Britain to complain about racist chants during soccer game with Spain

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.

England's Ashley Cole confronts Spain coach Luis Aragones. (MikeHewitt/GettyImages) 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 the BBC.

'I will be writing tomorrow (Thursday) to the Spanish sports minister to express my outrage at their behaviour.'

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.

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.

England captain David Beckham said: '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 at the centre of 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 civilised 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.

American Football crowds just produce "white noise" or the occaisional chant of "de-fence"

Nonsense. 'American Football' crowds are actual participants in the game. The crowd helps the home team with noise to disrupt the opposing offense, often resulting in failed plays and penalties for the 'enemy' team, or forcing them to take a time out in order to get the play they want. The crowd also quiets down when the home team has the ball. Some stadiums are notorious as 'hard' places to play because the fans are so tough on the visiting team. That's where the term 'twelfth man' comes from - 11 players on the field plus the crowd. That's why you hear about 'taking the crowd out of it' when the visiting team does something to discourage the crowd.

'If you are not f**king black jump up and down'

I guess it chants better in Spanish.

According to Reuters in Spanish, the chant was:

"Al bote, al bote,
negro de mierda el que no bote".

My Spanish is rusty, but the translation provided at the top is lame.

Bote might refer to serving the soccer ball to re-start a game, but it also can mean to throw, to discard as a verb. As a noun, it means a boat, a garbage can, or the act of serving the soccer ball.

A translation that rhymes would be something like :

Kick the ball, kick the ball
you're a sh** black unless you can kick the ball.

I'm sorry, but by your own response you prove my point. Football crowds make white noise to harrass the opposition and are quiet when their own team are attacking. They have some effect, but not much.

Soccer crowds cheer on their team and American crowd noise is insignificant compared to that of a large soccer crowd, I know, I have been part of many of both.

To hear 60,000 people sing "you'll never walk alone" or "Land of Hope and Glory" is amazing, This huge sound rolls down off the terraces and reverberates around the stadium until the echo collides with the ongoing song.

Or go to Galatasaray in Turkey where the crowd sings non stop for 90 minutes. Even when they lose 0-5 they are still singing at the final whistle.

They don't need bands, organs, scoreboard prompting or a Public Address System to create a cauldron of noise at a soccer match. The crowd does it on it's own.

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