Racism back in focus at the heart of English game

It was the standout image from a frantic afternoon of derby football: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, having finished celebrating with his Arsenal team-mates after scoring against Tottenham, was pictured looking both defiant and disdainful while on the turf in front of him lay the skin of a banana.

From that moment, skin — specifically the colour of football’s many human varieties — became the game’s most significant subplot. The banana skin hurled from the away end would spark a chain reaction involving the police, both clubs, the FA, and the Premier League.

To those organisations its significance was clear: To throw a banana at a player who is a Gabon international was a potential act of racism that required investigation.

To many onlookers, especially those who had lived through such times, it was an act straight out of the 1970s and 80s, when young black players, the children of the first wave of immigrants from Commonwealth nations in the 50s and 60s, were subjected to racist abuse from the stands on a game-to-game basis.

Then, a thrown banana was a wordless yet unequivocal message that its sender regarded black players as more ape than human.

Perhaps it first needs to be said that subsequently this has not always been the case.

This correspondent used to cover the Scotland national team for a while and recalls a friendly, at the Emirates of all places, with Brazil in 2011.

On that day Neymar, then still a teenager and playing in his homeland with Santos, objected to one that was lobbed on to the pitch as he celebrated scoring.

This perplexed the Tartan Army, who did not have a track record of falling out with anyone apart from the English, and the missile was soon traced to an over-excited German student.

Had the Tottenham banana been lobbed in a similar manner? Few certainly thought so. A culprit was quickly identified on social media and condemned by supporters of both sides. A man was subsequently charged by police, with three other men also due to appear in court following incidents at the match. And Tottenham moved swiftly to issue their own punishment. “Behaviour such as this is completely unacceptable and the supporter in question will be issued with a ban,” a Spurs spokesman said.

The Premier League backed the FA’s own investigation into the matter, with anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out calling for the ban to be for life. “We condemn this action and welcome the investigation,” Kick It Out said. “Our latest reporting figures show incidents of racism are on the rise and the banana throwing at the north London derby should be seen in that context.”

Those figures had been released just a few days previously and indicated that reports of racism at both grassroots and elite level had increased by more than 20%.

In the 2017-18 season 520 complaints were received, an 11% rise from 469 the previous year. In another subplot, 10% of those concerned anti-semitism. Tottenham has a significant Jewish following, with supporters of a range of religious backgrounds happy to unite under the nickname ‘Yid Army’ despite its derogatory connotations.

The banana incident also closely followed the broadcasting of the two-part ITV documentary ‘Out of Their Skin’ in which Ian Wright recalled the racist abuse he received from white team-mates while an up-and-coming young striker for Crystal Palace in the 1980s.

“It was just an accepted thing,” he said.

Wright went on to star for Arsenal and England before reinventing himself as a television personality and did not hold back on the BBC’s Match of the Day 2 on Sunday.

“It has not only embarrassed Spurs but embarrassed the Premier League because it has gone around the world. It’s really unfortunate to see.”

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin had his say too.

“We have to do more and campaign more against it,” he said. “We fine clubs but it is not enough. We need to educate the young people but when you see an event like that it is a disaster if you ask me.”

Wright, who played and scored in many a north London derby, said: “I’ve played against Spurs and I’ve taken a lot of abuse but never ever has it been racial,” he said.

“The actions of one individual have had a profound effect on the reputations of many thousands.”

Racism is never likely to go away and may indeed have been freshly stoked by Britain’s fractured current political climate, but the mechanisms to counter it, both officially and unofficially, are in place and those keen to turn a blind eye, as so often happened in the 70s and 80s, are very much in the minority.