Pitch Black (23 page)

The Scottish game never experienced its watershed moment that would enable it to collectively draw the conclusion that issues of racism could no longer be allowed to blight the game. The failure of the Scottish footballing authorities to provide support for Walters, Harper and others reflected their complacency about racism within Scottish society and a degree of cowardice within football.

MUCH OF THE
focus of the media attention around racist activity had shifted as a result of some high-profile incidences of racism involving English clubs and national sides, particularly in southern and eastern Europe. Black players of English teams were being subjected to a type of racist abuse that had largely been eliminated from the English game. The incidents occurred throughout mainland Europe, but appeared to be worst in Spain, Italy and a number of countries in eastern Europe.

Of the European countries, Britain was amongst the first to exploit the footballing talent that emerged from its home-grown black communities. After the Second World War, it had been amongst the first European countries to exploit its former colonies as a source of cheap labour and invite black people to its shores, and other European nations followed suit. Portugal had a long history of inclusion of black players in its domestic game, both from within its shores and from its former colonies, such as Mozambique and Angola. France’s dashing national side of the 1980s included Marius Trésor and future Fulham manager Jean Tigana, amongst others. The last all-white Dutch national side had played in the early 1980s and black players Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Aron Winter had been regulars at
international level since the middle of the decade. Other European countries such as Germany and Belgium didn’t feature black players on a regular basis until the late 1990s.

Changes in patterns of migration across Europe resulted in a more diverse profile of home-grown talent playing within European countries, particularly from those communities whose heritage was from footballing hotbeds in sub-Saharan and northern Africa. At youth level, in particular, most national teams in western Europe were regularly including black players within their squads. As Europe was becoming more racially diverse, the backlash from sections of host white football fans increased. The wholesale terrace abuse that had become a common feature of English football was replicated in other European countries. Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium and others all had well-documented instances of terrace racism.

In eastern Europe, a different situation had arisen. Eastern European countries hadn’t developed colonies in the way western powers had done. The end of the Soviet-dominated regimes following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 had brought into being new political structures and the emergence of new nations. The development of these new nations had ushered in nationalist and patriotic political trends, and football became the arena where expressions of nationalism were played out.

In the era of the global economy, Europe became the centre of the global game. The best players from across the world were playing in European leagues in a way that would have been inconceivable in the era of Pelé, Jairzinho and others, who undertook their footballing careers almost entirely in their home country of Brazil. For many countries in Europe, a small number of black players, mainly Brazilians,
Nigerians or other Africans, began to turn out regularly within these leagues and suffered widespread racist abuse, not only in eastern Europe but in many parts of western Europe also.

This abuse wasn’t confined to domestic games: in October 2002, for example, an England side containing Andy Cole and Emile Heskey was racially abused by Slovakia fans. To their credit, the Slovakian FA apologised to the English FA and to Cole and Heskey too. A year later, in September 2003, England’s black players, Cole, Heskey and Sol Campbell, were racially abused by Macedonia fans.

However, racist abuse wasn’t focused completely in one direction. In April 2003, the FA was fined £70,000 for a pitch invasion and racist abuse by England fans at a Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. England fans had booed the Turkish national anthem and kept up chants of ‘I’d rather be a Paki than a Turk’ and ‘Stand up if you hate the Turks’ for the duration of the game.

Despite substantial evidence to the contrary, however, the media and football authorities were now beginning to peddle the narrative that English football had largely addressed its racism problem, which was now a relic from football’s dark ages, along with football hooliganism and tackles from behind. The notion that racism had been eliminated from the English game was proving hollow, but they were promoting it with increasing conviction nonetheless – and with increasing success. What was needed was an opportunity to fully consolidate the illusion and this duly arrived in the form of an England international friendly against Spain.

The issue of racism had dominated the run-up to the game in November 2004. Spain manager Luis Aragonés had
referred to Arsenal’s Thierry Henry as a ‘black shit’ in an apparent attempt to motivate the Spain winger – and Henry’s Arsenal teammate – José Antonio Reyes while preparing for a World Cup qualifier against Belgium in October 2004. His comments were widely reported in the British media and the issue was raised in press conferences with Aragonés in the build-up to the game, with repeated calls from the British media for the Spanish authorities to take action against their manager. For his part, Aragonés caused further controversy by declaring that his ‘conscience was clear’, asserting that it was the English who were racist, and criticising Britain’s colonial past. On the night before the game, England’s black players suffered racist abuse in an under-21 international between the two sides.

The game at the Bernabéu stadium in Madrid was marred by racist chanting directed at England’s black players by large sections of the crowd. The chanting took place every time one of the black players took possession, and seemed to contribute greatly to what turned out to be a niggly, bad-tempered spectacle. The abuse seemed to particularly affect England left-back Ashley Cole’s composure, but it was also clear that the white players in the side were affected by the general atmosphere within the stadium.

After the game, the English media were outraged. They denounced the racist behaviour of the Spanish crowd and the previous racist utterings of Aragonés towards Henry. They also correctly noted that the Spanish football authorities and large parts of the Spanish media had not acknowledged that the abuse had occurred, fuelling the belief that a failure to condemn previous racist incidents had contributed to the level and vehemence of the attacks on England players. The press, television pundits, the FA, the Prime Minister, the
Sports Minister and John Motson all condemned the monkey chanting and general racist abuse. An Early Day Motion condemning the incident was put forward in the British Parliament and enthusiastically supported by all sides of the House. Never before had so many both within and outside the game been so unanimous and explicit about condemning racism. It seemed to denote a new level of awareness and determination to finally tackle the issue.

The press reaction gave the impression that the kind of abuse meted out to Shaun Wright-Phillips, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole and others was an entirely new and unique occurrence. A typical response came from
The Guardian,
which stated: ‘The abuse, the worst example of racism at an England match in decades, was greeted with disgust and disbelief in the UK, which is acknowledged as leading the way in European football in the battle against racism.’

The abuse was indeed deeply unsavoury, but no more so than abuse given to John Barnes, Ruud Gullit and others at national games. Indeed, in the wake of the game, Barnes was moved to advise caution against the self-congratulatory tone of much of the press reaction. He implored, ‘Please let’s not all believe we’re much better in this country. Because we don’t hear it any more we think we’re getting rid of racism. They might be less vocal but there are plenty of racists around in English football.’

Few in the media were prepared to deviate from the accepted line that Barnes had challenged. However, in another
Guardian
article, commenting on press hypocrisy around the events in Madrid, journalist Martin Jacques observed:

The Bernabéu incident marked the point at which the media placed itself firmly in the anti-racist camp and designed a brand new narrative of racism as something that now only took place in other European countries. In doing so, they completely disregarded their role in ignoring and in some cases pandering to issues of racism within the game. The media had now reinvented themselves as defenders of the dignity and human rights of black footballers, but they had also realised that racism was a toxic issue that could maximise attention for media outlets.

The widespread condemnation of the abuse of England’s black players had travelled far beyond football’s traditional circles. Racism had developed into an issue that no right-minded person would wish to be accused of and one they would be keen to support efforts to eliminate. It was an issue that could fill column inches, and everybody and anybody could have an opinion on the matter. Their opinion would then provide opportunities for additional column inches or items on 24-hour sports news outlets. Issues of racism thus became increasingly sensationalised and treated in the same way as the press might report on a Premier League star falling drunk out of a nightclub or cheating on his wife with a
supermodel. From this point on, the media treated issues of racism as items of celebrity gossip to provide opportunities to berate, condemn and otherwise adopt a holier-than-thou attitude. The impact of this about-turn has been to treat each incidence of racism as a self-contained event, with the authorities under immediate pressure to undertake inquiries, hearings and investigations and then simply dispense fines, bans or other sanctions. Anyone with even a tenuous connection to the game is required to give their opinion, irrespective of their understanding or knowledge of the underlying factors. However, this approach does nothing to bring the game as a whole any closer to addressing these issues.

Away from international football, black players continued to have an impact on the domestic game. On 10 April 2005, James Vaughan became the youngest ever Premier League goal scorer when he netted one within a few minutes of coming on for his debut appearance as a substitute for his club, Everton, in a match against Crystal Palace at the age of sixteen years and 271 days. Meanwhile at Leeds, eighteen-year-old Aaron Lennon had just completed an exceptional first season after his club’s relegation to the Championship and was attracting interest from top-flight sides. The club was in a dire financial situation and Lennon was sold in a fire sale for a paltry £1 million to Tottenham Hotspur in July 2005. Later that month, Chelsea signed Ian Wright’s son Shaun Wright-Phillips, a product of Manchester City’s academy, for £21 million and helped to ease City’s considerable financial problems at the same time.

The FA once again showed its unwillingness to tackle issues of racism unless they were high-profile incidents or involved high-profile players. Bradford City keeper Donovan Ricketts was given a red card for making an abusive
gesture to Southend fans, alleging racist abuse. Bradford appealed, citing the alleged racist abuse as mitigation, but the FA decided to limit the remit of the appeal to whether or not Ricketts had made the gesture and left the matter of racist abuse to the police, thereby absolving themselves of any responsibility.

The England squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany contained Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, David James, Jermaine Jenas, Aaron Lennon and, most surprisingly, seventeen-year-old Theo Walcott. Arsenal had paid £5 million to Championship side Southampton for the young striker as a sixteen-year-old in January 2006. Walcott hadn’t yet made his debut for Arsenal when he was called up for the World Cup squad and would become the youngest ever player to feature for England when he appeared as substitute in a pre-World Cup warm-up game against Hungary in May 2006, when he was just seventeen years and seventy-five days old.

In their opening game, an England line-up featuring Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole beat Paraguay in an unconvincing 1–0 win. Their next match, against Trinidad and Tobago, was a sterile, turgid affair, with England finally overcoming their opponents with two late goals. Trinidad and Tobago, featuring a number of British-based players including Dwight Yorke and Shaka Hislop, were the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup. England finished top of their group after a 2–2 draw against Sweden and were eventually to go out on penalties in the quarter-finals to Portugal. Walcott never got to feature in the tournament.

Knutsford is a quiet, affluent town in Cheshire, close to the M6 and within easy striking distance of Liverpool, Manchester and other towns within the north-west of England that form a key part of football’s traditional heartland. The area has become a magnet as a place of residence for the wealthy young men who kick a football around for a living.

One of these young men was twenty-year-old Everton striker Victor Anichebe, who was out and about in Knutsford town centre with an old friend, Yeovil Town player Lee Peltier, in March 2009. The two had known each other for many years. Anichebe was a product of Everton’s academy and Peltier had been through the Liverpool academy and had played a few games for the first team before eventually moving on to play for Yeovil.

The two had gone for lunch and then spent some time looking in a jeweller’s shop window. After queuing at a cash machine, Anichebe went into a branch of Waterstones and began searching on the shop computer for a title he was interested in. At this point, members of Cheshire Constabulary entered the shop and took Anichebe outside. He had undergone an operation a few days earlier on a serious injury that eventually kept him out of the game for eleven months and was unable to walk without the aid of crutches. While outside, one of the officers tried to remove one of his crutches to prevent escape, to which Anichebe objected. Meanwhile, Peltier had been placed in handcuffs and the officers were heavy handed and aggressive. When, eventually, other officers arrived, one of them recognised Anichebe and the pair were released.