This blog’s hero of the week is Patrick Vieira. When players were faced with racism or other forms of bullying, football coaches, managers and captains always just used to say “Ignore it”. But not Vieira, and surely he is right.
He walked his Manchester City U-21 lads off the pitch in the middle of a pre-season game after young French midfielder Seko Fofana was allegedly the victim of racial abuse in Croatia.
Vieira’s Elite Development Side are currently on a 10-day pre-season training camp in Novigrad and they demanded that a match against HNK Rijeka was postponed after an opposing player allegedly racially insulted 19-year-old Frenchman Fofana..A club statement read: “Manchester City’s EDS U-21 game with HNK Rijeka has today been cancelled due to an alleged incident of racial abuse toward the club’s young midfielder Seko Fofana by a member of the opposing team.”Following an alleged incident in the latter stages of the first half of the game, being played in Novigrad, Croatia, a decision was taken by the management staff to withdraw the City team from the field of play and canc.el the game.”Club representatives in Croatia and in Manchester are liaising with officials, the match organisers and the Croatian Football Association to pursue this matter further.”Recent high-profile precedents include a couple of incidents involving Milan last year such as this one which had full club backing and this one which didn’t.Well played Patrick – the way forward has to be “No Football for Racists.” If the referee , police, and management of the two teams can’t or won’t resolve the situation, a walk-off has to be the way. Zero Tolerance!
Because It's Much More Important Than That 