It was bit ironic or tragic that after I posted my last rant about PSG that we learn that a fan was killed post UEFA cup match this past week. What is even more disgusting and terrible is the manner in which the incident occurred.
From the early reports a group of PSG "fans," were so bitter about their teams humiliation against the Tel Aviv club that they looked to work out their anger and frustrations on the opposing fans. With a team from Israel it is not hard to imagine the crassness and unacceptable jeers that were sent spewing towards the opposing fans. Again from early reports, an under cover police officer, who is black and also became the target of ugly and unacceptable name calling, bravely defended the fan from the ugly crowd. It appears that the police officer used justifiable force to attempt at controlling the crowd, pepper spray and final his fire arm. A member of the crowd fell victim to gun shots, no doubt tragic, but not as tragic as what would have happened had this officer not responded to what must have been an overwhelming situation for one officer to handle.
While our sympathies go out to the victims family, it uncovers an ugly wound festering in the world of football - xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism. The problem has long been known to occur at the Parc des Princes where PSG play their home matches. The "Ultras" who are part of the Boulogne Boys are known trouble makers, known hooligans of the worst type. This latest situation needs to be addressed by the city of Paris, the French government, and more importantly the Paris St Germain club. PSG needs to do a better job policing and weeding out these hooligans from the stadium and the surroundings. If PSG needs to play a few games in an empty stadium than so be it.
However this problem is greater than PSG and is rampant through out Europe, and needs to be continually addressed. We have seen teams walk off the pitch because one of their players is treated to monkey calls each time he touches the ball, other players have bananas thrown in their direction. One can debate for weeks about the cause: stupidity, fear of globalization, ignorance, the disguise of being a fan to give one the outlet for racism, mob mentality, and the list goes on.
Players like Henry and Ronaldino have made efforts to address racism and need to continue in these efforts. Federations are the ones that need to take more responsibility for the actions of their national and domestic teams. The fact the Spanish FA did nothing when Aragones made derogatory remarks about Henry, what kind of message does that send? Federations need to ban together and agree on harsh sanctions against clubs and venues that allow such behavior. Cause teams to give all game revenues to anti racism associations, force teams to lose points (and I don't mean lose points like the Italian justice system sees it....where as long as you whine enough you get most back), force national teams to forfeit qualifying games, ban teams from European competition (a harsh but effective technique leveraged after the tragedy in Heysel, 39 fans died prior to the Juventus - Liverpool Champions Cup finals, English teams were banned from continental European championships for 5 years), and if teams do not properly address the situation drop them to a lower division or disband them for a season or more. Maybe that will send the message that this behavior has no place in football or society.
While the unfortunate reality is racism will remain in society, where we can control it we need to. Football matches are entertainment, fans are passionate which makes it enjoyable and fun, but there is no room for the ugliness we saw in Paris this week. The real world is hard enough, our entertainment venues need not be.
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