Kneeling, with his fist raised. Revolutionaries with football boots, millionaire athletes who for a day do not forget that they are also citizens and join a universal struggle. The PSG and Turkish Basaksehir players decided not to continue playing in the Champions League on Tuesday because the fourth referee, the Romanian Sebastian Coltescu, referred to the second coach of the Turks, the Cameroonian Pierre Webó, as “that black” . 24 hours later, both teams finished the game, with a thrashing of the French by 5 to 1, a result that allows them to finish first in the group. And before getting back on track with a new referee, with Dutchman Danny Makkelie replacing Romanian Ovidiu Hategan, they knelt with their fists raised. “It’s a very powerful image that hides a very big problem. UEFA has taken a stand in the fight against racism, but when the alleged racist is one of its workers, a referee, he has remained silent, “said French journalist Nicolas Kssis-Martov of the magazine. So Foot. “You do a lot of campaigns, which is a good thing, but it hurts if the racist is not an amateur, who is easy to criticize, but a referee.” The Romanian press has argued that Coltescu’s, rather than racist, has been an unfortunate comment to make a mistake in using this expression “to easily indicate who should be warned on the bench.” UEFA, by the way, has withdrawn the warning to Webó, who was sent off.
Arda Turan, another soldier under Erdogan
The players of both teams join an ever-growing list of players who decided to stop insulting tips games. Footballers like Eto’o, Balotelli, Koulibaly, Lukaku, Muntari or Kean, many of them influenced by American sport, where great athletes have not hesitated to fight racism. “Mbappé, the great star of PSG, has always taken this issue very seriously and was one of the first to support the Turks. In 1968 professional footballers occupied the headquarters of the Federation. Now finally millionaire athletes seem to be acting in the space that the football authorities should have against racism, “said Kssis-Martov. The problem is this. The clubs of these players would not be exemplary. PSG is owned by a investment fund of the royal house of Qatar, been accused of not respecting the human rights of foreign workers or homosexuals, for example.
Erdogan’s shadow
And Basaksehir is an almost fanless club founded by Istanbul City Council and controlled right now by businessmen from Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s political party. Just as Turkey is leading more cases of human rights abuses, at home, in Syria or in Nagorno-Karabakh, Erdogan’s iconic club appears as a standard of liberties. But Mickaël Correia, author of the book “A popular history of football”, defends the gesture of footballers in the Parc dels Príncipes. “It’s important that athletes generate debate, take sides and force their clubs and institutions to take sides,” he said.
“I’m against racism, but now everything you say to a black man seems racist,” Benfica coach Jorge Jesus argued about the debate. Not everyone sees it the same. And so far, Coltescu has not been sanctioned by UEFA, a body that only has white people on the board. The fight against racism, however, continues to win some battles thanks to brave athletes. And some, with double standards, like Neymar. Who raises his fist, but supports Bolsonaro in Brazil.
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