For the first time in the long history of English soccer, players were being punished for words that were spoken on the field. It was surprising to see that two world class players have been accused of racially abusing other players. Liverpool's Uruguayan striker, Luis Suarez has been handed an eight-match ban and a 40,000 pound fine by the Football Association after being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra. Chelsea's England defender, John Terry, was also accused of racially abusing a player, Queens park Ranger's defender, Anton Ferdinand and was handed a one match ban. FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, set off a wave of outrage last month by claiming that racist abuse does not exist on the soccer field and suggests that any incidents should be settled by a handshake at the end of a match but I guess that didn't solve these problems.
Luis Suarez, 24, clashed with France defender, Patrice Evra, during a 1-1 draw at Liverpool's Anfield stadium on October 15th. Even though Suarez denied these allegations, there has been weak evidence against him to punish him. His manager, Kenny Dalglish was very surprised by the decision and said he was going to support him throughout the investigation. Suarez's club, Liverpool, has questioned whether the FA intend to charge Evra who also insulted Suarez in Spanish. There is a video of Suarez and Evra talking to each other multiple times in the match but it doesn't show that Suarez is guilty. Evra quoted after the match, " There are cameras, you can see Suarez say a certain word to me at least 10 times." Although The Professional Footballers' Association thinks that they have made the right decision, they clearly have no right to give such a long ban for a racial slur that they don't even know is genuine or not.
John Terry, 31, has also been accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand toward the end of the October 23rd match which was broadcasted throughout the world. The video showed him yelling two words and the word "black". Although Terry denies having said a racist remark, he vows to fight tooth and nail to prove his innocence. Ferdinand has not said anything after the match and it will be difficult for Terry to represent England for international football since he often partners up with Ferdinand's brother, Rio in defense. It will be difficult for him to be captain of Chelsea and England since this allegation will hurt his public image drastically.
The decisions taken on these two players, Terry and Suarez, promoted chaos throughout England since both cases don't provide definite evidence showing that these players have actually said what they have been framed for. I think that these players should be set free because there have been no comments from people who were against them. Evra and Ferdinand failed to comment after the incident which meant that they knew that what happened wasn't serious. Evra and Ferdinand knew it wasn't worthy of the match bans that Suarez and Terry received and rather stayed quiet to avoid getting themselves in trouble. FIFA will have to provide better evidence if they want to suspend or ban players from matches in the future or this will cause more of an outrage in the soccer world.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2077420/John-Terry-charged-Luis-Suarez-backed-Liverpool-What-pages-say-December-22-2011.html
All of the sport leagues are cracking down hard. In the NFL you can get fined 10,000 dollars for flipping off a camra or cursing. I learned from the article that FIFA is also not allowing it. Soccer players shouldnt have to stay calm in a game. In my oppinion let the players play their own game.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think you're right because as long as there's no evidence, there shouldn't be any consequences against players.
ReplyDeleteWow it is pretty sad how racism has to follow people everywhere. I can't believe it has interfered so much for these two that they are willing to still make comments with the consequence of being banned and finned.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's upsetting how racism still affects everyone throughout the world today.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's disappointing how people can never stop being racist in general.
ReplyDeleteI think players should be punished for what they say on the field especially racial slurs. They got what they disserved.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on if there was evidence or not, if there was, they definitely did.
DeleteI understand the rationale behind fining sports players, but I think there also needs to be a reasonable expectation of freedom of expression. This is entertainment, so the organizations like FIFA and the NFL are calling the shots. I just think that there is a boulevard between expression and sportsmanship.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I think even the slightest racist comment from someone is bad to express to a person and should definitely be punished.
DeleteI'd argue that racism is almost as prevalent today as it was twenty years ago. We don't have colored and white water fountains anymore, but minorities constantly find themselves discriminated systematically. Just look at how the death penalty is administered, almost 70% of people sentenced to death are of color while whites account for almost 60% of all murders.
ReplyDeleteGames always like that, it't not a fair world sometimes.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but sports managers are cracking down hard on racist comments, to make sure no one gets hurt.
DeleteI feel that the eagle eye system in the tennis should be put in soccer court too, by the way, I like John Terry, he's a really solid defender.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think thats a good idea, and yup he's my favorite defender.
DeleteI agree, but thats the reason why people are trying to stop it from existing.
ReplyDeleteI would just like to say that the title of your entire blog in general sounds like it should be the name of some sort of Soccer themed amusement park. And it's a shame that talented athelethes have to lower themseleves like this.
ReplyDeleteI guess.., yeah I can't believe that athletes don't get over the fact that everyone is different.
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