Restricting racism debate to football grounds insulates us from harsher truth

Successive Premier League weekends have catapulted the ongoing issues of racism in football back into the headlines. For those misguided enough to believe racism is no longer a problem in football — and this includes FIFA, the governors of the game — such incidents are a wake-up call, but it is not just the footballing authorities that need to take notice.

In the previous Sunday’s north London derby, a Tottenham fan threw a banana peel onto the pitch as Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the game’s opening goal. Coming hot on the heels of this incident was the widely-shared video of a Chelsea fan’s alleged racist abuse of Raheem Sterling in Saturday’s marquee Premier League fixture against Manchester City.