{"id":398,"date":"2011-07-23T22:04:22","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T22:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memorial.local:8888\/www\/398.html"},"modified":"2011-08-09T11:56:15","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T11:56:15","slug":"football-against-racism-integration-football-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/football-against-racism-integration-football-match\/","title":{"rendered":"FOOTBALL AGAINST RACISM: Integration Football Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fair play, chivalry, respect for the opponent: these are qualities which should be inherent to sport.\u00a0 Unfortunately, however, the problems of the modern world &#8211; racism, xenophobia, hatred &#8211; are reflected in sport.\u00a0 In this there is a well-known paradox: instead of revealing people\u2019s best qualities, sport demonstrates to us the darkest sides of human nature.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There are many examples of the manifestation of racism in football, the most popular and democratic sports game.\u00a0 On 6<sup>th<\/sup> June 2007, during the First Division match of the Russian Premier League, banners and placards were noticed on the stands: \u2018Kondopoga, Stavropol.\u00a0 Who next?\u2019 and \u2018Stavropol.\u00a0 Russians don\u2019t surrender.\u2019\u00a0 There were also banners with the acronyms \u201814-88\u2019 (\u201888\u2019 is an acronym for the Nazi salute \u2018Heil Hitler\u2019, and \u201814\u2019 is an acronym for the saying, popular with skinheads, \u201814 Words of David Lane\u2019).\u00a0 These slogans were noticed during the Torpedo vs Zvezda match in Moscow, the Shinnik vs Alania match in Yaroslavl, and the Spartak vs MZhK and Metallurg vs Kuzbass matches.<\/p>\n<p>On 11<sup>th<\/sup> August 2007, during the Krylya Sovetov vs Spartak match in Samara, on the\u00a0 stand of the Spartak supporters appeared the racist banner \u2018Number 11 is for Tikhonov alone.\u00a0 Monkey, go home!\u2019\u00a0 Shortly afterwards, wearing the Spartak number 11 shirt, the dark-skinned Brazilian forward, Vellington, came onto the field.<\/p>\n<p>On 11<sup>th<\/sup> November 2007, during the Krylya Sovetov (Samara) vs Khimki match in Podmoskovye, the dark-skinned defender on the Samara team, Serzha Branko, left the field, outraged at the behaviour of fans who had insulted him with racist shouts.\u00a0 \u2018From the beginning of the second half of the match, every contact I had with the ball was accompanied by racist abuse and \u2018monkey\u2019 shouts from the direction of the Khimki supporters.\u00a0 I brought this to the referee\u2019s attention.\u00a0 I asked him to take action, because the atmosphere in the stadium evidently had nothing in common with the principles of fair play.\u00a0 However, the referee said that he did not understand me.\u00a0 Yet it was not some small group which was involved in this, but a whole stand!\u00a0 That was when I decided to leave the field,\u2019 Branko explains.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">\n<p align=\"justify\">Some of these events received great public attention, others little, but in every such case the authorities pretend that there is some kind of chance or misunderstanding, and refuse to acknowledge that racism is a serious problem in Russia, and not only in the world of football does it need to be addressed.<script src=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">It is particularly offensive when racist incidents happen in our town.\u00a0 In his interview, Serzha Branko justly criticised Zenit St Petersburg: \u2018It may be that the government of your country needs to take some kind of resolution, so that at least something would start to be done.\u00a0 There are many good people in Russia, but there are also many bad people.\u00a0 For example, why do we hear abuse of Black players in the St Petersburg stadium year after year?\u00a0 \u2018Zenit are the champions, Zenit are the champions,\u2019 we hear from all sides.\u00a0 Yet in a civilised country, such a team would be relegated to the fourth division for such actions on the part of its supporters.\u00a0 Of course, the management cannot be held responsible for every one of the supporters, but the management take no action at all.\u00a0 If no kind of action is taken against racists, the management of Zenit club will prove to be the greatest racists.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Unfortunately, the problem of racism is relevant not only in professional sport, but also in amateur sport.\u00a0 An example of this is shown by the children\u2019s football team from Oselki, a village in the Vsevolozhsky region of the Leningrad district.\u00a0 In this team Russian and Romani children play on good terms with each other (there is a small Romani settlement in the Leskolovsky district).\u00a0 The team has already been participating in various regional competitions for several years, have a good reputation, and every year improve their results.\u00a0 The players get on well with one another, are well trained, and have a sense of partnership.\u00a0 In the game the team looks excellent, however the boys from Oselki quite often lose to a weaker opponent.\u00a0 What is going on here?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">It is without doubt that both players and their coaches can sense the supporters\u2019 negative attitude due to the internationality of the team, which consists of four Romani and three Russian children.\u00a0 For example, at a regional football competition in September 2007, supporters openly shouted racist slogans and had even composed a chant containing very unpleasant words addressed at the Romani players.\u00a0 Of course, they were stopped by the coaches and referees, but it was already too late: having started the game in a very positive state of mind and led the score in the first half of the match, after these malicious shouts the children from the Oselki team became visibly discouraged, their spirits fell, and the game did not take off.\u00a0 Out of despair they even started to shout at each other.\u00a0 This is the result not of a genuine sports competition, but of severe psychological pressure which was brought to bear on the players.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">In the light of such incidents it is especially clear that careful work for the cultivation in children of respect for one another and respect for foreign cultures is essential.\u00a0 Over the course of several years, within Memorial\u2019s school integration programs, football matches have been organised in schools where a large number of the pupils are children from families of migrants and ethnic minorities.\u00a0 Some of the games are held with the support of the international network of the organisation \u2018Football Against Racism in Europe\u2019 (FARE), which annually holds a pan-European action \u2018Week against Racism and Discrimination in Football\u2019.\u00a0 The heart of the campaign is the organisation of various football-related actions in various European countries, directed against racism and discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">On 20<sup>th<\/sup> October 2007, children of various nationalities from the villages of Nizhny Oselki, Vyritsa (Leningrad region), and Syabrenitsa (Novgorod region) took part in an integration football match organised by Memorial with the support of FARE.\u00a0 The schools of the town of Pushkin hosted the match and assisted the organisers: School no. 410 donated its playing field for the game and School no. 462 helped a great deal with the refereeing.\u00a0 All the participants were divided into four mixed groups \u2013 each team consisted of pupils from various schools and representatives of various nationalities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">The match was very cheerful and lively.\u00a0 Both the players and supporters celebrated when their team scored a goal, and those who were at first disappointed by defeat quickly forgot about it, since in the winning team there were representatives of each of the schools taking part.\u00a0 Therefore, at the end of the match, everyone had the feeling that they had won.\u00a0 And it was true: on that day we had gained a victory over prejudice, hatred and racism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fair play, chivalry, respect for the opponent: these are qualities which should be inherent to sport.\u00a0 Unfortunately, however, the problems of the modern world &#8211; racism, xenophobia, hatred &#8211; are reflected in sport.\u00a0 In this there is a well-known paradox:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","pub-thumb":"","post-thumb":"","wcicon":"","wcsquare":"","wcsmall":"","wcstandard":"","wcbig":"","wcfixedheightsmall":"","wcfixedheightmedium":"","wcfixedheight":"","wccarouselsmall":"","wccarousel":"","wcslider":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>Fair play, chivalry, respect for the opponent: these are qualities which should be inherent to sport.\u00a0 Unfortunately, however, the problems of the modern world &#8211; racism, xenophobia, hatred &#8211; are reflected in sport.\u00a0 In this there is a well-known paradox: instead of revealing people\u2019s best qualities, sport demonstrates to us the darkest sides of human nature. There are many examples of the manifestation of racism in football, the most popular and democratic sports game.\u00a0 On 6th June 2007, during the First Division match of the Russian Premier League, banners and placards were noticed on the stands: \u2018Kondopoga, Stavropol.\u00a0 Who next?\u2019&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/author\/admin\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"strategy_cases","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/strategy_cases?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"campaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaign?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"filter-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/filter-content?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}