Stephen Goldsmith writes: This is the second time Danny Rose has appeared in a Salut! Reflections feature in the space of about three weeks. Both topics are based around Danny trying to do what he enjoys the most – play football. The issues raised, however, branch and contrast away from each other in startling fashion.
While I feel it was right to question the premature nature of Rose’s desire to make his switch from Tottenham a permanent one, it can only be commendable that the source of that very desire is to play football on a regular basis.
And that’s all he wanted to do on Tuesday evening, play football.
You don’t have to be a Sunderland, Spurs, or indeed, an England fan to be shocked by the scenes that escalated at the final whistle in Serbia on Tuesday evening. As another Sunderland youngster, Connor Wickham, grabbed the England Under 21 side a last gasp winner, the confrontation and acts of aggression displayed by the Serbian players was disturbing, to say the least. As a visibly upset Rose was being ushered from the pitch, he proceeded to kick the stationary ball in anger. As the scenes unfolded it was a sadly predictable assumption to make that racism may have played a part here. Rose has since explained: “In the second half, I had two stones hit me on the head when I went to get the ball for a throw in. Every time I touched the ball, they did the monkey chanting”. Such treatment, coupled with winning an important game so dramatically, resulted in Danny having the audacity to celebrate wildly.
How dare he?
As some Serbian players appeared to sympathise with Rose’s plight, others ran at him aggressively. It was glaringly obvious to all and everyone that our players – black and white – needed to be escorted off the field with some haste to preserve their safety. There was one authoritative figure around who could perhaps have tried to aid this subsequent course of action, Deniz Aytekin, the referee. Mr Aytekin did indeed proceed to force his way through the melee of players, only to then brandish a second yellow card – and the subsequent red one – in front of the left back’s face.
Quite unbelievable.
Not only did Aytekin fail to diffuse a sensitive, inexcusable and outright dangerous situation, he automatically handed the unruly Serbian players, coaches and fans the initiative to believe there was some possible justification to the actions carried out in their treatment of their victim. In normal circumstances, Rose may have no complaints at being cautioned for such behaviour; it is after all, unsporting to petulantly kick a ball away. But can anybody really find a flaw in Rose’s argument that he was racially abused here? The notion of a player using racist treatment as a smokescreen for petulant behaviour is dead-on-arrival in this instant due to the fact that Rose was representing a side that just scored a last minute winner. It would be an odd mark of joyous celebration to kick a stationary ball in anger. Anybody with an ounce of sense could see that Danny needed protecting rather than punishing.
Now I’m not prepared to condemn an entire nation here – I was openly critical of scaremongering tactics approaching tournament football held in Ukraine and Poland this summer. Some have made the fair point that UEFA can’t eradicate racism from Serbian football, and that educated and right thinking Serbs actually hold the key to that particular challenge. Well I can relate to that, but England has witnessed similar behaviour here previously – in the same fixture back in 2007. Now I’m not suggesting that Serbia hasn’t tried to rectify the problem since, but UEFA has a duty to keep an eye on the situation, surely? It shouldn’t be down to England to have to take extra steps in providing evidence. You would think that reputations being at stake would prompt measures to made proactively rather than re-actively. And you would have expected the Serbian F.A to assist UEFA in the fight against racism by their condemnation of the events. You would assume that ‘right minded’ people would have the responsibility of running Serbian football, after all. Yet the best of some of what they have since come up with is:
During each and every minute of the match, until the mentioned last one, sports atmosphere full of respecting fair-play spirit was at the pitch and the stands
And this
Unfortunately, after the fourth minute of the additional time and the victory goal scored by the guest team, unpleasant scenes were seen at the pitch. And while most of the English team players celebrated the score, their player number 3, Danny Rose, behaved in inappropriate, unsportsmanlike and vulgar manner towards the supporters on the stands at the stadium in Kruševac.
Now casually glancing through free video sites on the internet, there are numerous examples of monkey chanting as the mayhem breaks out. There aren’t, as of yet, similar videos confirming this behaviour during the game, although it appears the English F.A have confidently provided evidence to back Danny’s claims up. So until that particular evidence is leaked, we can safely assume that Danny Rose turned the Serbia fans into racists by his behaviour at the final whistle.
In the mean time, UEFA have charged Serbia AND England with failing to control their players.
Goldy
Twitter: goldys_logic
Phil’s quotation and comments are extremely pertinent to this. It’s not so long ago that the Serbs were involved in a horrible civil war with some of the most appallng examples of genocide and torture in recent history. Just because the war is over doesn’t mean the war is over. If you can butcher your neighbours after living cheek to cheek for a lifetime, a bit of bother at the end of a football match is presumably just light entertainment.
I’m not saying Phil’s quotation is irrelevant, but to tar ALL Serbians with the same brush as Slobodan is, in itself, an act of racism – and I’m not saying that makes Phil a racist either!
That shows just how complex the issue is.
I would like to point out that I have seen many comments on many sites from Serbs who are ashamed of what their fellow countrymen were doing for entertainment purposes on Tuesday night, some of whom wholly avoid attending football matches rather that stand with the scum.
These are the people we need to educate their fellow Serbs, and lumping them in with the uneducated is an insult to good people.
There have been a number of intense debates on the DT website, since the game was played and what is very apparent is the level of self denial that the Serbs are capable of.
This ranges from their part in the various Balkan conflicts (blaming everyone from the USA & UK to every other former Yugoslav state for having started them) to even having edited the footage on YouTube, so the audio does not include the monkey chants.
The latter I found to be, particularly, pathetic because the unedited version is on the same site!
Obviously, not 100% of all Serbs share the same viewpoints but, it would appear, a large percentage do!
You’re right, of course – their official reactions have been appalling.
I just know that if David Cameron’s and Tony Blair’s opinions were passed off as being my opinions – which many people from many nations will do, in their own generalisations – I would be pissed off about it (which, in general, I am).
The Serbians that matter, unfortunately, seem to be distancing themselves from football as this is where the scumbag contingent of whom you speak appear to be prevalent.
I would take issue with your large percentage sharing the viewpoint but it would be splitting hairs, as the educated (minority?) seem to be distancing themselves from the sport in shame at their fellow countrymen, hence the overwhelming numbers involved that night and in debates on football forums.
For now though I offer the floor to you for the final word on the matter in confidence that we all know who the knobheads are and what we think of them as individuals and collective groups of football fans.
They’re almost as bad as Leeds fans…
I have long held the believe that negative stereotypes of any group, racial or otherwise, (the use of which many object to) can and often do result in a more positive reaction to individual members of the group portrayed in the generalisation.
Without the existence of those stereotypes the contrast between the negatives and positives, of those who do not conform to them, would not be so clearly highlighted.
Indeed, this often results in a more favourable impression than would otherwise have been the case!
OOOPS!
*believe” should, obviously, have been “belief”.
Roll on the edit button!!
To understand the Serbian mindset read this:
“We Serbs will act in the interest of Serbia whether we do it in compliance with the constitution or not, whether we do it in compliance in the law or not, whether we do it in compliance with party statutes or not.”
Then try guessing who said it and what happened next?
Nice pull, and a good quote, but is it a true example of the Serbian mindset or Slobodan Milosevic’s own narcissism? That’s kinda like saying that George W. Bush was speaking for all Americans and not just the oil companies that funded his party.
Or that David Cameron speaks for all Brits – try and sell that to anyone who isn’t a banker or lawyer.
We shouldn’t mistake politicians as being genuine representatives of the people.
“Is it a true example of the Serbian mindset or Slobodan Milosevic’s own narcissism?”
I think that is a very interesting question and one to which I think the Serbs provided the answer.
Rhetoric (just as rhetoric) is rhetoric – nothing more, nothing less UNLESS people are prepared to follow the lead and treat that rhetoric as a reality. .
Which, of course, is exactly what the Serbs did!
It should not be forgotten that Milosevic spoke those words whilst Yugoslavia still existed and the Serbs were first flexing their muscles in Kosovo.
Then followed the encouragement for Croatian Serbs to revolt and we all know what followed that.
To bring us to the present day, the comments of the Serb prime minister, following the game, would appear to suggest that nothing has changed – their mindset is still the same!
My main response is below, but I’d just like to emphasise that those we elect to represent us very rarely do that.
I’m not a warmongering banker or an MP so the Prime Ministers I have known in my lifetime have done many things that make me ashamed to be British on occasion, and that’s true even though I am slightly too young to fully comprehend the depths of Maggie’s evil.
Now, the final word is yours, and thanks for a very pleasant debate…
That wasn’t an essay??? Haha
I did mean the three liner – can’t help myself once I get typing I’m afraid, but your derision is noted and appreciated. Wish I believed in god so I could be a genuine preacher… 😉
No derision marra. Not at all. Try and be too numerous for my own good – and this was in response to your own humour.
Appreciate any feedback on anything I write – especially the well thought responses.
Kicking the ball away became a bookable offence because of it’s regular use as a time wasting tactic. How often are players seen to hoof a ball the length of a pitch after the final whistle blows (in either defeated frustration or victorious celebration)?
Given this knowledge, one can only assume that the referee was booking Danny Rose for wasting time. After the final whistle.
My own thoughts are that any team – at ANY level should leave the field in the face of the abuse served up by a meaningful proportion of the Serbian crowd. The referee should himself have encouraged a walk-off and the game either awarded to England or played behind closed doors.
The abuse reportedly started in the warm up, so our representatives should not have even emerged from the tunnel to give the animals the satisfaction of having a target for such abuse.
There is a bigger question here though – why football?
Even here, it is only in the very recent past that racism has been addressed – and we still have our own John Terry’s in the game – but what is it that draws such people to this sport? Or is it common in other sports, but only noticed in football because of it having a higher profile?
I apologise for providing more questions than answers – and apologise also to the racists who believe that their freedom to speak their bigoted opinions is in some way infringed. I ask them to please voice their own free speech concerns to Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis.
Now I’ve had my say, time to concentrate on sunday’s game against the dirty, smelly ignorant geordie bastards…
…what?
There are many types of racism moongod and different sports have been and are still affected by it. How they deal with it is obviously important.
I started to take an interest in American Football in the 1980s and there was a widely held belief in that sport, at that time, that black players wouldn’t make decent quarterbacks Then along came Doug Williams, the first African American to play quarterback in the Superbowl, and now thankfully that argument has been well and truly put to bed and skin colour no longer is a determining factor in the position for which a player is considered.
I’ve never been a golfer but how many golf clubs resisted the urge to become all inclusive for as long as possible? I suspect that even today there are as many racists playing golf as go to football but as their prejudices are not as overt it remains hidden. I’m sure other sports also have their share.
Society’s attitude towards racism may be changing for the better, but there will always be bigotry in the minds of some and perhaps the best we can hope for is that more people find overt displays of hostility unacceptable.
I understand exactly what you’re saying. As I was typing the thought of golf clubs refusing memberships to females crossed my mind – but also the whole freedom of speech issue.
I hate what some people think – but I will never deny that they have the right to think it.
Clearly, these thoughts are in the much larger proportion in countries with a lower ratio of immigrants, and it is up to the more enlightened members of those societies to change opinions rather than deny them the right to speak those opinions.
Pretty much the same way our media wheels out BNP stories so the majority can unite in abusing Nick Griffin.
I cannot help but see that a lot of people who hold the same opinion as me seem to react in a manner that denies people largely ignorant of the facts their own opinions. I remember going to games as a youth though, when racism was wholeheartedly encouraged and a reaction to an opposing opinion would have been met in a similar manner, for the opposite reasons.
The question sticks in my throat (well, my knuckles I suppose, this being a typed conversation), but at what point does a person’s right to freedom of expression be denied on the grounds that they are in the minority with their opinion?
Again, I have no answer – and this being a football forum I suspect that my thoughts are somewhat out of place.
I commend you on your closing paragraph, however and would like it repeated on these pages…
‘perhaps the best we can hope for is that more people find overt displays of hostility unacceptable’
…whether that hostility is racial, religious, gender based, sexually oriented or otherwise (ginger people included – I’ll hear nothing meaningful said against Jack Colback for that genetic trait).
We are humans after all, and should be capable of solving our differences by the processes of rational thought and discussion – even agreeing on occasion (though not with you in this regard) to disagree.
In the meantime – I’d like someone involved in the various anti-racism campaigns to propose that any club or country genuinely allied to their cause should boycott any UEFA sanctioned competitions/events until UEFA take genuine action against countries that appear to be taking no steps to educate their citizens on matters of equality.
If all of the big clubs across europe walked away from the champions and europa leagues because UEFA allows the abuse of their players to go unpunished, UEFA would surely have to act, wouldn’t they?
Four of you read that!?!?!? You must have something better to do! Surely?! Still – enjoy my first ever comment that isn’t an essay and my apologies for ranting above, I just didn’t realise at the time.
Maggie bastards, please.
You can clearly see all the missiles thrown by the ‘fans’ after the goal went in and hear the monkey chants while the place erupted. What shocked me is the flying kick one of the serbian players seemed to take at Danny in front of the tunnel .. the kind of kick that got Cantona banned for about half a season. what are UAFA going to do about it. If I had any footballing relations I would be very reticent about sending them there as the ‘fans’ seem to no more than animals.
Good one..
How dare Danny run around all provocatively black!