It’s known by many as the beautiful game, but yet again, football has reared its ugly head.
In this week alone there has been two stand-out occasions to drag the sport’s name through the dirt once more. And all of this after a summer of sport which was supposed to leave a lasting legacy and a sense of pride.
England’s under 21s grabbed the headlines in midweek, after the shocking scenes which followed their 1-0 Euro 2013 play-off win over Serbia.
Tottenham left back Danny Rose, who is on loan at Sunderland, was subject to racial abuse throughout the game, and mobbed by the opposition following his red card after the final whistle.
But despite that, the Serbian FA have jumped to their players’ defence and put the blame on Rose himself, claiming his behaviour was “inappropriate, unsportsmanlike and vulgar.”
As a professional, maybe it was wrong for Rose to express his emotions towards the home fans after the winner, but who can really blame him, seeing as he was taunted with monkey chants and hit by stones throughout the course of the game?
Just as incredibly though, the Serbian players and coaches then went about attacking the English squad, in a brawl rarely seen before.
The issue of racism seems unwilling to go away, and now it’s time for FIFA and UEFA to act harsher on the deeper issues within the game.
It was Nicklas Bendtner who was fined £80,000 for displaying a sponsor’s brand during the Euro 2012 championships, yet two months earlier, Porto were fined just £16,700 when Mario Balotelli was subjected to monkey chants.
Authorities claim they want to kick racism out of the game, but with punishments as light as this, no progress is likely to be made any time soon.
This leads on well to the incident in the Sheffield Wednesday vs. Leeds United game on Friday night.
The beautiful site of Michael Tonge’s powerful equaliser, overshadowed by the ugly attack by Leeds fan Aaron Cawley on Wednesday goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.
Both managers condemned the actions of that ‘fan’, but it says a lot about society when an individual sees it right to run onto the pitch and attack a player, all in the name of football.
Cawley has since received a four-month prison sentence, but what about the vile chants towards Dave Jones’ family, and the Wednesday fans who taunted Leeds with chants about two fans who died in Istanbul?
Both are separate cases, but both are as shocking as each other. It is unlikely that football will ever be incident free, but with issues such as these still apparent in the game, it is a wonder why punishments haven’t become more severe.
It is certainly the minority who attract the spotlight, but that is still no excuse for what we’ve seen over the last few days.
The governing bodies have the powers to act, it’s just a shame they don’t seem to be fully using them. Until they do, it is unlikely that the news making the headlines will become any more attractive.
Bring back the beautiful game.
By Harry Hunt
Twitter @HarryHunt92
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