You know things aren’t as they should be when three stories concerning racism in the game appear within the space of a few days.
In the first, Danny Rose speaks about his experiences of racism and how it affected him. The story alse features Renee Hector of Tottenham women’s team. We met Renee at an event in London that was held to celebrate the life of Laurie Cunningham. She spoke eloquently about the abuse she faced on social media because she had the temerity to call out racist abuse directed at her by an opposing player during a game: https://theconversation.com/racisms-rise-in-football-demands-harsher-sanctions-and-better-mental-health-support-131701
Although neither Danny or Renee will feature in the forthcoming book ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’, Laurie Cunningham definitely will as he was the first black player at West Bromwich Albion and the book will celebrate the first black player at each Football League club.
The second story concerns the failure of the authorities to identify those in the crowd responsible for directing racist abuse at Antonio Rudiger. In a statement Tottenham said that they could neither corroborate nor contradict the allegation that monkey noises were directed at Rudiger during the Chelsea/Tottenham match in December. Rudiger is quoted as saying “They never get punished. In the end I’m the scapegoat.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51611099
The third story concerned a young player, Jonathan Leko, abused by a player on the opposing team whilst playing for Charlton Athletic. The abuser, Leeds United goalkeeper, Kiko Casilla, was found guilty by the FA who imposed an eight match ban and a £60,000 fine. Hopefully this punishment will be sufficient to deter others: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51628153
Is racism on the rise? Sadly, the answer seems to be ‘yes’.
If these sort of incidents can happen in 2019 imagine what it must have been like for the pioneers who were the first to make the breakthrough into the professional game. In the 1970s, for instance, they would generally be the only black player in their team’s squad and possibly one of the few black faces in the town. The names of many of these unsung heroes will scarcely be known to supporters at large and will possibly have been forgotten by the fans of the teams they played for, players like Lloyd Maitland who became Huddersfield’s first black player in 1974:
‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ will tell the story of Lloyd’s brief career and the shocking way in which it ended.