The Dani Alves banana incident is still fresh in everyone’s minds following the great reaction through the social media. Sadly, posting a photo on Instagram is not enough. La Liga got another awful reminder today when some Atlético fans made monkey chants towards Levante’s African player, Diop, today. Diop danced like a monkey to mock them back. La Liga cannot afford to tap dance its way around this issue anymore and must deal with clubs severely.
Back in November 2004, the sporting world experience an awful event when black players from the English national team were subjected to racist monkey chants from vast numbers of the crowd at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium during a friendly. It probably wasn’t the first time something of this sort had happened in a Spanish stadium but it sure was the first time many had witnessed it outside the viewing area of that country.
Sadly, the reaction then was poor and even farcical when one of the Spanish officials denied it even took place and hadn’t happened in Spain in quite a while. Well, it did and still does to this day. Just two years later, I recall FC Barcelona’s Eto’o almost leaving the pitch because of the racist taunting from the Zaragoza fans. Unfortunately, Spanish Football Federation opted to just sweep it under the rug and forget about it. The same would transpire in the 2011 Supercopa Clásico between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Dani Alves was subjected to monkey chants from some of the Madrid fans and then three days later, Marcelo was subjected to the same treatment from some of the Barça fans as well.
The reaction back then was the same. Just brush it under the rug and forget about it and move on. It’s going to be tough now. They can keep turning a blind eye, like they did when a Nazi flag was seen hanging on one of the entrances of the Real Madrid fan entrances to the Mestalla stadium in Valencia on the day of the most recent Copa del Rey Final, along with some xenophobic act of burning the Catalan flag. However, the time has come for change.
What Dani Alves went through last week and how Villarreal handed the matter was reassuring for once. There was talk that Spanish football was changing for the better in how to confront the racism problem. However, we were reminded again that there is too much left to be done following today’s incident between Diop and Atlético Madrid fans. However, Spanish football needs to put its foot down on this issue.
We cannot rely on fans, athletes and celebrities posting photos with bananas as a way to cure this problem. Small fines hasn’t done the trick so it’s high time Spanish football Federation start to send a stern messages to these idiots who think that they can continue to get away with these awful acts. Stadium bans and points docked.
You think people won’t turn on you if they hear a monkey chant coming out of your mouth where it could cost you precious points to win the league, avoid the drop or qualify for Europe? Sure, traveling fans could be doing it too so the punishment would be directed at the visiting club where they would face the same punishment. It’s 2014 and we can no longer accept monkey chants or Nazi flags or salutes as part of the atmosphere of the game. Spanish authorities need to look into implementing this sort of punishment starting next season or risk further embarrassment to its reputation.
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