Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli was allegedly the subject of some racist chanting at a recent Europa League game against Portuguese club FC Porto.
Reuters reports that Porto were stunned at a Man City complaint that Balotelli had been racially abused at the match, saying “nothing abnormal” had happened despite witnesses recounting some “monkey chanting” among certain fans in the stands.
From the story:
A City representative said the English club had brought the matter to the attention of UEFA officials, while witnesses gave accounts of “monkey chanting” towards the Italian during his side’s 2-1 win in Thursday’s round of 32 first leg in Portugal.
Porto spokesman Rui Cerqueira responded that no one from the team, either players, supporters or staff, noticed anything strange happening during the game, not even UEFA delegates who were working with the Portuguese side during the match.
Cerqueira went on to say that two chants by Porto and Man City fans could have easily been misinterpreted as racism. Man City player Sergio Aguero’s nickname, for example, is “Kun,” while Porto player Givanildo Vieira de Souza is only ever referred to by his nickname, “Hulk.” Cerqueira therefore posited that chants of, “Kun, kun, kun, hulk, hulk, hulk” could have been mistaken for racism.
He went on to say that Porto has no history of racism.
“We are very proud of having a multi-racial team, with players from all backgrounds and to have achieved many titles with respect,” he said.
“Porto players have never felt the slightest hint of racism and we were very surprised with the accusations.”
While it’s certainly open to debate whether any actual racism was uttered at the game (and witnesses seem very confident that it was), it’s still worth noting that racism among both players and footie supporters continues to be an issue within the game. This is only the most recent example of racism rankling a player from an English team especially, so what’s more obvious than anything is that the issue continues to be a sore spot among players.
The most notorious incident, perhaps, is the one involving Chelsea captain John Terry, who had charges of racism levelled against him for allegedly calling Queen’s Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand a “black cunt.” Terry was stripped of the national team captaincy as a result and the two teams decided to forgo the traditional pre-game handshake the next time they met.
Then later, a game between Liverpool and Manchester United allegedly saw Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez, previously famous for biting a player’s shoulder and keeping the ball out of his team’s net with his hands during a World Cup game, level a racial epithet at Man United defender Patrice Evra. Suarez served an eight-game ban for the incident and later refused to shake Evra’s hand during the pre-game handshake.
Though the extent and the level of the racism is perhaps up for debate, what isn’t is how much it can hurt the footballers, and how seriously it is taken by their teams.
Addendum: a curious part of the Reuters story is a quote by Man City midfielder Yaya Toure, who said he did, indeed, hear something during the game, but then he said the following.
“That’s why we like the Premier League because it never happens there … maybe in a different country they don’t expect black players,” he told Sky Sports News.
