Racism rears it's ugly head
It was only a matter of time before the racism card reared its ugly head in Formula One.
With the way the whole McLaren inter-team duel panned out, people probably should’ve expected it to happen during the test. Spain has a recent history of racism issues in sport, most notably football. Whether it’s given in domestic matches or in international matches such as England’s most recent friendly with the country or even going back to the Spanish coach making comments about Thierry Henry in a paltry attempt to inspire another player. The fact he is still the coach of the national team would make you worry about how Spanish authorities will handle this.
I’m surprised it took till this morning before the media really seemed to get a grapple on this. English sports writers had enough to write about with England’s rugby performance I bet. The FIA have sent out a strong statement saying they want this cleaned up or they will move on. Be interesting to see that if it continues in further tests or at either of the Spanish rounds of the season will they follow through. Such actions would get heads turned.
Maybe football could learn from them who at times seem to be slow dealing with the issues. I read that the UK sports minister is demanding that something be done along with the FIA. Perhaps his own comments would be better off in offering to help Spanish authorities in dealing with the issues, especially given England’s long history of misbehaving fans.
It’s an issue that needs to get nipped in the bud quickly. We don’t need motorsport turning into the mess that other sports have fallen into over the issue. Nobody deserves that sort of abuse and those who give it need some serious lessons of life given to them. Sure we want our fans to be passionate and care about those they support but to resort to such disgusting ways is not on.
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3 comments:
"With the way the whole McLaren inter-team duel panned out people probably should’ve expected it to happen during the test."
What was all about, in fact?
Which do you mean, what happened between Alonso and Hamilton or how I figured that reprecussions would be felt this season after it?
The incident itself, a brief desciption of the facts would have been helpful. It's not necessarly that everyone knows what you are writting about, so preventing any misunderstanding or lack of information would be wise.
Another thing, regarding this comment:"(...)especially given England’s long history of misbehaving fans.(...)"
I can only speak about my own experience against the misbehaving english fans who come here anytime an english soccer team play in my country. The true? They're the most desirable foreigner fans for the pubs around the stadiums, despite the usual press alarms of incoming skin-heads hordes who only wants to get drunk and demolish everything.
Explanation? Maybe it's not about a history of misbehavings, maybe it's only about history. Maybe it's not about general character but more about old disputes.
My country has also some old cultural or historical disputes and these lead to certain misbehavings on the stadiums whenever the old "enemies" are face to face again, but this is only a "natural" effect.
Germans, french or irish (for example) are "natural" english "enemies" so you can expect troubles in sport events that include thousands of people. You can also expect troubles between croatians and serbian fans, but between moldavian and english supporters? Unlikely.
So from my point of view I think it would be more accurate to say something like this (if it's really necessarly such a general remark in an article about F1 ): "especially given England’s long history of misbehaving fans against ..."
Otherwise you write very well, congratulations.
OK, thank you.
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