Handshakes Can’t Solve Racism in Soccer
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By DERON SNYDER
If only it was that simple, shaking hands to erase a centuries-old superiority complex and wipe out perceptions passed from generation to generation.
Maybe that possibility truly exists in the pollyanna mind of FIFA president Sepp Blatter, but it’s hard to believe he could be so naïve. Yet, that’s what he said recently, responding to a racial abuse claim that arose in a match between Manchester United and Liverpool.
Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, a black Frenchman, accused Liverpool’s Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez of saying “a certain word to me at least 10 times. No place for that in 2011. The referee is aware of what was said.”
Suarez responded by saying the term he used isn’t a slur in South America and he shouldn’t be punished.
