London, England was home to
the 2012 Summer Olympics. United Stated was the grand winner in medals, taking
home 104 total. Second place went to People’s Republic of China, with 88
total medals. Third, went to the host Great Britain with 65 medals. It’s
apparent that the U.S.A. can compete with the best, and at large succeed.
Much of the USA accomplishments in sports competition can be traced to its power house leagues. For many of the worlds youth, their dreams are "the major leagues of the USA". Whether it
is a young child from Dominican Republic wanting to be the next starting pitcher
for the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball (MLB), or a young boy from
Canada reaching out to be the next starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears
in the National Football League (NFL), we have been blessed to have the NFL,
MLB, NBA, and NHL as arguably the beast leagues in the world.Another reason we have been blessed is that in all these sports we have fair play and freedom from racism. See what you have to understand is, even though the USA for the most part controls those four major sports and it’s the place a player wants to make it to, the worlds’ sport, which is SOCCER, has not been conquered by the USA. Soccer is fairly brand new in our country. Major League Soccer was founded December 13, 1993, which makes it only twenty years old. The power house for soccer, the dream every little kid has is to make it to a European team. Preferably the English Premier League (EPL) in England, or the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) in Spain.
This article will tackle how the governing body of all professional soccer leagues around the world, FIFA (International Federation of Association Football), still deals with racism in our century.
January 30, 2013- Jozy Altidore scored one goal in AZ's Alkamaar (Netherlands professional soccer league) 5-0 victory over Den Bosch, advancing past the quarter finals of the Dutch Cup. However, the match will be remembered for the racist chants the fans from Den Bosch shouted at American star forward Jozy Altidore. FIFA has a zero tolerance for racism and the referee had no choice but to stop play and suspend the game. Nevertheless, the same Altidore insisted to the referee that the show must go on. With help from the home team they were able to stop some of the fans from shouting racist comments. The Dutch Football Association took charge and sanctioned all of those who were part of the racist scheme against Altidore.
In the same month in Italy's professional soccer league, Kevin Prince-Boateng a Ghanaian, and Mario Balotelli an African-Italian, players for AC Milan were also the victim of racist chants during a friendly match against club Inter Milan. Across town the same day another player for the club Cagliari, Victor Ibarbo, an Afro Colombian received racist chants in a match against club Lazio. February 24, 2013, the Inter Club was sentenced to pay 15,000 euros for the racist chants uttered by some of their fans during the encounter against AC Milan, which heard the expression “there is no black Italian”, in reference to Balotelli.
Recent incidents show that racism still exists in
football despite the current multiculturalism. Most importantly I believe it is
best to remember that in soccer, with all the nonsense going on with racism, the moment a goal is scored, I can be as black as the ACE of Spades or as
white as a snowflake…in the minute that player scores, everyone hugs each other
and celebrates as if there’s no tomorrow. The most important thing is remembering that
the ball doesn't see color, but talent and passion.
"2012 London Olympics - Stats and Info." Weblog post. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Jozy Altidore Target of Racist Chants in Dutch Soccer." USA Today. Gannett, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013.
"Italian Side Forced to Play One Match behind Closed Doors after Boateng Racism Row." Mail Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013.
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