Remember Emmanuel Frimpong? He was the next big thing at Arsenal. A wonderfully talented midfield player, destined for stardom. I only ever saw him on telly, but I could see the boy could play and I was very disappointed that he chose, at an early stage, to commit his international future to Ghana, the place of his birth. To be honest, good for him. I just wanted the best players in England to play for England. That’s me being selfish.
His career stuttered and stalled and now he plays for Ufa in the Russian league. I know that only because of what happened last week.
Ufa were playing Spartak Moscow and after half an hour or so, Frimpong was racially abused by a supporter who made monkey noises. The player reacted with a few choice words, gave the miscreant the middle finger and…was sent off. Just read that again and weep. A young footballer, aged 23, was racially abused whilst playing football and received a red card for reacting. Never mind. At least his club would support him, wouldn’t they? Well no. Look at the quote from Shamil Gazizov, Ufa’s director general: “There were people who could have shouted things. These are emotions which go away after the game. We are partners with the red and whites and are on good terms. What Frimpong did was wrong. Sometimes you even have to hold back the tears and just put up with it.” That’s it then, it’s all Frimpong’s fault and he should just get on with it. I mean, really!
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it gets much worse. Frimpong is going to be punished for being racially abused by being banned from playing. Okay, strictly speaking, he will get a ban for reacting to the racial abuse, but come on: he is being treated not as the victim, but as the criminal. This is simply wrong. I do not know what happened after Frimpong’s dismissal, but if I had been playing – I know this is stretching things, but this is for illustrative purposes – I would have walked off the pitch alongside Frimpong, probably giving much worse than a middle finger to an odious racist.
Gazizov’s comments are simply beyond belief. “These are emotions which go away after the game”. No they don’t: the monkey chanting was out and out racism and no one who was not a racist would have made them. If you “just get on with it” and walk away, you are giving the racist the green light. It is okay to be a racist and it is not okay to stand up to it.
And, perhaps most disturbingly of all, this is where the World Cup will take place in 2018. This is far from an isolated incident and the issue needs to be tackled head on now. There will be a lot of black players in Russia for that World Cup so will they have to “just put up with it” and risk being sent off and banned if they don’t?
Sorry, this is not good enough. This is the 21st century and some people need to join it. Don’t punish Frimpong; sympathise with him and protect him from further incidents and ban and hopefully prosecute the sub-human who carried out the racial abuse.
