Soccer Racism in Practice
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On the heels of an AGM piece on Racism in Football, we get another real life example of it.
In a UEFA Champions League 2nd qualifying round match between Scottish team Rangers and Zeta of Montenegro, two Rangers players DaMarcus Beasley and Jean-Claude Darcheville were the subjects of racism remarks from the Montenegrin crowds. More specifically, "monkey chants," referring to both Beasley and Darcheville being black. Beasley did get revenge in the scheme of the game though, scoring the game's only goal and securing Rangers' place in the next round.
This was not Beasley's first time at the end of racism, as he had it happen before while playing against Red Star Belgrade (who ironically, might be Rangers' next Champions League opponent). The incident made the front page of SI.com, the first time I've ever seen it in mainstream American press (ESPNsoccernet's article mentions it, although not in the title), although 100% of the reason behind that is Beasley being American. It was even the main point of the game recap on the team website ("Beasley Silences Zeta Racists"). As much of the discussion in the previous article centered around Spain, Italy, and Germany's problem, just from looking at it Eastern Europe may be worse about it.
Well Michel, here's an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. Deny future entry for Zeta into European competitions for some time, and put Montenegrin teams on notice. Be careful with Red Star too, should they advance - if they've done it before, they might just do it again.
