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Rise above it, Petit
Posted: Wednesday March 08, 2000 03:33 PM
French World Cup soccer star Emmanuel Petit needs to quit whining or quit England. It's that simple. On Monday, the Arsenal midfielder was charged with misconduct by the English Football Association after giving a one-fingered salute to Aston Villa fans in Sunday's 1-all draw in Birmingham. Petit said he was taunted with anti-French slurs. "There were many racist comments shouted at me -- comments like 'French this' and 'French that'," he explained. "It was racism directed straight at me -- and to be honest, I'm fed up of it."
If that's the worst thing he has to worry about, then life can't be all that bad, I'd say. I don't for one minute condone racist abuse. But does he really believe Villa fans hurling names at him and prefixing the word "French" is anywhere close to the kind of hurtful comments thrown in the direction of players of color? He need only look to his side in the Arsenal midfield. His French colleague Patrick Vieira is black. Doesn't he hear far worse than Petit every week from the louts on the English terraces? He's not only called a "French this and that", but a "black French this and that." Many English soccer supporters don't quite make it to Oxford. A few might not even know how to spell it. Some are beer-swilling thugs who take great delight in dishing out plate-fulls of vitriol to players on the opposition side. It's a weekly ritual. Petit has to be in dreamland if he thinks it is going to change overnight, or that being French and playing in England isn't sure to make him an easy target.
When he plays at home for Arsenal, he's hero-worshipped. He's a talented player and crucial to the Gunners' midfield, so he deserves to be treated thus. It's only on the road that the verbal abuse starts flying. Now, if fans were shouting abuse about his family, I could imagine that pressing many more buttons than if they were merely aiming comments at him. Yet don't you think David Beckham gets that every single away game because of his marriage to Posh Spice -- and he's English. Petit might try living in Beckham's boots for a while to know what real abuse is. The Frenchman is paid a handsome wage to play football for one of England's best and biggest clubs. If he's listening so closely to crowd comments that it bothers him so (so much so he sarcastically applauded Villa fans who had cheered his booking in the match), then he can't be concentrating enough on the game in hand. Petit wouldn't last two minutes as an outfielder in Yankee Stadium. Star players are the constant source of abuse from supporters of rival teams. Unfortunately, it goes with the territory in many sports nowadays, not just soccer. Colin Montgomerie was verbally attacked by the galleries throughout last September's Ryder Cup... in golf, of all things. But the minute a star switches allegiances, those very fans who loved to verbally hammer him as an opponent quickly love to love him as "one of theirs." Petit needs to realize this is the way of the sports -- and especially the soccer -- world and put it all in perspective. Think of those truly ugly racist cries aimed at black footballers down the years, including the use of hideously offensive props like bananas, and appreciate you have far less reason to be "fed up" than many others. And anyway, Petit's actions on Sunday only served to give Villa supporters exactly what they wanted... a sarcastic and then angry retaliation from the player, who was immediately substituted by French coach Arsene Wenger and now faces a possible suspension for misconduct. Rise above it, Petit. If you can't, perhaps you can return to the French league. Oh, you'll still get a barracking from rival fans -- they just won't prefix their taunts with "French." Phil Jones is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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