PompeyVillan Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 (edited) http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/20904210 Kevin-Prince Boateng's stand against racism supported The world of football gave its full support to AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng's decision to walk off the pitch after he was subjected to racist chants during a friendly at Italian lower division club Pro Patria on Thursday. Former Spurs and Portsmouth player Boateng kicked the ball into the crowd in the 25th minute of the match. He then walked off the pitch and was followed by his AC Milan team-mates. Boateng later tweeted: "Shame that these things still happen... #StopRacismforever." BBC Sport's Saj Chowdhury says the issue could be football'sRosa Parks moment - Parks being an African-American civil rights activist. Boateng's decision has certainly been universally backed by his fellow professionals. World Cup winner Patrick Vieira said on Twitter: "It was brave of Kevin-Prince Boateng to do what he did today, and it was the right thing. We need to stand up and stand together. Well done." Reading striker Jason Roberts on Twitter: "2013...no grey area...until some real sanctions..real action is delivered.. players should walk off the pitch...enough is enough.." Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand on Twitter: "If the stories about KPB walking off the pitch with team-mates after being racially abused are true, fair play to him. Well done #UefaStandUp" Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany on Twitter: "Act of racism against Boateng during Milan's friendly. How about becoming extremely intolerant towards racist idiots? They need to be told. "I can only salute Milan's decision to leave the pitch. Also noted that the majority of the fans were completely supportive of the players." Ex-England striker Michael Owen on Twitter: "That Prince-Boateng footage from the Milan game is shocking. Shame it takes a player to do that instead of the authorities being proactive." Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker on Twitter: "The only way to change things is to punish the teams these vermin support. Not with meaningless fines but points!" AC Milan midfielder Nigel de Jong says on Twitter: "Great action today of my teammates backing @KPBofficial to walk off the pitch. Federation got to stand up! #StopRacism" In June, Uefa president Michel Platini said that any players who walked off the pitch at Euro 2012 because of racist abuse would be booked. Several big name Premier League players highlighted the issue of racism in the English game by refusing to wear Kick It Out T-shirts during the charity's annual campaign in October. Well done KPB and well done to his Milan team mates. Now, this needs to happen in a high profile game. It takes bollocks to stand up to the pathetic authorities and the racists. Kudos to his team mates too. A united stance against racism in football is the only way to fight it. Edited January 3, 2013 by PompeyVillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grogan_Avfc Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Fair play to him for taking a stand. But he did so in a friendly when he could, in a competitive game he wouldnt do that because he'd face repercussions from fifa, which is out of order. Hopefully this type of thing (walking off) doesn't become common place. Because then how long is it until a team is losing so a player walks off due to abuse? What should happen is fifa see this and impose some serious sanctions for racism, so that it is tackled properly and won't result in competitive games turning to farce. However with those inept fucktards in charge at fifa, don't hold your breath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted January 4, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted January 4, 2013 I'm shocked that a club called Pro Patria would have racist fucktard fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Good on him. Good on his team mates for backing him up too. Also: Good on us for not having a **** stupid winter break so shit like this is less likely to happen. Even after the shitty results we have had over Christmas, I still love the absolute feast of football the English league serves up at this time of year. Trade that in for tours of the far east or friendlies against nasty little clubs who dont know how to behave? Hell no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Just saw the video and good for Boateng. He was dribbling the ball then decided enough is enough and picked it up and nailed it into the stands. It didn't hit anyone which is a shame. Boateng gets a talking to by the ref but he is having none of it and takes off his shirt and walks off the pitch. A few players from the other team stood up for Boateng and apologized for their moronic fans. It really is terrible that this is still happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted January 4, 2013 Moderator Share Posted January 4, 2013 It's great that it has happened. It's the only thing that will actually get the powers that be to act properly rather than fining teams €5,000 or similarly pathetic sums. The sad thing is if he'd done this in a competitive match, UEFA would have come down on him, Milan & the Italian FA like a ton of bricks because the rules simply don't allow for that kind of behaviour. Quite the opposite. But it is precisely incidents like this that will start the ball rolling to at least allow for this kind of resolution to racist chanting. Obviously it needs to be handled with care though because it then becomes something a team that's losing a match with 5 minutes to go can decide to do. It's a tricky one to regulate for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted January 4, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted January 4, 2013 Clarence Seedorf has offered a slightly different view. I'm not sure he's saying that Boateng was absolutely wrong to do what he did (as is suggested in the article) but it's interesting to see that he's not sure it's the best way to go about things. I generally have a lot of time for Seedorf - he's one cool really bad person and generally knows what he's talking about, and it was great when he was on MOTD, making Alan Hansen look like the fucktard that he is. However, while I see his point here (I certainly wouldn't want a game I was at to end because of a group of idiots) I think what Boateng and Milan did may be the only way to really push other fans, clubs and authorities into taking strong and swift action against such morons. Kevin-Prince Boateng's racism walk-off wrong - Clarence Seedorf AC Milan legend Clarence Seedorf says former team-mate Kevin-Prince Boateng was wrong to lead the Italian side off the pitch because of racist abuse. The Ghana midfielder walked off in protest in the 25th minute of a friendly at Pro Patria on Thursday. Seedorf said: "I don't see it as such a positive thing because [it] empowers more and more of this behaviour." However, Patrick Vieira, Rio Ferdinand and Vincent Kompany all backed Boateng's stance. Speaking on Twitter, World Cup-winner Vieira said: "It was brave of Kevin-Prince Boateng to do what he did and it was the right thing. We need to stand up and stand together. Well done." Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand tweeted: "Fair play to him. Well done #UefaStandUp" And Manchester City skipper Kompany tweeted: "Act of racism against Boateng during Milan's friendly. How about becoming extremely intolerant towards racist idiots? They need to be told." But Seedorf, 36, who now plays for Botafogo in Brazil, would have preferred a different approach against those chanting abuse. "They should just be identified and kicked out of the stadium," he said. "Leave the 90% that were enjoying the match and finish the game." Seedorf added: "If Boateng was able to identify the whole corner, you just kick the whole corner out, That is how I think it should be handled. "Walking away? Yes, you send a signal. But this has happened more than once and I don't think it really changes all that much. We are just empowering that little group with their behaviour to make this mess." Seedorf played for Milan from 2002 to 2012 and won the Champions League with the side in 2003 and 2007. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted January 4, 2013 Moderator Share Posted January 4, 2013 At this point no-one knows the best way to go about it. So we may aswell try every way, and let the consequences dictate what happens going forward. Someone at some point needed to do a walk off. It's done now. If it is deemed the right way then that'll be the norm. If not, then at least it has been done and we'll know not to do it and why. So in that sense, KPB was right to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 (edited) It's a difficult balancing act, because it may empower the racists, but because FIFA refuse to do anything meaningful about racism it's time that somebody else did. I believe that racist chanting it done primarily by football fans, who want to see a game of football, but harbour racist prejudices and use it to wind up players. I suspect that these football fans would soon stop their racist chanting if they knew they wouldn't get to see the game. If players begin to walk off when racially abused it may attract racist elements that are not interested in football at all but want some publicity. This is problematic, but again, if the authorities did anything meaningful this kind of thing wouldn't be necessary. But if you do it once, you've got to keep on doing it, regardless of the score, the importance of the match or the level of the abuse. Then you'd have to begin to set ground rules that you and team mates could agree to. Then it becomes on a full on protest. I can see this being something that happens again, but I think FIFA will bottle it and come down hard on the protest to prevent games being abandoned left right and centre. Part of me would like England to walk off if we suffer abuse at the level the u-21s did in Serbia again. It would be interesting to see what would happen if this happened in a competitive match. Edited January 4, 2013 by PompeyVillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=him8YXOSJbc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted January 5, 2013 Moderator Share Posted January 5, 2013 Nothing will change as a result of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted January 5, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted January 5, 2013 Really? Maybe not as a direct result, but there's been huge media coverage of this walk-off and I've no doubt the level of support that Boateng has received will encourage others to do the same when faced with similar situations in future. If this happens, there has to be a reaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I will be shocked if anything substantial comes of it. In reality, nothing can be done to change people's mindsets other than education. And if they are past a certain age then no amount of education will change it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted January 5, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted January 5, 2013 Yeah, but I don't think anyone is realistically expecting events in football to act as a substitute for such education and change the views of certain members of society. However, if more attention is brought to the issue by actions such as those of Boateng, which cannot be ignored by fans or authorities, subsequently more action will have to be taken. That may be taken by the fans themselves who may have the propensity to shout racist abuse at a football match, as they don't want to see the game called off, or their actions highlighted so publically (regardless of whether it changes their views in reality). If not, the authorities may be more keen to single out these individuals and ban them or involve the police. Other fans may also be encouraged to point out anyone making racist remarks, rather than ignoring/grumbling the culprit. I agree that none of these actions would necessarily change a racist person's views. However, it may stop them from openly sharing their idiocy somewhere as public as a football stadium, where they are likely to cause offence to people and will also undoubtedly be heard by children. Moreover, I don't think that everyone who shouts an insult containing racial remarks at someone is inherently a racist; but idiots who would do so in the heat of the moment may be dissuaded in the knowledge that they are unlikely to get away with it. It's important that a statement is made within the footballing world that clearly indicates that no form of racism will be tolerated. It almost certainly won't change the views of the culprits and those who share their views, but it would send the right message to young people all over the world watching the sport, and highlight the fact that racism is not an issue that should be simply ignored - showing that those who have something ignorant to say should shut the **** up and crawl back under their rocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 It's sent a powerful message throughout football, although I agree that if it was a competitive game then there wouldn't have been so much support from his team mates or club. What it has done though is make the minority realise the affect they can have on the other supporters. Pro Patria are a 4th division side, and AC Milan fielded a very strong team. Those fans would probably never get to see their club play against that calibre of player ever again, and due to the idiocy of a handful of fans they're opportunity was ruined. I imagine there were a few heads kicked in outside the ground, which would have been kept under wraps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 So the minority spoilt it again for the majority.FFS some people have no brains at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted January 5, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted January 5, 2013 One of the significant, though somewhat forgotten by history, moments in the US civil rights movement was the 1965 AFL All-Star Game (really, little more than a friendly). The game was scheduled for New Orleans, but after the black players were refused service by a number of hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, etc., all the players voted to boycott the game; it would be moved to Houston. By the time the New Orleans Saints started a couple of years later, those issues (or at least their outward manifestation) had disappeared. So it's possible for events of this general kind to bring about change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Nothing will change as a result of this. You don't think so? I'm not sure, genuinely. But it's about **** time. Bravo Kevin Prince-Boateng. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuck Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Glad someone has finally done this. Perhaps if more players took a stand like this, FIFA/UEFA would have to act on racism instead of punishing those who react to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Sepp Blatter questions Kevin-Prince Boateng's protest against racism. The Guardian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts