Racism in European Football

How about we end all racism and I mean all against anyone, not just football, I know what its like when your the minority, yes they are only words but its the meaning behind those words, all sorts of thoughts hit your head like am i about to be attacked are the people i'm with going to be attacked because of me.

Its very threatening and intimidating, scary.
 
singhters said:
How about we end all racism and I mean all against anyone, not just football
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Yeah, that would be grand.

(I'm not being sarcastic - it would be grand, and I hope we can all experience it one day.)

But as things stand, I don't think it helps in the slightest to pretend it doesn't exist in certain parts of the world where it really shouldn't exist (but it obviously does, and to a positively shocking degree at that).

Fact is - the world isn't really moving in the right direction. On all sorts of levels. Turning a blind eye to this is incredibly dangerous.
 
Bondi77 said:
Sexual preference
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Sexual preference is personal/individual, surely.

It has nothing to do with any -ism, as far as I'm concerned.

Some like the mom, some like the daughter (or the father, or the non-binary person with a certain hairstyle)...that's just about what floats your boat.

If you're only (sexually) attracted to people who share your religion (I find that extremely unlikely, to be honest) or your skin colour (I find that extremely unlikely too, to be honest) - then fine, that's your thing.

As long as you don't treat people differently based on religion and skin colour in non-sexual contexts, that's your business.
 
Good to hear.

There's always going to be racism in football, keep those convictions coming.
 

Liverpool U18s twice walk off after alleged racism​


https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cv2g3np5p9do

Liverpool have called for an "urgent and thorough" investigation after their under-18s team left the pitch during two games when a player alleged he was racially abused in Germany.

The team walked off when the player said he was targeted during their opening match of the Bundesliga Cup youth tournament against Hoffenheim on Friday.

On Saturday they left the field in protest after the same player said he was abused during a game against Frankfurt. The match was abandoned.
 
horsechoker said:

Liverpool U18s twice walk off after alleged racism​


https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cv2g3np5p9do

Liverpool have called for an "urgent and thorough" investigation after their under-18s team left the pitch during two games when a player alleged he was racially abused in Germany.

The team walked off when the player said he was targeted during their opening match of the Bundesliga Cup youth tournament against Hoffenheim on Friday.

On Saturday they left the field in protest after the same player said he was abused during a game against Frankfurt. The match was abandoned.
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This seems to be a tricky one, or maybe even a very unfortunate misunderstanding. The players involved claim that the word they used was the word „digga“. That sounds very similar to the N-word, yet has a completely different and in no way insulting or even racist meaning.
If that’s indeed been the case, nothing in any way bad has happened.
Digga is a very common word in German youth slang and means as much as „buddy“ or „bro“.
The clubs both claim that’s what has happened. I haven’t been there, obviously, but the explanation seems somewhat plausible to me.
 
HTG said:
This seems to be a tricky one, or maybe even a very unfortunate misunderstanding. The players involved claim that the word they used was the word „digga“. That sounds very similar to the N-word, yet has a completely different and in no way insulting or even racist meaning.
If that’s indeed been the case, nothing in any way bad has happened.
Digga is a very common word in German youth slang and means as much as „buddy“ or „bro“.
The clubs both claim that’s what has happened. I haven’t been there, obviously, but the explanation seems somewhat plausible to me.
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Digga please.
 
HTG said:
This seems to be a tricky one, or maybe even a very unfortunate misunderstanding. The players involved claim that the word they used was the word „digga“. That sounds very similar to the N-word, yet has a completely different and in no way insulting or even racist meaning.
If that’s indeed been the case, nothing in any way bad has happened.
Digga is a very common word in German youth slang and means as much as „buddy“ or „bro“.
The clubs both claim that’s what has happened. I haven’t been there, obviously, but the explanation seems somewhat plausible to me.
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I was laughing so hard about this yesterday. :lol:
 
Seems really weird that the same thing - linguistical misunderstandings - is happening twice to the same team in the same tournament. Don't get me wrong, I'd say it's entirely a plausible explanation. "Digga" really is commonplace German youth slang without any negative connotations, it's entirely plausible that this word was used on the pitch in every game of the tournament, and equally plausible that it would be misunderstood by a foreigner.

I think it's really weird then that Liverpool would escalate like this, despite understandable explanations being given, to go as far as give a press statement and demand official investigations over such an absolute nothing-burger of an incident. It's good that they're taking racism seriously and back their players against it, but this should have really been over after a quick conversation between the clubs, maybe a quick google for the term, and then they can have a laugh about it together.
 
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G3079 said:
Seems really weird that the same thing - linguistical misunderstandings - is happening twice to the same team in the same tournament. Don't get me wrong, I'd say it's entirely a plausible explanation. "Digga" really is commonplace German youth slang without any negative connotations, it's entirely plausible that this word was used on the pitch in every game of the tournament, and equally plausible that it would be misunderstood by a foreigner.

I think it's really weird then that Chelsea would escalate like this, despite understandable explanations being given, to go as far as give a press statement and demand official investigations over such an absolute nothing-burger of an incident. It's good that they're taking racism seriously and back their players against it, but this should have really been over after a quick conversation between the clubs, maybe a quick google for the term, and then they can have a laugh about it together.
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For once, there’s a controversy that has nothing to do with us and we still get blamed :confused:
 
WeePat said:
For once, there’s a controversy that has nothing to do with us and we still get blamed :confused:
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Gah, Liverpool! Sorry, I did a dumb, my head was elsewhere. My bad, editing it.
Probably still somehow Chelsea's fault, I'd bet.
 
HTG said:
This seems to be a tricky one, or maybe even a very unfortunate misunderstanding. The players involved claim that the word they used was the word „digga“. That sounds very similar to the N-word, yet has a completely different and in no way insulting or even racist meaning.
If that’s indeed been the case, nothing in any way bad has happened.
Digga is a very common word in German youth slang and means as much as „buddy“ or „bro“.
The clubs both claim that’s what has happened. I haven’t been there, obviously, but the explanation seems somewhat plausible to me.
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Must be a bit embarrassing to realise you got your team to walk off twice, while accusing specific players of racially abusing you, because you misheard them.
 
G3079 said:
Gah, Liverpool! Sorry, I did a dumb, my head was elsewhere. My bad, editing it.
Probably still somehow Chelsea's fault, I'd bet.
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I’m just kidding. You’re good :lol:
 
Some good things came out of this.

(1) I am heartened that the affected young man immediately reported the incident to the match officials and presumably felt comfortable coming forwards. This is important.
(2) I am happy to see his team and coaching staff stood behind him and didn’t try and brush it under the carpet.
(3) I am happy the match officials acted appropriately and called off the games.

But there are also some bad things:

(1) The reporting of this still references racism, when in fact it has been accepted by all parties that no racism took place.
(2) It seems to be the easiest explanation in the world for all parties to have acknowledged the prevalence of the word “Digga” in German lexicon, which has zero racial connotations, and for common sense to have moved this one along almost immediately. Something has gone very wrong in communications if it happened in one match, was presumably explained, and then happened again in another match, and the game was suspended again.

Did no one talk after the first incident? There were days between the games.

“Hey digga”
“Ref, he called me the N word”
- match abandoned -
“I said Digga, it means “bro” in German”
- everyone understands and accepts -

Days later…..

Repeat?

I’ll be honest to being baffled as to how this repeated. Either someone is lying and the N word was used, there wasn’t any sort of adequate communication after the first incident (which is troubling), or some of the people involved are pretty thick. I am also slightly suspicious of the probability that someone involved is using “digga” as a convenient explanation. I hope that is not the case, because that would be an institutional cover up by the clubs involved. Seeing as Liverpool have accepted the explanation, it seems unlikely that’s the cause; but it wouldn’t be the first time something like this was nearly brushed away.
 
Can't Germans just use mate?

Here's how a typical conversation could go

A: Pass den Ball mate.
B: Ja, ich spiele dir den Ball zu. Kommst du später zur Party mate?
A: Nein, ich muss mich vor einem Spiel gut ausruhen, Trinken ist höchst ineffizient mate.
B: Ja, ich stimme zu, man darf nichts Unlogisches tun mate.
A: Ja, gute Unterhaltung mate.
 
simonhch said:
(3) I am happy the match officials acted appropriately and called off the games.
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Slight correction here: only the second game was aborted. In the first game that Liverpool walked out of the referee just decided to blow for fulltime as there was only a minute left to play and Hoffenheim was up 6-0. In the second game against Frankfurt, according to article linked above, the game had actually continued after the alleged incident after things calmed down, and only a few minutes later Liverpool decided to walk out. The referee was thus forced to abort the game, which was 1-1 at the time and then got rated as a 3-0 victory by default.
 
It's common sense not to call a black person a name that sounds more or less identical to the n-word. It's blatantly obvious that on a football pitch, playing against black people, that anyone would naturally make the association between this word, 'digga', and the n-word. With so many other terms available, choosing the one term in your vocabulary that could potentially be confused with the n-word is a bit suspicious to say the least.

There's a handful of words in the English language that sound like the n-word that people now don't use around black people (or at all) for exactly the same reason: they could be confused with the most highly charged racist term that exists. It's not hard to simply select your words more carefully and be mindful of how they might be interpreted.
 
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LDUred said:
It's common sense not to call a black person a name that sounds more or less identical to the n-word.

I doubt doctors use the word 'niggle' when the patient is a black person for exactly the same reason. It's just common sense.
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I’m sorry but we cannot start policing language in this manner. The Danish word for nodding is ‘nikker’, try excluding that normal, harmless every day word from the Danish vocabulary just because there happens to be black person nearby.

If Digga is regular, completely harmless German slang for bro then that is what it is. It’s been explained, all parties have accepted the misunderstanding and life goes on.
 
LDUred said:
It's common sense not to call a black person a name that sounds more or less identical to the n-word. It's blatantly obvious that on a football pitch, playing against black people, that anyone would naturally make the association between this word, 'digga', and the n-word. With so many other terms available, choosing the one term in your vocabulary that could potentially be confused with the n-word is a bit suspicious to say the least.

There's a handful of words in the English language that sound like the n-word that people now don't use around black people (or at all) for exactly the same reason: they could be confused with the most highly charged racist term that exists. It's not hard to simply select your words more carefully and be mindful of how they might be interpreted.
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This is just a wrong take. "Digga" is being used like "dude" or "bro". Talk to any German teenager and it will pop up in every second sentence.
 
Acrobat7 said:
This is just a wrong take. "Digga" is being used like "dude" or "bro". Talk to any German teenager and it will pop up in every second sentence.
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@mods, this poster is advocating grooming.
 
Acrobat7 said:
This is just a wrong take. "Digga" is being used like "dude" or "bro". Talk to any German teenager and it will pop up in every second sentence.
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To be fair, no-one knows exactly what was said or in what context, but digga sounds like a word that is derived from the n-word, like 'wigga'. It's poor taste, at the very least, to call a black person anything that could be confused with the n-word. He shouldn't have said that, because it's obvious how it might have been construed.
 
LDUred said:
To be fair, no-one knows exactly what was said or in what context, but digga sounds like a word that is derived from the n-word, like 'wigga'. It's poor taste, at the very least, to call a black person anything that could be confused with the n-word. He shouldn't have said that, because it's obvious how it might have been construed.
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No, just no! Stop making stuff up. "Digga" is the lazy spelling (and pronunciation) of "Dicker".
 
Acrobat7 said:
No, just no! Stop making stuff up. "Digga" is the lazy spelling (and pronunciation) of "Dicker".
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Woah, chill. I just think you need to consider this from both angles. Racism is globally a huge issue and regardless of what words exist in the German language, calling black people by names that are more or less the same as the n-word is just not smart let alone sensitive.

I am not black but I have known and know people who have been racially abused (some in the context of sport) and it goes pretty deep. It's always better to just be mindful of the language we use and how it might be construed.
 
Really weird idea you've got there to travel to a foreign country and expecting all the locals to change their everyday vernacular so that they don't sound too close to an insult you know from home.

The whole thing should have been a 2mins talk on the pitch to clear up the misunderstanding, a handshake and a laugh. And nothing more.
 
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