Barry Ferguson - Racism In Football - Mark Walters

[chilledbear 16]

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-saw-scottish-fans-2528944

 

 

YOU need a thick skin to be a professional football player. If you’re going to fall to pieces when fans scream abuse at you then you’re in the wrong game.

 

But there are occasions when lines are crossed and when behaviour becomes so disgusting it’s unacceptable.

 

That line was crossed in Moscow the other night.

 

It wasn’t the thickness of Yaya Toure’s skin that made him a target for the bampots in the CSKA support. It was the colour.

 

And this is exactly the kind of incident that should get football stopped.

 

I’m deadly serious, if UEFA have any intention of stamping racism out of the game they should hit the Russians hard and fast. Kick them out of the Champions League right now and show the world football takes a zero tolerance approach to morons who think making monkey noises at black players is just a harmless bit of fun.

 

I take my hat off to Toure for being able to handle what was going on around him and to concentrate on playing football.

 

If it was me I might have walked off the pitch, as Kevin Prince Boateng did last season during a friendly for AC Milan.

 

Maybe if Toure and his Man City team-mates had done the same thing – bringing a

Champions League game to a standstill – it would have forced the powers that be to hand out proper punishments. But I can’t blame the guy for dealing with it in his own way.

 

He stayed out there, took everything they could throw at him and did not quit until the game was won and his team was heading home with three points.

 

He left them with nothing and I have to say I really admire Toure for being so strong.

 

The question now though is what exactly are UEFA going to do about it? They talk a lot about “fair play” and “respect” but it’s time for them to put up or shut up and to show Toure they’ve got his back.

 

They have a chance to make a real difference. Handing out two bob fines or closing stadiums for a one-off game won’t wash.

 

It is time for a clear message to be sent around the world there is no place in football for behaviour such as this – and I’m speaking as a guy who is not easily offended.

 

In fact, I’m all for rival fans giving the other team pelters.

 

I used to love walking off the Rangers bus outside Parkhead on Old Firm day.

 

As soon as you popped your head out of the door you’d hear the Celtic fans screaming and booing. It was brilliant. I’d go so far as to say I thrived on it. The moment you walked off that bus the game head was on.

 

There was something special about walking out into a stadium knowing 55,000 people hated your guts – but the other 5000 were standing shoulder to shoulder with you and your team-mates. It created a feeling we were all in it together and that brought the best out of me.

 

If you’re going to s*** yourself at the thought of getting abused you’d be as well walking back to the bus. It’s a man’s game and I don’t recall any team-mate of mine quaking in his boots because they felt intimidated by any set of supporters.

 

Yes, a few of the foreign lads might have had that “what’s going on here” look about them when they first played in an Old Firm game but for me this was just the way it was meant to be.

 

But I remember one game when I felt a line was crossed. It happened at Ibrox shortly after the 9/11 atrocity when Claudio Reyna was at the club.

 

Some halfwit at the front of the Celtic end made an aeroplane gesture when Claudio was over there taking a corner. That one was hard for us all to take.

 

I had sat in the dressing room with Claudio on the day the World Trade Centre came down so I knew how devastated he was. He had friends who were in one of the towers so it hit him on a really personal level.

 

So for some idiot to stand there, arms outstretched, trying to goad and mock him at a

football game? No, that was completely unacceptable.

 

But what was done to Toure was even more appalling.

 

I remember 1988 when I was just nine years old and Mark Walters had signed for Rangers.

 

I used to go and watch a lot of games back then because my brother was in the team. To this day I can still see those images in my head of bananas being thrown on to the pitch.

 

I was a kid, I didn’t really understand what was going on. But looking back, it turns my stomach to think Scottish fans could have acted like that.

 

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then. If such a thing happened in a British stadium today there would be a massive outcry. You just need to see the stick Roy Hodgson has taken for telling a joke about a monkey to see how seriously the subject of race is treated.

 

That ridiculous episode should never have got further than the dressing-room walls.

 

Andros Townsend didn’t take offence because it wasn’t racism. It was just a bad joke.

 

But what went on in Moscow on Wednesday night really does deserve all of our outrage. I just hope UEFA have the courage to do the right thing.

[Frankie 8,119]

Shame the Record didn't clarify it was primarily Celtic and Hearts fans that threw the fruit.

[chilledbear 16]

Shame the Record didn't clarify it was primarily Celtic and Hearts fans that threw the fruit.

 

I didn't notice until I read it again, you could actually think he meant Rangers fans.

[JTP 0]

No mention of Paul Elliot then ............... oh no, wait ............

[Frankie 8,119]

Had this (from 2007) sent to me earlier:

 

http://t.co/qnXLiIVthV

 

 

 

Bananas greeted Mark Walters on his Rangers debut at Parkhead 20 years ago

 

MEMORIES do not always marry with the moments they capture. When it comes to Mark Walters and his Rangers debut in the Old Firm derby exactly 20 years ago this Wednesday, that may be deliberate.

 

"It was a good day for me; a special one," recalls Walters, who signed for the Ibrox club from Aston Villa in a 1.3m deal on New Year's Eve 1987. "It was a great experience to play my first game for one of the biggest clubs in the world in front of 50,000 at Parkhead – the largest crowd I'd known since earning a schoolboy cap for England. I have shut out anything other than the positives of that day, because it was so exciting to make a fresh start at 23, after two years when my career was on the slide."

 

On January 2, 1988 Walters became the first black player to turn out for Rangers. The abuse he was subjected to that day, and at Tynecastle two weeks later, ended any foolish notion that, while Scottish football was blighted by religious bigotry, it was at least immune to the vile expressions of racial intolerance then infecting the English game. Whenever Walters' name is mentioned in this county these two afternoons are seared in the mind. They have come to define the winger's three-and-a-half years north of the Border; more than his artistry, more than a stash of medals or a goals to games average of one-in-three during his 100 matches.

 

"People ask me how on earth I could get through that first game and enjoy it," says the player, who made little impression that day as Rangers were beaten 2-0. "To be honest with you, being abused wasn't that much of a rarity in Britain at that time, even if it was more than I was used to.

 

"I am single-minded. I was brought up by my family to see every experience as to be welcomed because you can always learn from it what you need to be better for it."

 

Scottish football did not demonstrate such insight – either in terms of the authorities or the media. Clips on YouTube make plain the grim extent of the monkey noises and banana throwing Walters' presence at Celtic Park prompted. Yet, though Celtic slammed the perpetrators, the Scottish Football Association remained silent. And oddly, in the press over the days that followed, there was scant acknowledgement of a virulent new strain of racism at football in this country.

 

It was just viewed as another manifestation of the contrariness that Old Firm hatred spews forth. "Only a handful of fans hurled fruit," said a comment piece in the Sunday Mail. The match reports in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald made no reference to the treatment received by Walters. Indeed, the most vociferous condemnation of those who indulged in racist behaviour came in the form of letters printed in Celtic's own newspaper that week.

 

It wasn't simply in the written press that the issue was skirted around. Archie Macpherson, in his commentary for the BBC, was forced to explain a stoppage to clear bananas from the Celtic Park pitch. He did so by stating, matter-of-factly: "The game has been slightly held up… some assortment of fruit has been removed… you can see it in front of the Jungle."

 

Two weeks later, Rangers faced Hearts at Tynecastle and Walters was struck by a banana and was met with what the Glasgow Herald described as "deluge of fruit" (contrasting with the "mild outburst of fruit throwing" a fortnight earlier). On television that evening Macpherson famously held up a banana and stated what he had witnessed "made him ashamed to be Scottish".

 

Macpherson puts down the difference in tone to the obsession with picking away at the sectarianism woven into the fabric of the Old Firm rivalry. Throughout his long career, at least he is one of the few who can claim to have an admirable record on denuding those who would clothe themselves in such tawdry dress.

 

"There is a conditioning process with these derbies," he says. "We would listen out for sectarian chanting, scan for any disturbances in the crowd and consider the possible implications for public order if there were any violent incidents on the field. Racial taunting didn't enter my head as a contentious issue. I had been brainwashed by the religious divisions. I do not say this as an excuse for failing to acknowledge the infamous nature of banana-throwing but merely as explanation.

 

"On reflection, I should have been more vocal about it, as I have always been vocal about the other evil aspects that have attached themselves to this fixture. I, wrongly, saw the banana-throwing as in essence puerile; an insipid form of the Celtic support's capacity for a wind-up, at which they are the best in the business. If more had been made of Walters' treatment at Celtic Park, he might not have had to put up with so much at Tynecastle."

 

It is the very collision of sectarianism and racism that probably left the SFA and the media in a quandary over how to react to the abuse suffered by Walters. The governing body could hardly punish a club for their fans' racist actions when they had never dared bring followers of any side to book for any bigoted behaviour. Equally, how could the issue be highlighted in print without similar weight being given to the fact that, then, Rangers were still 18 months away from a first high-profile Catholic signing in the modern era?

 

To this day, predictably, there remain pathetic attempts to point-score among the followers of the Glasgow clubs over how much baiting Walters received. Gerry Britton was on the ground staff at Celtic back in 1988. Now manager of Stranraer and a leading figure in the Scottish Professional Football Association – work that involves schools' education programmes on sectarianism and racism – his testimony cannot be disputed.

 

"It was one of the very few days I fell out with fans of the club I grew up loving," Britton says. "It was bad enough having to hear it, and hearing that a fruit shop near the ground sold out of bananas, but it was truly sickening when our job the day after the game was to clear them away. There were dozens of them, scattered everywhere."

 

The mood in the country changed following Walters' treatment at Tynecastle, which came after he had made incident-free appearances against Dundee and Morton. SFA president David Will said all would be done to stamp out racism with the hope that "sensible supporters will let the minority know they shouldn't be so stupid in the future".

 

Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer condemned the banana-throwing as "intolerable social behaviour" and that his club "must be seen to take a stand against racism". Rangers also spoke out, operations executive Alistair Hood demanding the SFA act to "cease" "this kind of despicable behaviour".

 

"Mark Walters was struck by a banana and no matter how you look at it, this is missile throwing," Hood said.

 

In forcing Scotland to confront latent racial prejudices 20 years ago, Walters made life at least a little easier for the black players who followed him within these borders. Yet, the treatment meted out to Celtic's Paul Elliott only 18 months later, and the fact that since the turn of this century racist abuse directed towards Hamilton's Brian McPhee, Celtic pair Bobo Balde and Momo Sylla and Rangers' Marvin Andrews has resulted in court cases, suggests as a nation we are not as mature as we would like to believe. As does what happened to Paul Omoniyi, taunted with monkey chants while playing for West Park United under-11s in Dunoon in October 2005 – a case highlighted by this newspaper.

 

"I am not so shallow as to believe I made a real difference," Walters says. "If it hadn't been me it would have been someone else. If I made one person realise it is wrong to abuse a person because of the colour of their skin, that is something. But football reflects society. Prejudice is based on ignorance and many of those guilty of it have probably become educated because we live in a more ethnically diverse country. As well as that, there are laws now in place and CCTV cameras at all grounds. That means supporters just can't get away with the same abuse and behave at games as they might have done years ago. People might still say and do things in private, but in public..."

 

It is depressing to think that enforcement as much as enlightenment might account for Walters being the only black footballer in this country to have had bananas thrown at them.

 

Incidents of racism still blight game

 

THE Scottish game has moved on since the racist baiting of Mark Walters 20 years ago. Not least because, while the winger was then the only black player in the Premier Division, now more than half the clubs in the country's top flight have non-white players. However, dealing with isolated cases of racism still appears to prove problematic for the authorities.

 

The SPL's introduction of a charter this season setting out a range of punitive measures for unacceptable behaviour by supporters could prove a major step forward. Meanwhile, inertia has tended to envelop the Scottish Football Association when dealing with racist incidents. The SFA's belief that racist incidents at football grounds should not bring sanctions against the clubs is out of step with UEFA policy and provides no real deterrent.

 

The Scottish Youth Football Association might have been expected to take the lead when Paul Omoniyi was subjected to monkey chants while playing for Bishopbriggs under-13 side West Park United in Dunoon in October 2005. Following a Scotland On Sunday investigation in June, the SYFA agreed to review a case that drifted into limbo after the Strathclyde Youth Club Association passed the matter over to their governing body in deeming a first racial abuse complaint "too serious" to rule on without the guidance of the SYFA.

 

The case appeared straightforward. Match referee Ian Cunning, in his report, identified those making the monkey noises as members of the Dunoon under-14s side, while West Park coach Martin Rafferty and the Omoniyi family asked only that some form of written communication be circulated to all youth clubs that acknowledged the wrong that had taken place and warned of future punishment. Calls for such measures were backed by SFA chief executive Gordon Smith, MSPs and racial equality campaigners.

 

But for 20 months Rafferty has found himself batted back and forth between the SYCA and SYFA.

 

[DUDE 0]

Racism is a disgusting face of football that pops up far too often. It is difficult to deal with it when large chunks of a support behave that way. I've seen single people or small groups being removed from the stands by other supporters. But when this behaviour becomes acceptable for a support, that's when you have a problem.

 

And it is a well known fact the UEFA does next to nothing about this except fot letting players hold that useless No to racism- tennant. Shameful.

[chilledbear 16]

Racism is a disgusting face of football that pops up far too often. It is difficult to deal with it when large chunks of a support behave that way. I've seen single people or small groups being removed from the stands by other supporters. But when this behaviour becomes acceptable for a support, that's when you have a problem.

 

And it is a well known fact the UEFA does next to nothing about this except fot letting players hold that useless No to racism- tennant. Shameful.

 

The ref is employed by UEFA, by their rules he should have had them off the park. Disgusting by the Russian crowd and compounded by the referee.

[54andcounting 0]

It's just a complete lack of education, the Russians haven't quite caught on to pc yet. They will eventually.

 

I can remember in my teens joining along in song with practically every bear in the ground when Paul Wilson of Celtic touched the ball.

 

The song? "Paul Wilson - he's jungle fresh"

 

This is the Golden Wonder advert which inspired us at the time...

 

[DUDE 0]

The ref is employed by UEFA, by their rules he should have had them off the park. Disgusting by the Russian crowd and compounded by the referee.

 

Yet the UEFA will make no move to give the ref a proper bollocking for it. They will let this slide like every other shit that goes on in European stadiums.

[Guest Smug Bluenose]

Sanjeev Kohli would have us believe it was the Rangers fans who threw the bananas at Walters that day at Parkhead.