SPORTS:THE BEAUTIFUL GAME IN DECLINE

The beautiful game of sports that has been a source of joy has been engulfed by a rare spiritual illness called racism. Racism in its final stage of manifestation is pure ignorance that seems to be killing the beautiful game of sports. OF recently a lot of racial related situations have arisen from all corners of life and I feel the issue of racism and its elements has to be addressed now so that in the near future nothing of this magnitude will affect our beautiful game of sports.

At this moment, I would like to explain the importance of the beautiful game of sports, by firstly highlighting what Didier Drogba did after his country Ivory cote qualified for the 2006 world cup in Germany. Drogba in his capacity as an Ivorian and captain of the national team made a desperate plea to the combatants, asking them to lay down their arms and this plea led to a cease fire between bitter enemies after 5 years of a civil war. Therefore, the current peace enjoyed in Ivory Cote was achieved through the beauty of the game of sports, something that most respected men and women of the world had failed to achieve on behalf of the Ivorian people. With that in mind, it is important for everybody from all walks of life to join in the fight against racism and its devices because the beautiful game of sports will be destroyed.

In line with the above, the beautiful game of sports, if not protected will be turned into a center stage of racism and its devices. Sports has always been used as a force for good therefore a call to stand against any individuals who want to use it as an instrument of hate must be disciplined by society at large. The months of April has been rocked by many scandals of racism such as the incident involving Donald Sterling the owner of LA Clippers, who was recorded telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to his games. This is one scandal that has shocked many people because Sterling for 30 years he has been running and owning the basketball team which happens to have a majority of its players black. The level of ignorance displayed by Sterling is shocking and should not be accommodated in the beautiful game of sports because hate towards any ethnic people is not accepted.

Furthermore, away from basketball, football seems to be having its own racial related problems such as the abuse of Dani Alves who plays for FC Barcelona and Papakouli ‘Pape’ Diop playing for Levante UD in Spain; by fans making monkey sounds and throwing of banana on the fields respectively. All these incidences are outrages meant to destroy the beauty of the game and a zero tolerance towards racism in our sports and communities must be put into effect.   

And concluding with Pierre Breton’s words and I court, ‘Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped-out’, and I strongly believe racism has no place in the 21^st century, for the beauty of the sport has to be embraced.