I hope I never have to see the scenes that I saw in last week's Spain v. England football match. It was certainly a night to forget. The racist slurs against England players need to be put into perspective. A large number of coloured players do play in Spain and they receive no abuse from the terraces. The incidents last Wednesday and during the Under 21 match on Tuesday of last week can all be traced back to manager Luis Aragones and his outrageous racist statement against Arsenal player Henry. Aragones should resign. He should have resigned well before the England match, he should have gone when TV cameras caught his statement on Henry. Why is he still there? This man is a dinosaur and there is no place in Spanish football for people like him.
The Spanish Football Federation are also guilty of failing to react. They only responded once Britain had made the complaint. Some sections of the Spanish media also failed to react. On Thursday the racist slurs got little or no coverage. What Spain has to realise is that behaviour of this type will not be tolerated. Aragones needs to be sacked or he should resign. He has done plenty of damage. Madrid's bid to host the Olympic Games will have been harmed by the behaviour of the fans. FIFA must also punish Spain as well. A fine is not enough.
But also the English FA is not entirely blameless in this affair. The match following Aragones' comment should not have been played. It should have been cancelled. Also, it wouldn't have hurt the England team to have walked off the pitch as soon as the racist slurs began. This would have shown that the English Football squad are not going to tolerate racism of any type or form.
Spain is a fantastic country and it is a great pity that a few thousand mindless thugs have hurt its reputation.
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