Racism in football is nothing more than an excuse to fill  newspapers and give the employees of  FIFA something new to do.

Stadiums being closed, logos on football player’s’ shirts and the usual rhetoric  are all used to exaggerate a problem which does not exist.

The problem of racism in football in recent times started during a friendly match between AC Milan and Pro Patria in the winter of 2013, where Ghanian, Kevin Prince Boateng, (now an ex AC Milan player), left the pitch after being severely insulted by the supporters of the opposite team because of the colour of his skin. Since then, people have been debating the problem of racism in football, with even more cases and important interventions being made from the FIFA and the Italian Lega Calcio.

The result: even more racism, racist choruses in practically every match and even more stadiums being closed. What is the point of intervening if things are getting worse and we know they will get worse every time? In fact, the only reason these actions take place is not because the people at the stadium are really racist, but because they want to attract attention. They know that what they say in that precise moment at the stadium will be transmitted on television  and be discussed around the world and affect the players. Therefore, what do they start doing? To make themselves  feel important and active members of the world, they shout racist insults so that their actions will affect famous people. Therefore, if we continue paying attention to them, then “racism” in football will just increase.

Moreover, if you have ever been to a football match at the stadium before you will know that dozens of insults fly around. Not only black people get insulted, but also whites. Whites  just get insulted in a different way, but the principle is the same. Why do we need to make it a problem if black people get insulted, whereas not if whites do? Furthermore, as events demonstrate, fans only insult black people in the opposite team. If they where really racist, would they not insult also the ones in their own team? This demonstrates that they do not do it because they are racist, but just because they want to disturb and insult people in the opposite team, as all fans do.

Our country and most of the others in the modern world are completely multi-ethnic. All people, right from when they are children, are educated to integrate with people who have a different colour of skin. Nowadays, there are no problems of racism in our society comparing it to Martin Luther King’s U.S.A. in the 1960’s. Then, why would there be in football? The truth is that people who work for FIFA, particularly the ones at the top are forced to consider it as a problem when they do not really think it is. In fact, most football stars who have now retired and are free to say what they want to say and who know football well, affirm that racism in football does not exist.

We are just giving too much attention to fans who want to influence what happens on and off the pitch. The events which took place in Nocera recently, where some ‘ultra supporters’ forced a game to stop, show that sometimes we should just ignore people.