Racism and football

Earlier this month the court hearing issues related to football in Brazil imposed a drastic penalty - exclusion of the Brazil Cup - the Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, one of the most traditional clubs in Brazil and holds one of the most beautiful hymns of this country, composed by the brilliant and immortal Lupicínio Rodrigues. Reason: racism.

The fact widely reported by TV stations and the mainstream press, occurred at a football match in which Grêmio in their own stadium, lost to Santos’ team.

Repeating a deplorable scene that has occurred in many places around the world, such as Russia and Spain, a group of fans showed up in a derogatory manner, in a racist attitude, whose direct target was the goalkeeper of São Paulo club.

The court's decision was praised by all the press, as it is common sense that it's past time to deal with due rigor scenes like the one as much as the violence that occurs in stadiums, for free, irresponsible and totally unjustifiable.

If the fan so leaning to act like that, really likes his club, it is likely that he will think hard before focusing in similar behaviors, since the worst off it will be his team's heart.

Facts of this nature cannot, however, be only in sports, because we are dealing with crimes that must be investigated and generate all the consequences that result from them, putting an end to impunity, which has been the cause of many ills that has been occurring lately in the country, such as widespread corruption, lack of business ethics and disrespect to people in their many forms.

In the case of football, the episodes of Porto Alegre contrast with the party that saw the Brazilian stadiums during the last World Cup.

The image that foreigners witnessed at that time was extremely positive. What it was seen in Brazil it were twisted adversaries sitting side by side, each one cheering by their team, but respecting each other.

We had hopes that the examples collected at that time could positively influence the domestic competitions, reissuing a not too distant time when we used to go to stadium to without fear to cheer for this or that team.

Of course, many analysts support the idea that violence, disrespect, lack of ethics and racism manifested in stadiums are just a reflection of what happens in the country as a whole. The young girl, who belittles and offends the goalkeeper of the other team because he does not have fair skin, so certainly would act like that elsewhere.

Unfortunately, those who think so are correct, which leads us to the conviction that the struggle for peace, respect and ethics should be the flag of all people who want a better and fairer country, and not only at the fields of football.

After all, if all of us who declare ourselves Christians we present the Gospel maxim "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you", Brazilian society would not see the disgraceful scenes that the media shows us daily and it would return to football stadiums the joy that violence and racism have managed to tarnish.

Acts of racism do not fit in any environment. And in football, besides crimes, it is nothing but nonsense; because the fans have offended the goalkeeper seem to have forgotten that several players from their own team - among them, the exceptional Zé Roberto - also do not have fair skin.