Apparently he’s confident he can. David Cameron has aimed to ‘crush’ racism out of football.
Footballers from the Asian and black community are proving their mettle in this highly-competitive sport. But it seems that racism hasn’t quite removed its ugly head.
Concerns follow news of John Terry racially abusing Anton Ferdinand last year, resulting in the Chelsea captain being striped off his England captaincy, which in turn resulted in Fabio Capello quitting his manager role last month.
And to infuriate the storm surrounding the matter, Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was also accused of racially abusing Patrice Evra and the punishment pack included an eight-match ban and a £40,000 fine. And the Uruguayan player’s reputation sank further down the sewer when he refused to shake Evra’s hand after a match between Liverpool and Manchester.
But perhaps the incidents have sprouted some good side effects, as Cameron had pledged to stamp out discrimination out of football.
The Prime Minister spoke as the host of an anti-discrimination summit at Downing Street, which was attended by a string of football figures and equality campaigners.
Cameron said that the controversies are influencing young fans to replicate what they see and hear at football grounds and therefore, racism is an issue that needs to be tackled.
The Conservative Party leader said that the sport has “some problems still today”, which was supposedly a reference to the incidents that are currently tainting Terry and Suarez.
“We need to act quickly to make sure those problems do not creep back in … if everyone plays their role, then we can easily crush and deal with this problem,” he said.
“What happens on the field influences what happens off the field. You see children as young as six imitating the behaviour they see on the field.
“So this is not just important for football — it’s important for the whole country.
“We want to make sure football is all about a power to do good, rather than anything else.”
The chairman of the Football Association, David Bernstein also spoke at the event, outlining the organisation’s goal to tackle racism.
“We have committed to coming back with a detailed follow-up to this in two months,” he declared.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt, the government’s Sport Secretary, added his view that football must re-evaluate “how we draw the line between banter and offensive language”.
The meeting also touched upon the subject of homophobia, with Hunt saying that there are currently 563 registered players in the Premier League, but “none of them are out as gay.”
He said, “Potentially, gay people don’t want to be become Premier League footballers because they are intimidated … or they don’t think the environment makes it possible for them.”
