London, Sep 11: The Premier League season wasn’t even 30 minutes old when Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo reported being racially abused by a spectator.
The same weekend, a German Cup match was stopped after Schalke midfielder Christopher Antwi-Adjei said he was racially abused at a throw-in.
In Italy, Juventus condemned racist abuse targeting US player Weston McKennie as he warmed down after a league game.
And in Spain, police on Wednesday arrested a spectator for allegedly making monkey noises and gestures toward Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé during a match on August 24.
An early-season surge in abuse directed at Black players in competitions across Europe has alarmed anti-discrimination campaigners and highlighted how racism persists in soccer despite multiple initiatives by soccer bodies FIFA and UEFA, national federations and individual clubs to eliminate it.
“I think it’s more than double what we had last season at the same time,” said Piara Powar, executive director of the Fare network, an anti-discrimination group which works with the global and European soccer bodies to monitor and advise on incidents at games.
“If you layer social-media issues on top of that,” Powar added in a phone interview, referencing the abuse of England player Jess Carter at the Women’s European Championship this summer, “then you really are getting into a lot of stories coming out.” Frustrated at the lack of progress, some Black players have called for tougher penalties against offenders from both the justice system and soccer institutions.
“In this day and age, we’re still, us players, getting racially abused and it just doesn’t make sense,” Semenyo told British broadcaster ITV. “We just want to know why it keeps happening.” The man arrested on suspicion of hurling abuse at Semenyo in the Premier League opener against Liverpool was released on bail and told he cannot go within 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) of a soccer stadium in Britain while police investigate the incident.
Soccer’s tribal culture and frenzied fan base makes it a prime stage for societal problems like racism to surface. English soccer had a particularly harrowing time with racism in the 1970s and ‘80s when Black players were regularly subjected to monkey chants and offensive slurs.A generation later, racial abuse of players is more common in social media but also continues in stadiums. (AP)
