Racism in Sport - Spanish bigots?

Alot is said about racism in sport, and in football in particular, but the main debate from last week was racism in motorsport. Lewis Hamilton, Formula Ones first ever black driver was the focus of racial abuse and taunting from Spanish racing fans during pre-season testing at Barcelona.


“In our country, where multi-culturalism is a new thing, we are in nappies dealing with these things, and have a naivety which makes the English nervous”. That quote was from AS sports writer Guillem Balague after England’s black players were at the centre of monkey chanting and other racial abuse from the Spanish supporters during a match at the Bernebau in November 2004. Is this an excuse or an apology? One thing that is for sure is that Spaniards seem behind the times when it comes to multi-culturalism. I’ll agree with him there.

Racism can be the spark and cause of any argument from the front street to international debate but never is it as highly documented as when it occurs in sport.

And when we talk about racism in sport, the Spanish (albeit a minority) seem to be the most backward in appreciation of eradicating the disgraceful taunting and chanting. Last week Lewis Hamilton was subject to racist bigots when he went to test drive his McLaren at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. Whilst tearing round the track in his new F1 car Hamilton was at the end of abusive gestures, racial remarks and people who painted themselves black and wore shirts suggesting they were Hamilton’s family. The reasons for this appear to be obvious: Hamilton, Formula Ones first black driver, had a row with Spanish ace Fernando Alonso which has since led Alonso to leave McLaren and Lewis has become a hate figure amongst some of the Spanish public.

These acts of racial abuse could back-fire on the bigots as Spain may now lose it’s grand-prix at Barcelona and, potentially, the one at Valencia. Surely that’s a small price to pay for such inhumane activities?

In the Sun this story ticked all the boxes needed for a controversial and explosive front page and inside story. The fact that it mixed a hard news item with a celebrity and sport led it to reach the top of the newspaper and then it filled a double page spread on the inside. What was evident is the fact that the story was still more entertainment based than racism based. However, in the Independent it was different: the story was seen to lack relevance and was positioned at the back of the paper in a short article. What this shows is how hard it is to differentiate between what is hard and what is soft news.

This is far from the first time that we have seen racism from Spain. Like I’ve already mentioned there was the incident in Madrid in 2004. Also, Luis Aragones was fined after he referred to Thierry Henry as “that black shit”. Reason? Because he was trying to motivate Jose Antonio Reyes. Oh well that’s alright then. In 2005 referees had to temporarily stop matches due to bigots. Then there’s been abuse to Deportivo goalkeeper Carlo Kameni, Costa Rican striker Paulo Wanchope and Portugese right-back Miguel.

Perhaps the most well-known of recent times was in 2006 when Barcelona and Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o attempted to abandon the game, by walking off, after he was subject to monkey chants each time he received the ball. He played on and Barcelona won the match. Justice? Hardly but Zaragoza also got slapped with a 9,000 euro fine. Justice? You can’t really put a price on eradicating racism but Eto’o felt it was lenient and in his opinion punishments should go beyond fines - closing stadiums for example. But in all fairness, that’s a bit extreme due to the large percentage of honest and respectful fans.