the anti-racist organisation Kick It Out, suggested that Aragones’s comment about Henry effectively invited Spanish fans to make monkey chants at Carlton Cole.
”What’s happened is quite complex but it’s from the same set of values,” he said.
”If I was a Spanish football fan and I’m hearing what Aragones has got away with I would think, ‘why can’t I get away with monkey chanting?”’
Power said that Aragones would certainly have been fired if he had been the England coach.
”He’s obviously putting out a position that’s outdated but there isn’t the media pressure in Spain which would say that what he said was wrong,” he said. ”Here in Britain the press would probably be leading the charge for his head.” — Sapa-AP