In a dramatic end of a racial drama happened in 2010, a Brazilian court has sentenced one year imprisonment for Udinese defender Danilo in a case where he allegedly spit on the face of Atletico Paranese’s Manoel and called him a Monkey back in 2010 while playing for Palmeiras in the Copa do Brazil. The 28 year old Udinese defender made a shift from Palmeiras in the summer 2011 and continues to play for them till date. Playing for Udinese he has since made 25 appearances in Serie A. His sentence looks harsh apparently, but at the time when this incident took place, it was the most hated crime on the field which was widely criticized from every corner of the word, perhaps, many media channels advocated his life ban. Further, it is very much unlikely that the player would get any imprisonment, coz as expected, he will file an appeal and his sentence would likely be reduced to a fine rather sending him behind the bars. It is probably the first case in recent times, when a player has been sentenced for jail for his racial allegations otherwise many previous cases were just settled by a fine and few matches’ ban.
Actually, racial chanting has been a growing problem in soccer of late where many big players are found to be involved in it. Moreover, there have been cases where whole stadiums look to be in favor of racially abusing visitor teams; hence it becomes necessary to tackle each of racial allegations with strictest measure otherwise situation will become out of control. Last few high profile racial cases include John Terry racial abuses to a Liverpool player in 2010, Real Madrid walk out of the stadium after racial chants coming out of the crowd. Even FIFA president Sepp Blatter is in favor of using harsh punishments to each proved accused. He said in Ballon d’Or ceremony on Monday that “That is praiseworthy. But it cannot be the solution in the long term. We have to find other sustainable solutions to tackle the problem of racism and discrimination at its roots. Otherwise, such stands will be made in isolation and lost in the heat of general polemic.”
There were few cases where FIFA disciplinary committee has ordered matches to be played in blank stadiums as a punishment to racial fans. Moreover, there is also a process in development whereby racially abusing teams will be punished with a point cut to downgrade their league positions. Let’s see how a jail term makes a change in today’s growing epidemic of racism.