RACISM HAUNTS ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

RACISM HAUNTS ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

By CNN (In partnership with African Times)

It was a moment that shocked European

football. Christian Kabasele, who was born in

the Democratic Republic of Congo, scored for

Genk against Standard Liege in October 2015

and celebrated with a monkey imitation.

His celebration was in protest of the monkey

chants he’d been subjected to by some Kortrijk

fans in September 2015 in another Belgium Pro

League game.

The Belgium Pro League did not immediately

respond to CNN Sport’s request for comment,

though the Royal Belgium Football Association

pointed to projects that it has introduced to

combat racism earlier this year.

However, Kabasele, who now plays

for Watford in the English Premier League, says

the racist abuse he’s received over social media

is often worse than when he’s been targeted in

the stadium. ‘It’s quite crazy’

The 29-year-old has been a strong voice in the

fight against racism given his experiences

during his professional career.

Kabasele says he’s received numerous abusive

posts on his personal social media accounts

and the Watford player urged platforms to do

more in tackling the issue.

“When you’re in the stadium, the fact that you

are surrounded by other people, you just

disconnect your brain and you do something

stupid,” Kabaselse told CNN Sport back in

March, before the interruption of the Premier

League season — due to the Covid-19 pandemic

– as he reflected on some fans’ racist behaviour.

“But when you write something on Instagram, or

on Twitter, you have time to think about what

you are doing and it’s worse than something

happening in a stadium.

“It’s quite incredible that somebody can think

about doing this. Like this player did this so I

will go on my phone and send him bananas or a

monkey emoji. It’s quite crazy.

Kabasele, who has played twice for Belgium’s

national team, has reported such posts in the

past, but says he has been disappointed by the

lack of action from different platforms — such

as Instagram — on occasion.

Following the 2015 incident in Belgium,

Kabasele posted a picture of himself with a

monkey. He asked in his post if he “looked like

a monkey.”

Kabasele told CNN that Instagram deleted his

post, saying the footballer had broken their

rules. He also said that he’d been targeted

multiple times on the social media account,

adding that when he reported the racist posts

he was told the platform didn’t see it as

offensive.

“Racism is not tolerated on Instagram,” said

Facebook, which owns Instagram, in a

statement sent to CNN Sport. “When we find

content that breaks our guidelines we will

remove it and we will ban those who repeatedly

break the rules.

“We invest heavily in new technologies to

protect our community and we recently

introduced a new safety feature that allows

public figures to prevent unwanted contact and

control who messages them on Instagram.

Instagram did not immediately respond to

CNN’s request for comment as to why it

removed Kabasele’s post. Twitter had not

replied to CNN at the time of publication.

Kabasele says whilst education is key to

tackling racism, he wants social media

companies to do more in holding people

responsible for what they post.

In addition to comments online, Kabasele

provided in graphic detail the racism he has

suffered as a player.

Having started his professional career in

Belgium, the defender moved to Bulgarian club

Ludogorets Razgrad in 2011 where he says he

experienced racism on multiple occasions.

He said almost every away game was marred

by “monkey” chants or bananas thrown onto the

pitch.

On one occasion, while waiting for the team bus

to depart, he says a fan confronted him and

called him a “f**king N-word” before walking off

with his friends.

The Bulgarian Football Union did not

immediately respond to CNN Sport’s request for

comment, but a Ludogorets Razgrad

spokesman said: “It’s very strange for me to

read this. Because it’s not true. We are a very

tolerant nation.”

Kabasele was in his early 20s when he went to

play in Bulgaria, but found the experience

extremely unsettling. Looking back, he wouldn’t

again play in Bulgaria given what he went

through as a young player there.

“When you see this kind of thing, you

understand that people are really closed and

they don’t want to be open to someone

different, somebody from another culture,

another country,” said Kabasele.

“If now you tell me you can go there and work in

this kind of country, I will probably say no

because I don’t want to live this again.”

In 2019, Bulgaria was punished with a one-time

stadium ban by UEFA for the racist behavior of

its fans during a Euro 2020 qualifier against

England.

As well as the monkey chanting, some

Bulgarian spectators made Nazi salutes during

the game in October 2019.

The president of Bulgaria’s football association

Borislav Mihaylov stepped down following the

game after pressure from the country’s Prime

Minister Boyko Borissov.

Kabasele has continued to report the abuse

he’s received during his playing career but tries

to keep such experiences away from his family,

including young children, in order to protect

them.