RACISM IN SPORT: "It is not the end. It is the beginning," offered former GAA president and current chairman of Know Racism, Joe McDonagh. Johnny Watterson on a new initiative to tackle the problem.
As the Anti-Racism Charter in Sport was formally presented in Dublin yesterday to the leaders of Irish sport, it arrived hobbling from a badly-timed tackle by an unsettling live interview given by British sports journalist Brian Glanville to Des Cahill on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme.
As the charter, which advocates that racism and its brother, bigotry, should not be an acceptable part of the Irish landscape, was being unveiled, Cahill had been, only hours before, obliged to dissociate the programme from the sweeping views Glanville put forward on the current allegations of yobbism and rape associated with a number of current English Premiership footballers.
Without any obviously clear context, Glanville drifted towards broad generalisations about black players and particularly those of "West Indian origin". He went on to claim that many black children are "left at home all day unsupervised".
In fact, it would seem more likely the old controversies concerning white players such as Tony Adams, Lee Bowyer or Paul Gascoigne, or the running alleged scandals concerning unnamed Premiership stars, would have been foremost in people's minds. At the end of the interview, Cahill announced he wished to "disassociate the programme from those comments".
"I was taken aback when he made the sweeping statement referring to the lack of education, especially in the West Indians, and the fact they had no fathers at home," said Cahill. "He didn't refer to any of the white players or supporters who have been in trouble. I think it was a bit bizarre and that we shouldn't be associated with it."
What Glanville actually meant to say may, or may not, have been racist, but that some people believed it to be so is one of the issues surrounding the problem in Ireland, one McDonagh is particularly aware of.
"I'm sad to say that I'm not surprised. The problems we have encountered over the past three years is the failure to appreciate the necessity to be very, very sensitive about the use of language," he said. "Organisations, through programmes, through announcements, have to say that this aspect is not tolerated. This is a long-term process. It will not be eradicated overnight."
Rangers and Celtic football clubs should know. Their rival bigotries have festered for decades, and the link between Celtic and the Republic of Ireland has meant that that particular brand of ignorance has begun to appear at Lansdowne Road. Interestingly, UEFA hold a broad definition of racism which includes bigotry, homophobia and anti-Semitism.
While Fergus McCann, when he was chairman of Celtic, banned two season-ticket holders who were identified shouting pro-IRA slogans during a minute's silence in the wake of the Omagh bombings, the FAI have only recently had to face the phenomenon of fans in Celtic jerseys booing Rangers or former Rangers players at Lansdowne Road. The FAI's task is a difficult one. But as Celtic have shown, clubs can occasionally take action against individual fans, who often appear to be an untouchable, amorphous mass.
And following a complaint taken to UEFA by campaigner Ken McCue under their 10-point action plan against racism, the FAI will have to seriously address the "Celticification" of Republic of Ireland matches at Lansdowne Road.
"The immediate practicality is to signal an awareness process within organisations through programmes and announcements," said McDonagh. "In previous occasions we have paraded the No Racism banner and it has been quite specifically announced through the public address that the organisation has signed onto the programme and seeks to eliminate this type of verbal behaviour."
All the main sporting bodies have signed up to the charter. They have backed the worthy sentiments, but the hard work remains.
