Racism Recap

Hey guys, so this is actually my very last blog. Semester is too short so we have to cut the blogs short too. I do have to say though, I am going to miss doing these for sure, I really liked it and who knows, maybe I'll start a personal blog outside of school, make it a hobby. 

So for our last post it'll be a little bit different. Instead of having another long story about another soccer player or country, we're gonna take things slow and make them easy for today. So for today we will be recapping on every blog post so far talking about them and giving opinions on them. So let's do it! 

Blog 1 Racism In Soccer: It's where it all started, I talked about how racism affects different players and/or countries, and had put up a quote from Nelson Mandela. That quote speaks loudly to me because it's so true, no one can be born hating anyone, it develops as you grow or you're taught to hate that person/culture.

Blog 2 How Are Leagues Helping?: This blog was all about how leagues around the world even FIFA are helping out to stop end all of this. It was so important because they are the leaders of these leagues  and sometimes leaders of this sport. They run everything and it should be their responsibility to keep their athletes safe from harm like racism and spectator brutality.

Blog 3 Mario Balotelli: Mario is one of the greatest to ever play the sport, everything he does is for the fans, he loves them and how do they repay him? By making monkey noises and pelting him with garbage. Not only him but no other player should be treated like that. He's only there to play for the entertainment of the fans but in result he gets hurt by his own fan base.

Blog 4 Zinedine Zidane: The Zidane story is so much different from the Balotelli story, yeah they both get harassed because of their race but in Zidane's case, it's not coming from fans but from players on the pitch. This story hits me so close to home because Zidane is from the Middle East and when he was verbally harassed he was called a terrorist. I think that just the fact that it came from another player makes it so bad. Players should be having more class on the field.

Blog 5 Can Russia End Racism?: Russia is hosting the FIFA 2018 World Cup. Do I think it's a good idea... not so much. Russia is one of the world's hot spots for racism. It's good that they're putting in the effort to end it... and they're  putting A LOT of effort.

Blog 6 Italian Soccer Racism: Italy is the country that's biggest when it comes to soccer but their fans can go overboard most of the time. Is it passion or just a little crazy? I talked about how Arrigo Sacchi was making racist comments even though he is a manager and should be showing the most class on the team. A  little childish in my opinion.

So guys I just wanna thank you guys for all the support and hope the best for each and every one of you!! 

THANK YOUUU    

Racism In Italian Soccer

        Hey guys how's it going? I'm finally back from a very very very long break. It makes so happy to be back after so long. I think we're up to the sixth blog so far. So in the spirit of the European Cup going on this summer, I'll be talking about Italian soccer and how racism is affecting them.

So Italian team manager, Arrigo Sacchi, owner of AC Milan says he is not a racist and never will be. Arrigo Sacchi Quote ‘I’m not racist … but there are too many blacks in youth teams’  

I find that so messed up that he could say that then say right before that he is not a racist. It's impossible for a whole culture or race to ruin a sport or even a whole culture. Sure it can be one or two people but you can't blame any whole culture for anything.

You can sort of compare it to Hitler in World War 2 when he blamed the whole Jewish race/culture for all of his failures. Not trying to be mean or anything though, he's a good manager with not so good message. 

I just don't think it was appropriate at all, especially for someone with so much publicity to say it in front of millions watching at home. It does not create a good image for himself or his team. 

In my eyes and I'm sure many others, you do not really have the right to blame one culture for the failure of soccer in your country. To me, the diversity in Italian soccer is what's saving it. Take Mario Balotelli for example or Paul Pogba, both play for or in Italy, both are all-star players, both are black but both suffer the most taunting and humiliation. I think that people are just jealous of their success and wanna try and put them down. 

So guys that wraps up blog number six, it's great to be back writing for you guys. Thanks again for the read and have a nice day!! :)

Can Russia Get Rid Of Racism Before 2018?

Blog numero cinqo, my final one before I take a short break for the mid-semester. This one's gonna be big in my opinion. I'm trying to focus on the future in this post instead of the past or present, so I can show you guys what's to come in the coming years for the beautiful world of futbol.  

Many people might not know but Russia is also a big hot spot for racism in the soccer society. It is full of racist communities. Last April after a game in Moscow, fans started cheering for their team while at the same time waving a Nazi flag around. The Torpedo Moscow (A soccer club in Russia) has been fined 29 000$ for racism and crowd violence. They were forced to play 5 home games without one fan because of the trouble they cause and were also forced to play 3 home games with certain parts of the stands removed for player safety reasons.

Russia better change their ways quick because in 2018 they will be the hosts of the 2018 World Cup. If an incident happens to the players during this world renowned event, Russia can suffer great consequences in the soccer world. They might never be able to host another major sporting event again. They might even be ineligible to participate in these events just so that the fans can learn their lessons.

In my opinion Russia can get the change in before the World Cup. They have already started by hiring a new anti-racism monitor. This will be a team of supervisors that have the task to watch more "dangerous" matches and keep the fans in their place. To me this a great idea for keeping the peace and leaving Russia with a good image.

The FIFA World Cup is only here to bring the world together so we can all watch the sport we love. If a few fans were to ruin that, it could ruin soccer for millions of people.

Russia Article      

Zidane Racism Story

YO! Welcome back to my fourth post on this blog. As always I'm excited to bring you guys this story, especially this one of any racism incident that has happened. This story always gets to me because the victim of racism was Algerian (close to Lebanese/Middle-Eastern).

This is the incident of Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest to ever play the amazing sport of soccer, in my opinion. So this is back in the year of 2006, in the World Cup Final, France vs Italy Zidane's final game ever. The game had been tied at 1-1. During the first half of extra time the Italian player Marco Materazzi went up to Zidane and said something that enraged Zidane enough that he headbutted Marco in the chest and was sent off for the rest pf the game. Italy went on to win in shoot outs.

Zidane had never specified what Marco had said but only mentioned "Terrorist". Being called that alone would provoke anyone even the calmest man. A few days after calming down, Zidane apologized for his actions. He had gotten over the insult but I think was especially upset of the way he ended his career.

Zinedine's agent talked to the press and made it specific that his client is the calmest and least likely person to do that so whatever Marco said must have been bad.

I am on Zidane's side for sure but can also see why the officials penalized him so harshly. There was no reason for Marco to take things to that extremity. If he was trying to get under his skin he could've used other types of trash talk which is fair since it's part of the game but not that far. On the other hand, Zidane might have reacted too violently. He could've just turned the other cheek which is really hard but would've shown that he's the bigger man.

Zidane News Story

Mario Balotelli Story

Hey guys, welcome back to blog post number three so far. I don't know about you guys but I'm having such a fun time with these blogs, it makes school work so much more fun than just sitting and answering questions from a book. 

So back to racism in soccer, I have a story for you guys about one man that is one of the best footballers in the world but also one of the most affected by racism. Mario Balotelli.

So Mario is a man of black race that plays in Italy and also for their national team. Obviously when you have a player like Mario, who is black and is having great success in his career, people are going to try and break him. So while playing in Italy, he was always treated wrongly. Fans from opposing teams would boo him and call him names from the stands. Mario couldn't take the hatred much longer, he was even considering on quitting soccer, which would have been a huge loss for the world of soccer since he was such an amazing player. After long thinking he finally decided that he wanted to be traded and went to play with Manchester City FC in England then went on to play in Liverpool. Was it a coincidence that the best soccer he's played was when he was in England? I don't think it's a coincidence, he just has so much more stress relieved from him and can concentrate on his own game.

 Just to put my opinion into this, we can't have problems like racism that in this day should already be gone from the world since we are so "civilized" take away players. Let's not think about soccer for a second, think about let's say hockey, P.K Subban for example. Almost everyday I hear at least 1 comment saying that he shouldn't be playing hockey just because he's black and that he should stick to basket-ball or some other racial stereotype like that. These things are not alright. he is an amazing athlete who is excelling in his sport and I just think people are jealous of what he has instead of working to be able to succeed like he did. Same goes for Mario's case.  

What Are Soccer Leagues Doing To Stop Racism

Welcome to my second post to my blog. Today I'll be talking about how leagues are trying to stop racism. Many soccer leagues are already doing many things to stop it obviously, as I have witnessed before, many leagues are changing home games to away games because of racial history with one team. All teams also give match officials the permission to end games if circumstances become too dangerous for the players and other fans.

In my opinion, there should be advisories on the back of every ticket you purchase to enter a game saying that if you disturb the match in any way that there will be consequences. 

There are many videos of fans throwing smoke bombs onto fields, they might not hurt anyone necessarily but they can end a match and ruin the fun for everybody. As you can see on TV, the bigger the match is or the more all Stars that are on the field, the more authorities there are, so you can see how much precaution the bigger leagues/teams are taking to make sure their athletes stay safe.

It makes me mad to see people go out of their way to buy tickets to a game just to go and put the players and officials in danger. They are not only ruining the sport for the people in the stadiums but also for most people around the world because like I said, soccer is one of the most popular sports on the planet, known and loved by everyone so we have to preserve our beautiful sport so that even more people will be attracted to it instead of disgusted, if these acts continue on in the future. 

Racism In Soccer

Racism In Soccer

Soccer is the sport that brings the whole world together. It brings us so many different types of emotions, happiness, sadness, it can make a good day go bad or a bad day go good. Fans all around the world are so passionate for this amazing sport. Are some fans a little too passionate the they have to bring negative comments about other races into it?

Soccer is a game full of passion but sometimes many fans or even players take it too far. One of many examples of racism is the story of Dani Alves, a player for FC Barcelona, whenever Dani would have possession of the ball all the fans would "Boo". When Alves would set up the ball for a set play, free kick, corner kick, fans would throw bananas onto the field. There were many ways Alves and his teammates responded to this. Dani himself would pick up the bananas and eat them. Neymar Jr, his teammate, started many trends on social medias to fight against. One example is he took a picture of himself and his son eating bananas and posted it for the world to see.                  Dani Alves Story

In my opinion, racism has no place in the beautiful sport of soccer. This sport is here to bring the world together and entertain us. There are many players that are considering on quitting the sport because the area or league they play in is too racist or dangerous. If we want to keep our game alive and so multicultural we have to end the racism. 

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." -Nelson Mandela     Nelson Quote

I have seen this quote so many times and it might be one of my favorites. No one is born racist,they are always taught to be racist. If we taught someone to be racist they can also be taught to love everyone no matter the skin color.