The South Will Rise Again

October 29 – 2006

Last week, we mentioned the putrid story of Serbian fans who were arrested for racially abusing their own player. Now we have video, and we can say this: the republics of the former Yugoslavia never met a racist symbol they wouldn’t co-opt.

Ku Klux Klan hoods? Nazi salutes? Confederate flags? Don’t these bastards have any homegrown emblems of intolerance? And now that the Ku Klux Klan/Nazi fusion thing has been done, where do they go from here? Dress in Little Black Sambo costumes? Wave copies of Uncle Remus? Jimmy the Greek posters?

In all seriousness, FIFA needs to get off its ass. Every time a black player travels behind the former Iron Curtain, monkey noises rain down and Nazism rears its ugly head. Point deductions seem to be the only deterrent, and the domestic leagues deal them all too infrequently. The five match UEFA ban that arose over the Benni McCarthy incident was an appropriate punishment for player to player racism, but when an entire stadium section gets devoted to swastika formation, or racist costume parties, the national teams need to pay. That, at least, might save us from the indignity of having our sport played in front of a “South Will Rise Again” banner.