As someone who believes football and intellect are not necessary placed at opposite ends of the spectrum, I have been deeply shocked at the level of ignorance, racism, xenophobia, and indeed fascism that has recently come to the fore in football.
As a teenager I had always tended to assume that fascism cum racism had disappeared, simply because it did not really feature that overtly in the 1990s – or better, the press did not pick up on it, at least as far as I was aware.

Lazio Rome, Ferencvaros Budapest, Millwall, and Real Madrid (to name but a few) have all kept the legend alive, and have turned it into reality. I first began to realise that the problem of racism and fascism in football was about to re-emerge on a grand scale during and immediately after the Kosovo conflict when certain individuals – Sinisa Mihajlovic – openly professed his deepest sympathies for the far-rightist elements in Serb politics. This was duly echoed by broad sections of the Lazio supporters as they answered Mihajlovic’s call to honour the war criminal Arkan after he had been assassinated while leaving a nightclub in Belgrade. A giant poster was held up as a “Tribute to the Tiger Arkan” and Mihajlovic was evidently touched.

It is self-evident to anyone who has seen Sinisa Mihajlovic play that he is an obnoxious, arrogant, and aggressive man. He was thus quickly isolated by the press and became an icon the middle-classes could identify as the ‘evil other’. A Balkan person with a racist touch – easy to label as the anti-Christ.

This is less the case when it comes to Italian, Spanish, or – heaven forbid –home-grown racist and fascist elements. A Serb ‘evildoer’ easily fits the picture, but an Italian, or even an entire Italian club, especially when the club is from the capital, from Rome, the capital of culture, the place people travel to in order to enjoy a 'cultural holiday'. Fascism? Racism? In Rome? Though it is a well-known fact that Lazio Rome embodies the epitome of institutionalised and organised racism, and modern-day fascism (with a hint of ‘old-fashionedness’, the salute and symbols have, quaintly enough, stayed the same), it remains an often-ignored fact.

Only recently did the press react to Paolo di Canio’s Nazi salute, as this was deemed too inappropriate to just simply let pass. Despite his antics in the Premiership, which included assaulting a referee, he was turned into everybody’s darling, unaware of or despite his extremist right-wing views. The Nazi salute was just the tip of the iceberg.
Benito Mussolini’s grand-daughter was kind enough to congratulate di Canio’s gesture, which must have made him feel ever so proud; the Dux’s granddaughter honouring his effort, what a reward.

The question arises, what has been done by the official organs of football (i.e. FIFA, UEFA, the Italian football association): The answer is little to nothing. His fine of 10,000 Euros seems absolutely laughable. It seems more important to fine a manager for voicing his opinion on the performance of a referee and possibly even banning him from the touchline for subsequent matches, while waving the Nazi salute at an exuberant neo-Nazi crowd in the Olympic Stadium in Rome seems perfectly acceptable. The abovementioned football associations evidently believe to have proportioned the two categories of incidents correctly. Criticising a referee’s performance (rightly or wrongly, often rightly judging by the deteriorating performances by referee’s lately, but that is another story) is therefore deemed a far greater crime than glorifying a political system that was responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews, over 500,000 Roma, well over a million Poles, and millions ,of ‘non-desirables’, from religious groups to Social Democrats, to Communists, to the disabled, to other Slavs (including literally countless Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians), to PoWs, to the Saami people in Northern Scandinavia, to various other people. UEFA clearly lack a sense of history, and they lack sound judgment.

Real Madrid, maybe the biggest club on earth, regularly host fans who make monkey noises when black players are on the pitch and happen to touch the ball. This is well known and well documented. England’s recent visit to Spain at the Bernabeu illustrated this aptly, though this kind of behaviour happens week in and week out. This is racism at its crudest, yet what have UEFA, FIFA, or the Spanish football association done? Again the answer is little to nothing.

In fact they only reprimanded Luis Aragones for his hideously racist outburst, which was caught on camera, towards Jose Antonio Reyes about Thierry Henry. Aragones’ pathetic excuses (“I know all about racism. I remember the colonies!”) were more or less accepted and the racist crowd in Madrid duly echoed his sentiment by taunting England’s black players in the vilest possible way. Only several months later did the Spanish FA have the decency to fine Aragones the grand total of 3,000 Euros, which is almost a greater mockery than not fining him at all.

Had I been playing on the evening the Spanish crowd were taunting England’s black players, I would have walked off the pitch. I would have also walked off the pitch had I witnessed Paolo di Canio’s Nazi salute. Yet the official football associations hold firm in their belief that it is good enough to produce anti-racism ads (which I welcome and applaud), but not to tackle the actual problem.

I was at a match in late August 2002 between Ferencvaros Budapest and MTK Budapest. I joined the away fans (MTK), since I had already heard of Ferencvaros right-wing attitude. I witnessed the worst possible events. Throughout the match the Ferencvaros fans roared songs at ‘us’ (roughly 150 MTK fans versus 15,000 Ferencvaros fans) about Auschwitz and killing Jews (MTK have a reputation of being a Jewish club, whatever that may mean). Bottles and stones were being thrown and the riot police had to move in to protect ‘us’. It was utter carnage. In the event MTK won 1:0, but I left 10 minutes before the end in order to avoid any post-match scuffles, or rather attempted murders based on racism and Nazism.

Volker Roth, the chairman of the UEFA referees’ committee, labelled Morinho “the enemy of football” for being (hyper-)critical of Anders Frisk, yet I don’t recall ever hearing such a description after any racist or fascist incidents.

My hope would be to see racism, in all its horrid forms, disappear, not only from the terraces, but also from society in general. UEFA, FIFA, and national football associations, however, are not doing enough. I would recommend banning Lazio Rome, Real Madrid, Ferencvaros Budapest, Millwall, and other well-known to racist troublemakers from international football, and even from their own ground, indefinitely, until things start changing for the better. As far as Spain is concerned, I would hope to see them disqualified from the World Cup 2006 and beyond, again until the monkey chanting and Nazi symbols in the stadiums disappear. I believe this is the only way to solve the problem rather than tiptoeing around the subject.

Football’s governing bodies very recently issued a statement saying that the harshest possible measures (i.e. a ban) would be implemented, should the unruly behaviour continue (racist overtures, but not Nazi or fascist symbolism). This is a step forward, yet I am highly dubious whether there is more to this statement than mere words. FIFA and UEFA have developed a reputation for being vocally active while remaining conspicuously passive.

The incidents and clubs I have mentioned represent only a fraction of the problems football is facing with regards to racism and fascism. Despite our constant congratulatory oration about the state of British football, racism, contrary to popular belief, still exists in this country. Real Madrid are not the only club in Spain with a terrible reputation. It is not only Italy and Hungary that struggle to stamp out racism and fascism, but these are all well-known cases. Football and its fans and players (and ultimately society) need to be protected. Measures must be put in place immediately. Bans hurt; fines and talk do not.

by James Koranyi