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England outraged by racist chants
Reuters
LONDON -- Britain will seek action from Spain after England's black soccer players were racially abused by the crowd during Wednesday's friendly international in Madrid.
Monkey noises were heard when Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips touched the ball during England's 1-0 defeat and regular chants of "If you are not f**king black jump up and down" were sung by parts of the 55,000 crowd at Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium.
"There is no place for racism in football or modern society, and I strongly believe that action needs to be taken at the highest level," British Sports minister Richard Caborn told BBC radio.
"I will be writing tomorrow (Thursday) to the Spanish sports minister to express my outrage at their behavior."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was "very disappointed" by the chants and Minister for Europe Dennis MacShane had telephoned his Spanish counterpart on Thursday to tell him of the "outrage across Britain".
The English FA had already complained that racist chanting marred Tuesday's under-21 friendly between the two countries and will contact world body FIFA after Wednesday's scenes.
"We will be making a full report on this to FIFA and to UEFA and will be sending a letter of complaint to the Spanish Federation. Football as a whole should stand up and express its disgust at what has gone on here," FA spokesman Adrian Bevington said.
The Spanish Football Federation's press officer Fernando Garrido said some of the blame lay with English reporters, a sentiment echoed by the Spanish press on Thursday.
"Were there racist chants against some players? This hasn't happened in the Spanish league and Spain for many years," he said. "So you (English reporters) should ask yourselves what you have done to contribute to all this."
FIFA said it would issue a statement later as it had not yet received formal correspondence from the English FA.
London and Madrid are battling to host the 2012 Olympics and the aftermath of Wednesday's scenes could spice up the rivalry. The International Olympic Committee said it would also issue a statement later.
BEHAVIOR CONDEMNED
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who experienced racist fans when he was at Italian club Lazio, said: "The issue of racism is big. There must be a protest through official ways. I am against racism and it should not happen in 2004 in any country."
England captain David Beckham told the FA's website: "It's disappointing when it happens anywhere in world football because we all know how wrong it is - and so many people are working so hard to cut it out of the game."
Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballer's Association which represents English players, said the team should have been taken off in protest.
"The message should have come down from the FA directors, to say we will take responsibility for this and take them off," he told the BBC.
Spain coach Luis Aragones was only prepared to answer questions on his team's performance.
"I've always said my conscience is clear and I only want to talk about football," he said.
The 66-year-old was involved in controversy last month when he made racist remarks about France striker Thierry Henry in an attempt to motivate his Arsenal team mate Jose Antonio Reyes.
The British press grilled Aragones on the issue before the game and reacted angrily to the scenes at the Bernabeu.
"England lost a football match last night but Spain shamefully lost something more important - Spain lost their right to be considered a civilized football nation," the Daily Telegraph said.
In the 1980s racism, along with hooliganism, blighted the English game but campaigns have helped to all but eradicate it, making the scenes in Madrid all the more shocking for British viewers.
"Sanctions should include stopping all Spanish participation in European football until Spain comes up with an action plan," Piara Power, director of "Let's Kick Racism out of Football", told Reuters.
The Spanish national side has no black players but Brazilians Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos at Real Madrid, as well as Ronaldinho of Barcelona, encounter few problems in La Liga.
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