Those of us who tend to be sceptical about the possibility of time travel were forced to do a double-take on Wednesday evening when the clocks were turned back more than two decades before our very eyes and ears.
In Madrid, one of Europe’s most cosmopolitan cities, in the Bernabau Stadium - one of the true cathedrals of football - Spanish fans were responsible for the sickening rascist abuse of England’s black footballers during a friendly game which, in footballing terms, delivered even less than its minimal promise.
The entire episode was reminiscent of a situation that had become routine at English football grounds in the increasingly dim and distant past.
The fall-out has been spectacular. The British media is awash with coverage from all quarters while their Spanish counterparts appear to be in a state of denial. One constant theme, however, is that FIFA should get tough and take some sort of action against Spain. Given the amount of money sloshing around in Spanish soccer, no fine is likely to make the point particularly forcibly, so there’s a growing consensus around a ban which would force the Spanish national team to play its next few home games in an empty stadium.
This would echo the swift action taken by UEFA against Roma after a coin thrown from the crowd struck and injured a referee earlier this year.
Of course FIFA must take action, the Spanish football authorities should take action and the authorities which license the use of the stadium should take action. Real Madrid, as the host club, should also take action. In addition to closing grounds, fans can be identified, ejected, arrested, fined and banned from grounds for life. That, at least, is what happens in the UK where the problem of racist abuse appears to have been tackled fairly successfully.
And this, unfortunately, has been reflected in the tone of some of the UK press coverage of this week’s events. A casual reader might deduce that England no longer had a problem with racists at football matches, in much the same way as it no longer has a significant football problem with football hologanism.
And they would be right – sort of.
English football has tackled both issues with an unusual degree of focus and determination. The new generation of stadia which have sprung up in the last 20 years, together with more sophisticated policing methods and the use of state-of-the-art CCTV equipment to identify offenders, has had a massive impact on the problem in the grounds themselves, although skirmishes still take place away from the stadiums.
The success of the ‘Kick Racism Out Of Football’ campaign, coupled with the sort of enforcement initiatives outlined above, have also had a profound impact on the level of easily audible or visible racist abuse at grounds. But anybody who tries to tell you that the problem has gone away entirely clearly hasn’t been to an English stadium of late. Because while you may not hear organised chants, fans continue to base abuse of opposing players on their colour.
That said, the progress made over the past 20 years or so has been significant, possibly even remarkable. That is one of the reason why events in the Bernabau have created such a shock wave.
But the situation in England, in fact the whole of the UK, has arisen not simply because of the intervention of the football authorities and police, but because of a change in culture over the same period. Attitudes to racism have been formed as much by the music industry (remember Two Tone? Still love The Clash?) as in football. The battle against racism was at the epicentre of student and alternative politics for years, and even the emergence of a breed of alternative comedians who dared challenge the racist humour of their predecessors, made a major contribution.
Together they helped create an environment in which it wasn’t just simply horribly wrong to be racist – it wasn’t cool either. Those who were/are were cast away as brain dead no-hopers.
None of this is designed to paint a utopian picture of UK life in the 21st century. Racism still exists in far to many places. In the predominantly white enclaves of rural Kent, around my own home, I’ve stumbled across and into too many pub conversations that have turned vile because race has become an issue. Casual conversational racism, wrapped and presented as humour is, if not commonplace, still lurking beneath the surface.
But overwhelmingly attitudes to race issues have changed somewhat in the UK, and many groups, including the football authorities, have played a part. This is no reason for smugness and events in Madrid demonstrated only too clearly why our collective guard cannot be allowed to fall.
FIFA can’t and won’t sort out this problem but they too can play a role. But they’ll need the support of many other groups in all of those countries – in western as well as eastern Europe – where racial abuse continues as if the last 20 years simply hadn’t happened.
