Celtic right-back Jeremie Frimpong has opened up on his previous experience with racism.
It’s been a hot topic over the last couple of weeks after England players were racially abused in Bulgaria. The European qualifying match between the pair had to be halted twice, and seemed close to being postponed.
But there’s been more happening this week too. A Manchester United fan was charged with racially abusing a Liverpool player on Sunday (BBC). On the same day, Hearts had to open up investigations on an alleged racist remark from their fans towards Alfredo Morelos (BBC).
And Frimpong, who only joined the Hoops from Manchester City, told the National that he was racially abused during his youth days at City.
“When I was back at [Manchester] City, I went to a tournament in Italy and their fans were making monkey chants but I tried not to let it bother me.
“It must have been Under-11s or something. I think it was Rome. And it wasn’t just me, my team-mates were getting it as well. It is a game of football, what has the colour of my skin got to do with it?
“I am just kicking the ball, what makes you so angry? You see that in the England-Bulgaria match. After that happened, it just killed the mood. I wouldn’t like that to happen.”
Worrying rise in racist behaviour is a concern
In society in general, there’s a zero-tolerance approach to racism. The vast majority of people find it totally abhorrent, and that’s the view we should all have on the matter.
But there is clearly a worryingly sizable proportion who think it’s fine to go about saying what they want about players’ skin.
Yes, it’s notoriously bad in certain parts of Europe. The fact that Bulgarian FA chief Boris Mihaylov had to resign after the England match shows just how bad things are over there.
In the UK, however, it still clearly exists. We haven’t even mentioned the fact that Haringey Borough walked off the pitch against Yeovil Town on Saturday due to racist abuse (Sky Sports). It seems to be cropping up all over the place, and that’s a monumental concern.
Sky Sports have been trying their best to let everyone know about the disgrace of racism with their recent campaign against it. But you wonder whether certain people are too set in their ways to listen.
The sad part is that you’re not even surprised by Frimpong’s comments. This is just what seems to happen in football these days. Hopefully, in time, we can rid the UK of it for good.
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