There’s no use pointing the finger at Chris Sutton for his idiotic comments when the A-League has a significant problem of its own to sort out.
You know what no one called the England-born former Celtic striker Sutton when he labelled the Asian Cup “a Mickey Mouse competition” the other day?
A racist.
That’s because British football sits at the top of the tree for the majority of fans from English-speaking countries, automatically relegating teams from other parts of the world to the status of second-class citizens.
It’s one of the reasons so many English commentators effectively cheer on British clubs against European opponents during global broadcasts of UEFA Champions League games.
And there’s one other thing that amplified Sutton’s comments about Tom Rogic and his impending Asian Cup duties far beyond what the one-time English international might have expected.
Social media.
Let’s be real, Sutton’s job as a Scottish Premier League pundit is to provoke discussion.
But his comments might never have gone any further than McDiarmid Park in central Scotland and the watching television audience had they not incurred the wrath of an army of Socceroos fans on Twitter.
Sutton’s no fool – although he plays one on TV – and his younger brother John played for the Central Coast Mariners when Rogic was still at the club.
So he understands Australian football well enough to know Rogic’s importance to the Socceroos.
But because Sutton automatically believes British football is superior and he remains oblivious to the power of social media, he figures the smartest thing he can add to a discussion panel is: “Stick to your prawns and barbecues”.
Side-splitting stuff.
And didn’t the infamous #SokkahTwitter community let Sutton know exactly what they thought of his comments?
Funny, though, how there was a more muted response when Western Sydney Wanderers midfielder Roly Bonevacia said he’d been racially abused by members of the crowd at Coopers Stadium on Boxing Day.
Roly Bonevacia. (Photo by Nigel Owen/Action Plus via Getty Images)
Do as we say but not as we do? You certainly get that impression from some members of Australian football’s online community.
And while we’re sitting here doling out the truth bombs, there are a couple more things that need to be acknowledged.
The first is that there is no excuse for racism of any kind anywhere.
If you get caught racially abusing anyone at an A-League game, you should face a ban.
However, after Brisbane Roar goalkeeper Jamie Young was racially abused at a game in Mudgee earlier this season, he told The Australian’s Ray Gatt that he wants fans to be educated about the impact of racist abuse rather than simply being banned from the game entirely.
And it’s perhaps worth considering what sort of person would racially abuse a player in the first place.
Probably a drunk one. And statistically speaking – at least as far as most anecdotal evidence is concerned – almost certainly a male.
But as we’ve seen with the persistent racial abuse in Italy’s Serie A – Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly was the latest victim – this is hardly just an A-League problem.
There’s not always much understanding in Australia of how Italian football functions.
For one thing, there’s a persistent myth that attendances in Serie A are small – the reality is that the league is averaging more than 25,000 this season alone.
And there’s no doubt that in a league where hardcore Ultras still wield outsized influence, some of them will use any tactic available to impact a game – including racist abuse.
But I just wonder if there aren’t often some deeply held, culturally engrained attitudes at play as well.
In which case, changing this sort of behaviour is going to take much more than just empty platitudes.
At the end of the day, football needs to do more to stamp out racist abuse.
There’s no excuse for it – and the buck stops with all of us.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Some of us on here have advocated that the A league is not a fully inclusive competition for any club or region to enter . My club survived the jump from nsl to a league, and I can understand the frustration of those who missed out . Hopefully very soon a National second division will be created to give any club who has the desire and financial support to have a pathway to the A league.
Mitcher
Guest
You can’t be serious...
Redondo
Roar Rookie
No doubt that’s true Con, but unfortunately a club’s intent did not always match its supporters’ actions.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
It definitely depends where you live and work. In my case, both my work colleagues and my children’s friends come from a remarkably diverse range of races and ethnicities. We see almost no instances of discrimination, and those that do occur come from older Aussies. Young Australians, at least in my experience, are wonderfully inclusive. I’m not saying racism and discrimination don’t exist in Australia, but I do think we have done great work trying to eliminate both. Sadly, the current LNP government will likely do all they can to unpick the good work in a desperate attempt to win the next election. More sadly, indigenous Australians seem to be the chief victims of residual racism and discrimination. That problem is so complicated it will take decades more to solve.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
K - I have an office, warehouse and factory to provide a fairly diverse range of skills, education an ethnic backgounds. I’ll leave you to join the dots.
callumgasowski
Roar Rookie
Unfortunately, racism does exist in the game of football. It's good to see FIFA use players who have a big voice in the football world (eg, Ronaldo) to say racism is not ok and will not be tolerated. Players have been hurt by these acts, we saw Inter be very disrespectful to Mario Balotelli when playing against Inter for AC Milan. Thankfully, Mario used that awful moment to later tell sources such as the media that racism is not tolerated, making higher football officials tell the fans on a global stand that racism is not ok.
Hermes
Guest
It is the height of hypocrisy to speak out against racism like many do on this forum but then to also perpetuate it by using terms like Old Football, which is just a euphemism for those “wog clubs”, and to denigrate the efforts of thousands of hard-working Australians who kept the game alive in this country for decades, in favour of UAE, Russia. and Chinese CCP related money. The racism is right here in front of our eyes and it stretches from the lazy and casual to the institutionalised racism of the FFA.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
I don’t hear any racism in my work place and we are reasonably diverse in ethnicity and age. Even spread of male and females . Go back 25 years, racism was widespread and everywhere . Be interesting to know what industry and who were the targets and perpetrators.
con tripodis
Guest
Also my friend Redondo ,it was only one think that counted the lowe's gave open slather policy to to destroy Australian soccer history on the information of one mans report john O'niell ,if he were to come up with a report like that today the courts would be a very busy places
con tripodis
Guest
i don't remember any club discriminating against the greater public no matter who they were they most certainly tried to encourage their local area to come to games inviting many junior teams from diverse communities .That statement is so not true, i remember well, we busted our chops to get all people from everywhere involved and made them feel welcomed and for the last 5 to 10 years of the NSL it was starting to work you could see different faces. I personally got all my neighbours and business associates coming to games with me and they all loved it i also used to go with a bunch of kids from Clayton and we were all mixed but we loved our NSL club
chris
Guest
Speaking of mickey mouse games...
con tripodis
Guest
the A league was formed on the basis of a racist report, that prejudice whole communities and cultures, Australian government often use the work assimilate , ha ha assimilate to what, who ,by rights we should only be assimilating to Kouri culture
con tripodis
Guest
racism comes in all forms like all the ethnic tagging and anti ethnic talk on this forum from certain people on this forum
Mister Football
Roar Guru
In fairness to Mike, he lambasted the FFA the day they told Avondale to cover up a tiny, barely visible, Italian flag on their shirt in an FFA Cup game.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
That's not about racism - it's about ethnic discrimination. And the FFA could argue that the A-League's aversion to those old football clubs was because those clubs discriminated on the basis of ethnicity.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Very true Con, the FFA has had a racist policy in place since the inception of the A-League.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
I agree that a great deal of sledging contains humour to some degree but there is often some far deeper unpleasant jibes that are dressed up as sledges. As for where we are at with racism as a country; I beg to differ. I see racism in action most days of the working week. It may appear light hearted and friendly but hard to know how much it really hurts. I see cases in shops, pubs, restaurants and don’t get me started with the police. We can all smile sweetly and say it has improved, or is a lot better than it was 20 years ago but I for one will argue that it remains all around the place. It is the same in many countries, no better, no worse, it is just there and I don’t go looking for it either - the obvious response.
Hermes
Guest
Strange article. Why not mention the most serious and institutionalised racism in Australian football and that is the banning of fans bringing whatever flag or banner they please to a ground rather than the immature and reactionary policy the FFA adheres to? Or, allowing clubs all the way down the football hierarchy in this country to identify with what ever national symbol, domestic or foreign, they please?
con tripodis
Guest
abusing a a league player because of his skin colour is one form of racism ,but the FFA and the A league are formed and up hold racist ideals , just on this forum there is so many comments on tagging certain groups ,clubs ,ethnic, casting them as if they are not Australian, the talk is strong its here its now so what is racism
Punter
Roar Rookie
I have never understood racism. To think you are better then someone else because of where you were born or the colour of your skin, what sort of achievement is that.