Soccer fans' increasing racist taunts raise concerns
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I guess Asians aren't even allowed inside the stadium.
In the Netherlands last month, a referee for the first time invoked a new rule and stopped a game in The Hague. The crowd had become hostile, chanting, ''Go to the gas chamber!'' and calling the referee ''the whore of Hamas,'' referring to the Palestinian extremist group. When the Amsterdam team Ajax plays, fans of rival teams often make a loud hissing noise, to simulate Nazi gas chambers -- a reference to the team's supposedly Jewish origins.
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Racism plagues European soccer
BY STEPHEN WADE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEVILLE, Spain - Spaniards used to say they lived in one of Europe's most racially tolerant countries. Soccer has shattered that myth.
In Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium -- the Yankee Stadium of soccer -- Spanish fans bellowed out monkey noises last week each time a black English player touched the ball in a match between England and Spain.
A month earlier, Spanish national coach Luis Aragones was caught by a TV crew using racist language about France's star striker Thierry Henry. He kept his job with little protest at home.
"I was shocked and I am still shocked at what happened," said Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, soccer's world governing body. "I am sad at this new expression of racism in a stadium that has been a temple of football."
Spain isn't the only European country where racism leaves its stain on soccer:
? Four days after the abuse in Madrid, black striker Dwight Yorke said he was subjected to racist gestures and noises in Birmingham City's game at Blackburn. Police opened an investigation.
? French club Paris St. Germain has an area where only white fans are welcome; another section is open to Paris' Arab and black immigrants.
? Fans of the Czech team Sparta Prague still shout "Slavia Jude" (Slavia Jew) against local rivals Slavia Prague. The chant dates from the pre-World War II era, when Slavia fans included many Jewish businessmen.
Baseball broke its color line in 1947 when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson was taunted for years, and it wasn't until the 1960s that civil rights laws and anti-racism campaigns allowed blacks to move easily into most major pro and college sports.
Countries such as Spain traditionally have sent citizens abroad, and only began to experience widespread immigration in the past two decades. Spaniards often say they entered the 20th century in 1975 -- the year dictator Francisco Franco died.
"It took immigrants coming to this country for us to realize that we can be racist like any other country, like anybody else," said Tomas Calvo Buezas, director of the Center for Studies of Migration and Racism at Complutense University in Madrid.
About 7.5 percent of Spain's 40 million citizens are immigrants. The figure is higher in Madrid, where 13 percent are foreign born, Calvo Buezas said.
"Soccer stirs up raw emotions," said Isabel Torrado, working at Dehesa Santa Maria, a cafe-bar just 100 yards from the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium -- home of the Sevilla soccer team.
After France won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European championship with a team dominated by black and North African immigrants, 39 percent in a French survey said there were too many foreign-born players on the team.
Fans at Italian clubs Lazio and Verona have been warned about racist goading.
Known as Europe's most tolerant country, even the Netherlands has seen repeated racial incidents and violence at The Hague-based club Ado Den Haag. Dutch powers Ajax and Feyenoord also have notorious fans.
Former Yugoslav national coach Ivica Osim said soccer racism in his almost entirely white region stems from a deep-seated "inferiority complex against larger, richer clubs or countries."
"The racism in football is all about national identity," said Stefan Szymanski, economics professor at Tanaka Business School in London. "It's a way of cementing your identity and singling out people who are not like you."
Despite anti-racism campaigns by UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, and denunciations of racial abuse by FIFA, the message often goes unheeded.
I guess Asians aren't even allowed inside the stadium.
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