Basichunter627

EA SPORTS FIFA has continued its pledge to support the Premier League’s No Room For Racism campaign by launching a new dedicated kit in FIFA20 Ultimate Team. The purpose of the campaign is to send a clear message: discrimination will not be tolereated in any area or aspect of football, a stance EA SPORTS FIFA is firmly behind.

• EA SPORTS FIFA has continued its pledge to support the Premier League’s No Room For Racism campaign by launching a new dedicated kit in FIFA20 Ultimate Team. The purpose of the campaign is to send a clear message: discrimination will not be tolereated in any area or aspect of football, a stance EA SPORTS FIFA is firmly behind.
• The Premier League is making it clear there is No Room For Racism and it continues to work with all clubs, fans, the FA, EFL, PFA, Kick It Out and the police.
• New no room for racism shirts by askeland. Its been reported to EA multiple times and also was an issue in fifa 20 but as with a lot of the faults and bugs in.
• Oct 18, 2019 FIFA 20 players will soon see the campaign supported in-game, with special FUT Kits, stadium dressing and LED boards all carrying the No Room for Racism message over the coming months. Jesse Lingard is an EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Ambassador and is proud to support the campaign alongside EA SPORTS FIFA.

In the aftermath of the shocking racial abuse suffered by England players away at Bulgaria during a Euro 2020 qualifier, EA has revealed #NoRoomForRacism kits for FIFA 20.

The kits, shown off in the image below that features Premier League stars Virgil van Dijk, Jesse Lingard, Tammy Abraham and James Maddison, feature the No Room For Racism slogan on the front. They will be available in FIFA 20 soon alongside matching stadium themes, EA said.

England's 6-0 victory over Bulgaria at the Vasil Levski national stadium in Sofia was marred by two first-half stoppages for racial abuse. Footage shows some in the stadium making Nazi salutes, and players reported hearing racist chanting.

As part of Uefa's new anti-racism protocol, the referee stopped play and asked for a public address announcement calling on the crowd to cease the abuse. Play was then stopped a second time minutes before half-time. The players made it to the break, during which the Bulgarian captain was seen pleading with his own fans. In post-match interviews, England players said a third stoppage would have resulted in the team walking off the pitch and the abandonment of the game as part of Uefa's new anti-racism protocol.

The fallout has been dramatic. Borislav Mihaylov resigned as president of the Bulgarian Football Union following pressure from the Bulgarian prime minister. The national team manager, Krasimir Balakov, has also quit. 16 people have been arrested in connection with the abuse, and Uefa has charged the Bulgarian Football Union over the racist behaviour of its fans.

Mmmmh ... Not sure about this one chief https://t.co/Jyjr6vFtA8

The incident has also thrust the issue of racism in football back into the headlines - not that it has been far from them in recent years.

Somebody had to do something. FC Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o walked off the field during a match against Zaragoza in 2006. Hurt, sad, and betrayed, his only words, 'No más,' rang out through my living room and hit me in the heart. It was the first time I witnessed racism in 'the beautiful game.'

For the second time that season, Eto'o was subjected to racial abuse by Zaragoza fans. After British commentators Martin Tyler and Andy Gray wonder aloud, 'we don't know quite what has upset him,' the camera cuts to the Zaragoza crowd, performing Nazi salutes and monkey impressions in the stands.

Players from both teams, Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard, and the referees implored Eto'o to continue the game and not walk out. Eventually, Eto'o acquiesced and returned, scoring two goals and winning the game for Barcelona. Fifteen years later, I wish he had kept walking, with the rest of the team behind him. Ronaldinho had Eto'o's back, saying during the game, 'We all heard it, [and] if he leaves, then I go as well.'

Completely unprotected, unsupported, and feeling marooned by his team, league, and sport, Samuel Eto'o had enough. 'If nobody will do something, I will!' exclaimed an irate Eto'o at the post-game presser. Nobody even remarked on his game-winning brace.

Even players from the offending team felt Eto'o's frustration. Zaragoza striker Ewerthon stated after the match:

'I'm black too... I'm a Zaragoza player and totally opposed to the fans who did this. I've been abused too at other grounds in Spain but we need to rise above this. The Spanish Federation have to start taking proper measures and we as black players also have to act. We are here to work and if things carry on like this it will be impossible.'

Real Zaragoza was fined 600 euros by the Spanish Federation, less than the cost of replacing one's broken iPhone.

Fifteen years ago, players were decrying the lack of support from FIFA, their teams, and local governing bodies. Today, not much has changed.

Next time you play a game of FIFA, pay attention to all the allusions to racism in the presentation. The slogan 'say no to racism' started appearing next to the field in the spaces typically allotted for advertising in FIFA 14 and has featured in each edition since. In 2020, FIFA adopted the Premier League's 'No room for racism' slogan this year, featuring them in several promotions for the game.

Upon starting the game, before you can even play a game, FIFA displays an anti-racism message. If you exhibit racist behavior online while playing FIFA, you will be banned from playing. EA Sports, the manufacturers of the FIFA games, are continually updating and improving their standards to protect their Xbox and Playstation players.

It's no secret to soccer fans that Italy has struggled mightily combating, challenging, or even acknowledging racism for decades.

'There's no such thing as a black italian,' sang the Italy fans after watching Mario Balotelli fail to score in his debut for the Azzurri in 2010. Two years later, La Gazzetta dello sport, Italy's best-selling sports paper, published a cover featuring Balotelli as King Kong, swatting soccer balls away.

In 2001, an Italian league official said to ABC News, 'This kind of immigration and having multi-racial players is new to us.' It's been 20 years, and progress has been piddling. From a GQ article in 2020, 'Given the broader societal factors, racist abuse spills out onto the pitch like a symptom of the continent's reactionary rage—and it seems an end is nowhere in sight.'

It's hard to empathize, identify with, or learn about another culture when your country is racially and culturally homogenous. Italy remains this way by design.

According to NPR:

'Immigrants make up nearly 7 percent of Italy's population. But many native-born Italians do not welcome them, and this suspicion toward foreigners is reflected in one of the West's most restrictive citizenship laws. Even children born in Italy are not guaranteed citizenship. Balotelli himself was not allowed to become a citizen until he turned 18. More than half a million children like him were born and raised in Italy and speak Italian as a first language. But they're not citizens because their parents are foreign[...] All Balotelli has ever wanted was to be accepted. When he was finally able to secure citizenship upon turning 18, he declared, 'I feel Italian. I am Italian. I will represent Italy always. And yet, he admitted last year that he might not accept an Azzurri recall even if one was forthcoming. Said Balotelli, 'Have you ever thought that, and it might never happen, but one day you could need me, and I'd be ready the same way I have been for the last three years, but hearing some of you insulting, denigrating, and underestimating me over the years, I might be tired emotionally and therefore refuse to go?'

To combat this abuse, in 2019, Italy's top domestic league, Serie A, commissioned posters designed by artist Simone Fugazzotto to feature in an anti-racism campaign. FIFA's hackneyed mantra 'No-to-Racism' featured prominently on the posters alongside images of monkeys' faces and were actually displayed at the Serie A headquarters in Milan before public outcry had them removed.

Fugazzotto says: 'I have worked with ape figures since 2013 and that's my only subject, which I use as a metaphor for human beings. The message for me was clear, if we cannot stop stupid fans from screaming 'monkey' at black people, then I will try to reverse the concept by saying that everyone is an ape. Human or apes—the important thing is we are the same. That's why I don't feel it is insensitive. I think this is a new way of conveying an existing, important concept: that everyone is the same.'

Fugazzotto should have released his art in France, instead of Italy, as race officially does not exist in France anymore-- in fact, the words 'race' and 'racism' were recently removed from the constitution. Colorblindness is more than just a myth in France-- it's a misguided credo. To be colorblind neglects the gift of appreciating, celebrating, and learning from other cultures. France is not a monolith; there is no national culture. In an excellent piece featured in The Washington Post, Rokhaya Diallo opines:

'The reality of the country of enlightenment is different from the claimed ideal. France has the largest population of Muslims, blacks and Jews in Europe. However, we don't have ethnic statistics in the national census, but the law allows researchers and statisticians to collect such data for the purpose of studies as long as the subjects remain anonymous. According to a study by the Defender of the Rights organization, young French blacks and Arabs are 20 times more likely to have their identities checked by police than the other groups of the population[...] Of course, blacks, Arabs, whites, Asians, Roma — we all belong to the human race. But history has created racial categories that still impact the lives of those who descend from people who were enslaved and colonized. Being black today means inheriting the imagery of blacks that was invented centuries ago.'

White privilege is the ability to claim we are all one race without ever experiencing maleficence derived from your skin color. It's insulting to say that we all are the same without ever sharing, hearing, or empathizing with the experiences of others. In fact, '20 years ago

French presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, condemned the champions as 'unworthy representatives who (he claimed) did not know the words of La Marseillaise. For Le Pen, and his rising nativist base, color meant everything, and the pointedly Arab, Amazigh, black, and ethnic minority composition of the team was a national affront, not a symbol of national pride.'

Yet 20 years later, 'race' doesn't exist? 🤔

It still does to French legends Eric Cantona and Karim Benzema, who spoke to The Guardian. Cantona spoke about the French players, saying, 'when they win, they're black, white, Arab, and when they lose, they're lowlifes from the ghetto.' Benzema, who was blacklisted from the national team for a decade, sustained Cantona's assertion, saying, 'If I score, I'm French. If I don't, I'm Arab.'

An aside from the author: When I ran this article through Grammarly, it underlined the term 'blacklisted' in purple, identifying it as an outdated term that could be considered offensive in the modern context. I included it as it was part of the original passage from The Guardian's article. I had never seen a suggestion based on empathy and racial sensitivity before. It was an alarming juxtaposition in thinking to that of FIFA's, who aborted its anti-racism task force in 2016 after having 'completely fulfilled its temporary mission.'

Things are slowly, almost imperceptibly, changing. But they are changing. You can't fight progress forever.

Benzema was back in France's squad for this summer's European Championships after a 10-year hiatus. The final of those championships was played between England and Italy.

England's squad, which consists of nine black players, has consistently taken a knee throughout the competition, showing unity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the demonstrations last summer throughout the United States and Western Europe.

The Italian outfit, an all-white squad, has been more erratic, taking the knee only when asked by their adversary. The country's steadfast captain Giorgio Chiellini explained that 'when the other team makes the request, we will kneel out of solidarity and sensitivity to the other team.' Chiellini promised the Azzurri will fight racism in 'other ways.'

But when after the final whistle sounded, it was British fans, not Italian ones playing the part of racial abusers.

Only when it's convenient, do we celebrate blackness. Despite influence that wraps the globe like a diasporic bearhug, blackness still carries a stigma, opprobrium, and a cost-- not just in America but worldwide. One of Eto'o's most-used phrases about his career was, 'I have to work like a black man to live like a white guy.'

Author of The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer, and Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University, Laurent Dubois, described the collective veneration one receives for delivering a major trophy for their country in soccer. Dubois writes:

'During international football competitions … eleven players briefly become their country, for a time, on the pitch. A nation is a difficult thing to grasp: unpalpable, mythic, flighty. Historians might labor away to define the precise contours of a country's culture and institutions, and even sometimes attempt to delineate its soul, while political leaders try mightily (and persistently fail) to stand as representatives of its ideals. But in a way, there is nothing quite so tactile, so real, as the way a team represents a nation: during their time on the pitch, they have in their hands a small sliver of the country's destiny. And in those miraculous and memorable moments when individual trajectories intersect with a national sporting victory, sometimes biographies and histories seem briefly to meld. At such moments, the players who inhabit the crossroads of sporting and national history –Maradona in 1986, Zidane in 1998 — become icons, even saints.'

But what about when you lose, and your errors cost your country a piece of history? It depends on the color of your skin. When David Beckham missed penalties to lose to Greece and Sweeden, people groaned. When Frank Lampard missed his penalty to lose to Italy, people wrung their hands together. When Bukayo Saka missed his penalty this week, he was racially abused by THOUSANDS of people.

The late, great, Paul Mooney said, 'Everybody wanna be a nigga, but nobody wants to be a nigga.' This summer, soccer fans around the world proved that 'you'll only be 'one of us' when it's good for us' is the unwritten two-faced addendum to Mooney's assertion. If Sako had made his penalty to beat Italy, he would have been regarded national hero; his story and culture celebrated by the Brits. Instead, he's called a monkey by thousands.

Who's protecting the players? It's not FIFA, with their $600 fines; it's not Twitter, nor Instagram, or Facebook. So once again, it's up to the players to protect themselves.

Signify analyzed around 850,000 posts on the social media platform relating to Euro 2020 and found that 1,913 directed at those four players were 'potentially abusive,' with 167 of those 'high risk' abuse.

Instagram has allowed the vast majority of accounts that send racist abuse to England footballers to remain active, even after being reported, new research has found.

The photo-sharing app took down just six of 106 accounts reported by users for sending racial abuse to Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho, and Marcus Rashford, two days after first being reported to Instagram moderators, according to the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). It also allowed 42 comments likening the three black players to monkeys, 17 posts containing the 'N-word,' and 15 comments telling them to return to other countries to remain live.

'Our preliminary analysis suggests the volume of abuse flagged around yesterday's Euro 2020 final, aimed mainly at Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling, was higher than the rest of the tournament combined,' the Pro Footballers Association said in a release.

Once again, the players are the ones driving change. After receiving thousands of abuses and threats online, Saka wrote on Twitter, 'To the social media platforms Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, I don't want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that me, Marcus and Jadon have received this week. I knew instantly the kind of hate that I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages.'

Fifa Mobile No Room For Racism

Why would they want to stop these messages? Social media companies earn more when traffic is high, and controversy drives traffic. The almighty dollar is everpresent in the minds of these companies' directors, their moral obligations eschewed, even discarded like an empty matchbook.

FIFA certainly won't force them to, instead preferring to hide behind their meaningless doctrine, 'Say No to Racism.' Christos Kassimeris, a professor of political science at the European University Cyprus, agreed by saying, 'simply put, acknowledging that racism in football exists is certainly not enough to either support football players, or equip them with the necessary tools that would enable them to make a difference.'

As former Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said of Italy's problem last season: 'We've got the technology; [catching offenders] can be done if the authorities want to. The problem is, they don't really want to.'

Without any support or protection from FIFA or social media companies, players have realized that ultimately, they must protect each other.

On Saturday, Germany's Olympic team walked off the pitch during a test game against Honduras after Jordan Torunarigha was allegedly racially abused. The German team's Twitter account confirmed the news in a tweet that read: 'The Game has ended 5 minutes early with the score at 1-1. The Germany players left the pitch after Jordan Torunarigha was racially abused.'

'If one of our players is racially abused, it's not an option for us to keep playing,' Germany coach Stefan Kuntz said. 'It was hard to get him in, he was terribly upset because he said he was repeatedly racially abused. For us it's clear, this violates our values, we cannot tolerate it. We'll take our player completely under our protection.'

Kuntz succeeded where Frank Rijkaard failed. He didn't implore his player to keep playing, to put it behind him, or 'think of the rest of the team.' Instead, Kuntz thought of the bigger picture, much more important than a single win or loss. Germany's 'loss' to Honduras was a win for humanity in a time when humanity is scarce. But asking for humanity sets a bar too high for many to reach.

Fifa No Room For Racism Free

From National Geographics article, Golden snub-nosed monkeys nurse each other's babies, 'being a mom is hard enough, but imagine mothering someone else's kids, too. According to a new study in the journal Science Advances, that's the norm for golden snub-nosed monkeys. Scientists found that over a five-year period, more than 87 percent of golden snub-nosed monkey infants were nursed by females other than their mothers—a phenomenon called allonursing.'

Monkeys would be ashamed to act like us.