DESPITE FIFA PRESIDENT Sepp Blatter’s infamous assertion in 2011 that ‘there is no racism in football,’ the issue remains an extremely pertinent one.
The latest notorious incident saw Barcelona player Dani Alves become subjected to racist abuse for the umpteenth time in his career, in a game at the end of last month.
In the club’s Spanish league match with Villarreal, a banana was thrown at Alves amid a heated encounter. However, the response to this ignominious incident — one of many reprehensible racist actions that have severely damaged La Liga’s reputation over the years — was heartening.
The Barcelona defender picked up the banana and started defiantly eating it, thus sparking an anti-racism social media campaign, with several high-profile stars subsequently tweeting pictures of themselves eating bananas in support of Alves, while the alleged perpetrator has since been arrested.
Yet although the reaction was laudable, the initial abuse illustrated how the issue of racism is still prominent in football.
One Irish player who has had first-hand experience of racism is Shamrock Rovers star Eamon Zayed. Born to a Libyan father and an Irish mother, Zayed grew up in a Dublin that was nowhere near as multicultural as the city is today.
The 30-year-old was watching the aforementioned Barcelona match on TV when the banana incident occurred, and he was impressed with the way the Brazilian international handled it.
“I thought that was excellent,” Zayed tells TheScore.ie. “It was his way of saying your abuse means nothing to me. I can deal with it — I’ve heard it, seen it, it’s nothing new. And they went on and won the match 3-2. And rightly he’s getting good press. But that’s not to say that the team and the fans involved shouldn’t be punished.”
(Barcelona star Dani Alves was at the centre of a recent controversy in which he was racially abused.)
While acknowledging that eradicating the issue remains difficult, Zayed suggests that stricter measures need to be enforced by the powers that be to discourage similar incidents from occurring in the future.
“I can’t recall reading about one punishment and going: ‘Jesus yeah, that’s fair enough’. It’s not an easy task to combat it and say you haven’t done enough, but then, what is enough?”
Perhaps owing to frustrations with the status quo and the less-than-severe manner in which racist incidents are often being treated by footballing authorities, Zayed has taken steps to involve himself in the game at an administrative level.
The former Ireland under-21 striker has been involved with the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign since 2010, after writing about his experiences of racist abuse in the League of Ireland for the website extratime.ie.
The 30-year-old struck up a friendship with Garrett Mullan, who’s head of the campaign, and Zayed has since attended a number of events such as comedy gigs organised to help fund the initiative. Moreover, during his time with both Drogheda United and Sporting Fingal, he travelled to a number of schools to educate its students about issues such as racism.
(Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD, Justice Minister Alan Shatter and TV presenter Diana Bunici pictured with children from the Castaheany Educate Together National School during an event promoting the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign during the week.)
Yet in recent times, Zayed has endeavoured to take an even greater involvement in the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign.
“About a month and a half ago, I got a phone call from [Irish Times sports journalist] Emmet Malone. He’s helping out with the organisation. I think he’s on the board now. They were looking to freshen the board up and bring some new people in with fresh ideas. Emmet rang me and asked me would I be interested [in helping out more]. I said I was, and we’re trying to get the wheels in motion as regards me actually joining the board in an official capacity.”
In many ways, Zayed is the perfect representative to discuss the issue, given that it’s unfortunately one that has affected him throughout his life. Even in recent times, he has been on the end of some racist abuse during League of Ireland games, yet the Rovers star says the problem was worse for him personally when he was growing up as a young kid and going into his teens.
“In primary school, you wouldn’t have had that many different nationalities around,” he says. “So I probably stood out from the crowd more when I was younger.
“The first instance I can remember was when I was around seven or eight. I was playing for my local team Broadford Rovers and we had a match against Stella Maris out in Ballymun.
“I was playing centre midfield back in those days. I was quite tall and there was a smaller lad marking me. I was getting the better of him and I think we were winning the game. There was a man on the sidelines shouting racist abuse at me. I was only a young lad at the time and didn’t know what was going on.
“And not long after he was saying it to me, the young lad who was marking me started saying the exact same thing. I was quite upset over it. After the game, the young lad ran over to the older lad and I realised that they were father and son.”
Zayed says that incidents such as the one mentioned above did not happen regularly “but it happened enough for me to notice it”. And ironically, Zayed himself was once punished for challenging the racist abuse directed towards him.
“I think it was in third year in school, we had to queue up in the shop because there’d always be a crowd going down at lunchtime. I remember queuing up and I got to the top of the queue and there was a young woman who was working in the shop at the time and she said something racist towards me and told me to get to the back of the queue.
“Being young, I think I told her where to go. A couple of friends said it as well to her. She rang the school and I ended up getting suspended for a week because of that. But I didn’t do anything wrong. I queued up, got to the top of the queue and then she told me to get to the back of the queue and said something racist towards me.”
Ireland, of course, is far from the only place where people sometimes treat those of alternate origins in a different manner. As well as representing Libya at international level, Zayed played for a period of a year and a half in Iran, with both Persepolis and Aluminium Hormozgan. The striker’s stint on the field in the country was relatively successful, as a hat-trick in just his second appearance in the Iranian league during the Tehran derby quickly endeared him to local fans.
A contractual dispute ultimately prompted him to return to Ireland and join Shamrock Rovers in the summer of 2013, but he says he still has fond memories of his time abroad and in particular, the “friendly” Iranian people.
He was not treated differently owing to his Irish background, as he explains: “I probably look more Iranian than I do Irish.” However, that’s not to say the people there weren’t at least taken aback by the more obvious outsiders they encountered.
“I played with a guy in Iran for Persopolis — Mamadou Tall was his name. He was from Burkina Faso. Every team in Iran is allowed to have three foreign players. He was very black. I used to ask him to go with me to the shops or for a coffee or something in our downtime, and he’d never want to do anything. He’d always just want to stay in his apartment. After a while of asking him, I said: ‘Do you not want to do something, instead of being stuck in this apartment?’ He didn’t speak much English, it was more French. But he said the reason he didn’t like going anywhere was that people would stop and stare and point. He found out the word for ‘black person’ in Iranian, and he discovered that people would stand and point and say that word.”
Yet Zayed believes in cases like Tall’s, the Iranians’ behaviour was not malicious and could simply be attributed to the fascination of getting a rare opportunity to actually see a black man in person.
“I was wondering were people in Iran racist, but a month later, my girlfriend came over from Ireland, and she’s white and has blonde hair, so she’d stand out from the crowd. And again, walking down the streets, people would stop and stare and point, but I asked a few people from Iran, and it was just that they were fascinated by someone different. Like Ireland back in the day, you wouldn’t get many Africans, or European people, walking around, so I don’t believe they were racist or anything like that. But the incident I mentioned before about the son copying his Dad — that’s just ignorance.”
And while Zayed is not convinced that racism in football has increased of late, incidents such as the Alves case highlight its continuing prevalence, thereby illustrating how campaigns such as ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ remain as vital as ever in helping to alleviate the issue.
“There are times when I’ve approached someone that’s being racist, whether it’s towards Eastern Europeans or Africans or whatever, and you ask them why do you think that, and they haven’t got a clue. Maybe they heard it from a friend, or another family member, or something like that, and they just jump on the bandwagon — ‘he thinks that so I must think that’.
“People are always asking if the issue is getting better or worse. I honestly don’t know. All I know is that it’s still there and hasn’t been eradicated.”
Eamon Zayed was speaking on behalf of the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign. More info can be found here.
Look out for part 2 of our interview with Eamon Zayed on the site tomorrow, in which he discusses Shamrock Rovers’ start to the season, playing for Libya and his hopes of going into management in the future.
Well done Eamon. The father and son incident is a disgrace and that’s how racism survives from one generation to the next.
How do we know you’re telling the truth?
Any club that has supporters that racially abuse a player should be deducted points. That would get the clubs serious about tackling the issue. If the same club is caught three times they should be relegated.
The problem with that Ronan is that rival supporters could act as home fans in a different ground and be racist to get other teams deducted points. It’s possible at least.
That’s the first thing that comes to mind SFI, a huge deduction in points or suspension could backfire on an innocent set of supporters. Very difficult challenge on the authorities but at least there is wider recognition of the problem and that’s got to be a good thing to highlight the sad, malicious and emotionally pathetic nature of these racists.
That’s basically punishing a majority of nice, sensible fans and players, for the doings of a minority of gobs##tes These individuals need to be fished out and outright banned from attending matches for life.
i remeber playing GAA with my local club in the North Side of Cork City in 1980s and when we would go to more affluent parts of the city to play games the parents of some of the children that we were playing against would refer to us as …Knackers..Joyriders …gluesniffers…and on one occasion down in West Cork I heard words to the affect that my mother was a lady of the night…Racism just does not only exclusevley happen to coloured people it has been happening to people from disadvantaged areas for years also
Finbar none of ttbat was racism. Gluesniffers are not a race and to the best of my knowledge nor are joyriders.
Coloured people? Jayus
…
I was 12 years of age at the time ..surely if you come from a deprived area and people us that as a tool to undermine you then their actions should be considered as as extreme as racism
No, still not racism. Elitism maybe?
Discrimination yes. Racism no.
Finbar time to get over it.
You were discrimated against by pOsh people, it was possibly justified but it wasnt racism.
@Shane Walsh, discriminating against and verbally abusing a 12 year old playing a sport for whatever reason is wrong. And can never be “justified”.
“Get over it”. The eternal response to anyone else’s claims of racism, sexism, homophobia, sectarianism… the belief that it must be some deficiency in the victim’s character that allows them to be targeted and hurt. No Shane, you’re quite correct that it wasn’t racism in Finbar’s case, but it was exactly the same impulse with exactly the same effect.
If the same term Knacker was used to describe a coloured person do you not think that the first thing that people would say is that itis racism…but are you saying its not because you can not imply that the clour of his skin had no bearing on the person who decided to offend him
Why would you suugest it was Possibily Justified
I was at a game with my own children recently when it was stated by a large group of the other supporters that we were only a bunch of Knackers and jailbirds…I waited for the match to be over and I approached 2 of the main culprits one woman and one man …I asked him what did my children ever do to be him that he would resort to that behaviour and with my 3 children present I asked him would he kindly apoligize..He said to me did you see the St Vincents palyer hit the Clyda Rovers player off the ball..I said I did but and why would he refer to us all as been the same because of the actions of one indiviual…He would not say sorry but I told him that only for my children were present I probably would have lost my cool but i did state he might think twice before he resorted to that behaviour again
Racists and racism is disgusting. At football matches it’s particularly cowardly.
Sadly though, all you hear is that you are taking Irish jobs from the Irish, or a position in university from an Irish person, or that you should forget your culture and be like the Irish if you want to live in Ireland… as if they would stop drinking tea if they leave even for a week on holidays! I often wonder what is really Irish? And is true people stigmatise others because of economical status, weight or colour of their skin. It happens everywhere! Even in college, there is a “foreign student group” and because their are different, most students don’t talk to them and they all sit together for moral support. Its sad really, I think travel is the only way people can be educated on this matter.
So kafir because of the extreme bigotry in Libya and places further east, mild bigotry is acceptable in Ireland? I think that is your argument, but correct me if I am wrong.
Where did I state bigotry is acceptable?My point is if if you travelled extensively,you will come to realise Ireland and Western Europe in general despite what the likes of the Immigrant’s Council would have you believe are among the least racist places on Earth.
So? I take it then that you are opposed to all racism wherever it happens and accept that we should have zero tolerance for racism? I have travelled extensively and in my experience northern Europe is exceptionally and surprisingly racist while the Arab world has a huge anger about American interference in the world and is in consequence very anti American. India tends to anti Britishness and they include us in that because of our involvement in the colonisation/ imperialism.
I agree with you for the most part up until the “travel is the only way people can be educated on the matter”. I think that’s nonsense. I’ve never really left Ireland and I fully welcome immigrants who are here to work and further enrich our diversification and modernisation as a country. I’ve been to London and Paris, and I assure you that racial tensions bubble far more fiercely in both places than here. Yes, there is ignorance and xenophobia among some Irish people, as there is in any country, but I don’t think it’s fair to tar all Irish people with one brush and if you’re not lucky enough to be able to travel that you’re doomed to being a backwards, parochial racist.
Of course I do.’
I have travelled extensively and in my experience northern Europe is exceptionally and surprisingly racist’
As someone who has also travelled extensively I disagree with that assertion 100 percent.’ Sub Saharan Africans suffer ferociously racist abuse in places like Libya and Eygpt.Far worse than anything that occurs in Northern Europe.As for India maybe you should do some research into the link between skin colour and status in Indian society.It might reveal a view things for you.
Thanks for that clarification Kafir. One might be forgiven for interpreting your statements on these pages as excusing racism in Ireland because of racism in other places. Thanks also for condescending to share your knowledge of places like India and Libya.
A few people don’t seem to know the actual meaning of racism. Just because someone picks on you for being disadvantaged or for going to a gaelscoil doesn’t make it racism.
Any one whose racist at a football match should be put in the goal to play red ar*e at the end of the match
Nothing surprising there. He was most likely a working class skummer. There is only one way to get rid of racism, and that is education.. Good luck educating the ignorant masses though
Says the pleb who isolates the working classes.
That’s an oxymoron, Andrew. You wouldn’t see any middle class folk shouting racist abuse, that’s for sure.
Actually my aunt is middle class and a total racist
Yeah but you don’t see them shout it. Kept behind closed doors for their friends. Wouldn’t do to let the commoners see you stooping to their level etc.
It’s an intelligence thing. Not class. Stupidity can be even more dangerous the higher up the social ladder you go.
Many years ago As captain of a Gaelscoil team playing against other Dublin schools had to deal with hassling that would compare to racial insults.
What’s the next level up from a first world problem?
Kerry County Council are racist against Polish people applying for jobs. Any Polish person wanting to sue Kerry coco for 7500 euro just apply for a job as a beach lifeguard. 3 courts cases have already proved this, just google it.
What kind of nonsense is that ?
It’s not nonsense, here is the link to one report
http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2012/1016/ireland/council-guilty-of-racial-discrimination-210938.html
Sorry lifesaver you are right. It’s the way you write your initial post that confused me. This kind if thing happens all the time. Sometimes Irish workers are at the wrong end if this discrimination too. I know prior that were asked to train migrant workers to actually replace themselves on min wage. Both migrant and Irish workers are being discriminated against in this case.
Paul, You can’t go lashing around words like that in your articles.
“Umpteen” – I mean, who do you think you are?! Noel King?!
Who took Eamons hands in the main pic?
I played with the guy as a school boy at Broadford Rovers and I can say even then I remember him being abused and kicked by certain players. He was being singled out by youngfellas on the pitch. That’s going back near 20 years now! It’s sad things are not moving on quicker in some regards!
The sad thing about racism is that it is really the voice of the lowest common denominator – the truly ignorant and uneducated – infecting others of low intelligence like a malign virus. If there was to be a simple, quick and easy yardstick to measure human stupidity, forget the IQ test. Racism would be it.