Racism, a problem that English soccer thought it had solved, has returned to haunt the country that gave birth to the game, with the English Premier League’s global popularity on the line after a succession of scandals.
With Luis Suarez and John Terry having already earned bans for racist abuse, the issue lurched into new territory on Sunday when top flight referee Mark Clattenburg was accused of racially abusing Chelsea’s John Mikel Obi.
It came after a match between Chelsea and Manchester United that had been a memorable encounter, full of incident and intrigue, but when the accusations against Clattenburg emerged a few hours later, the mood soured.
The seriousness of the claims was not lost on commentators on Monday.
“If a match official has used racial insults or language to a player, then he’s for the high jump,” former Premier League referee Jeff Winter told BBC radio. “It’d probably be the end of his career, if proven.”
The allegations are being seen as all the more shocking because English soccer was supposed to have banished the monkey chants and banana-throwing of the 1970s and 1980s during the period of aggressive gentrification heralded by the launch of the Premier League in 1992, as ticket prices and television exposure soared.
England came to be seen as a safe haven for black footballers and by 2002, Arsenal were fielding teams containing as many as nine black or mixed race players.
When English teams have found themselves the target of racial abuse, it has been portrayed in the national media as a problem that now belongs to other parts of the world.
After footage emerged of England’s Danny Rose being taunted with monkey noises by fans during an under-21 match in Serbia earlier this month, the shock reflected the fact that such scenes have not been witnessed in England for decades.
News24
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