It’s a very hard question to answer with a definitive answer. It seems with almost every month, there is a new major racism case that comes out in the media. As is well known, in the past 18 months, there have been the Luis Suarez, John Terry, John Obi Mikel and the Serbian U21’s examples, along with many other examples of crowd members using racist gestures and language. The question is why is this racism culture still in football, and why isn’t it more harshly come down on?

As Rio Ferdinand has said today (14/12/12) that ‘harsh deterrents are needed to stop racism in football’. This is definitely correct! In the Serbia vs England U21 match, there was not only racism from the players and coaches involved but by much of the crowd at the ground. The question must be posed, whilst 4 Serbian players have been suspended for 4, 3, 3 and 2 matches respectively, how can UEFA feel that a £65,000 is harsh in this instance? Is it a big enough deterrent? No!

For me, it has to come down to a combination of harsh punishment for racism, but also a heavily increased educational campaign for players and coaching staff. It isn’t possible to educate the whole crowd and stop their racism attempts in the variety of forms that it can come in. However, could the punishment, if crowd members are found guilty of racism, be points deducted? This may seem harsh but the fans love their club and this could be a way to stop fans acting like idiots and using racist chants, remarks and actions.

Furthermore, not getting into the guilty or not issue but why was there such a discrepancy between John Terry and Luis Suarez’s punishment? Suarez was suspended for 8 games and given a £40,000 fine, Terry was suspended for 4 matches and given a £220,000 fine. The FA stated that Terry was suspended for less as he only used the term ‘f**king black c**t’ once, while Suarez was found to have used the word ‘negrito’ on several occasions. That would be correct if the fines were similar. However, there doesn’t seem to be any reasoning behind the difference in their punishments. For a professional footballer of Terry’s calibre, the harshest punishment is matches suspended. The fine means very little.

As I said in my Xenophobia in English media article, it would appear that certain journalists in the English media demonstrate examples of racism and xenophobia in their writing. Martin Samuel said in his Daily Mail columns that John Terry deserved the right to innocence and said “Terry stands accused of a racist outburst, and his career and reputation are at stake.” However, in the days and months after the Luis Suarez case suggested his guilt and insistence at a lengthy ban- well before any finding was handed down! Almost, in the Mirror, there was heavily different headlines after both were found guilty. Whether it’s best described as racism or xenophobia, both are guilty of this act.

Regarding the John Obi Mikel racism claim, made by Ramires, against Mark Clattenburg, it’s hard to tell of the validity of the reported racism. It was dismissed due to conflicted reports from match officials, along with other witnesses. Ramires has the reputation of a good, honest player and man, so there is no accusation of him making up the incident. However, racism is very serious and accusations must not be thrown around without any basis.

As has been jokingly thrown around, is Nicklas Bendtner’s example of ambush marketing or serious cases of racism considered worse by UEFA? It would appear that the ambush marketing is considered worse by UEFA. This is because Bendtner was fined £80,000 and in this recent example, the Serbian FA were only fined £65,000.

The issue of racism coming from members of the crowd is a very serious issue. As mentioned above, although it isn’t the teams fault, a possibility is to deduct points from the club and play behind closed doors if racism occurs. This may seem strong and as they say ‘all it takes is one bad egg’. However, the only other possibility to strong self policing by the fans. The issue of racism in crowds is particularly big in Spain, Italy, Serbia, along with many other teams across Europe and South America.

Conclusion

The question needs to be taken seriously, both by FIFA and UEFA, along with the national FA’s. Whether it is done by harsh punishment, as suggested by Rio Ferdinand, along with others, or heavily improved education for those involved in the game needs to be worked out. For me, it will take a combination of both. The strongest punishment for players is being suspended for football matches, not fines for these professional footballers. For so many football fans, you can only have your fingers crossed that racism is kicked out of football and done quickly!