Eto'o May Have The Answer To Spanish Racism

Filed in archive General on March 1, 2006

source: sportinglife.com

I have nothing but respect for Samuel Eto'o. The notion that black players should be 'big enough' to ignore racist abuse from crowds is ridiculous, if we expect the players to ignore it then on some level we're trying to ignore it too.

Last season Eto'o responded to monkey chants from Zaragoza fans by celebrating his goal in Barcelona's 4-1 victory with a monkey impression. A pretty hilarious retort and a fiery response that sent the message that Eto'o would not hide and was willing to confront the Zaragoza fans head on.

This weekend he returned to Zaragoza and faced the same monkey chants, but his reaction was an attempt to leave the pitch. With intervention from Ronaldinho amongst others he was persuaded to stay on, and that was the right decision.Not that Eto'o shouldn't leave the field if that's what he wants but in the long run it would have been counter-productive. Since Eto'o is such a dangerous player his absence would benefit Zaragoza, and so encourage fans to repeat their behaviour in the future in the hope that Eto'o would leave. But he did propose a more promising course of action.

When Barcelona face Real Madrid at the Nou Camp, Eto'o has stated that he will leave the field if his own fans racially abuse Madrid's Roberto Carlos. If they do, and Eto'o makes good on his promise then he will directly damage the fans doing the chanting, his own fans. With the Spanish authorities failing to take the initiative I would love to see all La Liga's black players unite in a similar pact and threaten to leave the field every time an opposition player is racially abused. Fans would soon cease chanting if they knew it would have a negative and immediate effect on their team.