theguardianuk--2019-04-12--From parks to Premier League the shocking scale of racism in English football

From parks to Premier League: the shocking scale of racism in English football

**“He was too shocked to talk,”** Sotirios Siminas says as he remembers trying to find out why one of his players was in tears at the end of a game that exposed the extent of the racism infecting the heart and soul of English football. Siminas, who coaches one of the under-12 boys’ teams at AFC Urmston Meadowside, in Manchester, can feel the anger rising. Six months on from that unpleasant Sunday morning, it is not easy listening to him explain what had happened to one of the children in his care. “The other boys told us that he was subjected to vile abuse by the opposition players,” Siminas says. “He was called a Paki on their way off the pitch.” The racial abuse was too much for Siminas to bear. He went over to talk to the other team’s coach and defend his player. Yet the response shocked him. The other coach refused to accept there had been any abuse. All he could do was walk away and go home. “Because there were kids involved we didn’t want it to escalate,” Siminas says. “We left.”  That dismissive attitude will only surprise anyone who has never been on the end of it. A day after speaking to Siminas, I head to Ferndale Community Sports Centre in south London to meet Dr Colin King and Wallace Hermitt, veterans of the grassroots game and the leading figures at the Black and Asian Coaches Association (BACA), and talk about whether the bad old days are on the way back. We sit in a small office, no more than a two-minute walk from Brixton tube station, and King and Hermitt chuckle with weary cynicism when I struggle to make sense of a kid at under-12 level being attacked because of his Asian heritage.  Hermitt has heard it all before. “Is that really a shock to the system?” he says. “I once took a team over to Bermondsey in the 90s. All we hear is: ‘Coons … black cunts.’ I go over to the parents and it’s: ‘What do you want me to say, you black cunt.’ We get back in the van and I took the kids home. That’s their children. That’s their socialisation.”  Powerless in a world where it is my word against yours, Siminas was left to concentrate on convincing a traumatised little boy not to walk away from the local pitches in Manchester. The world kept turning until, three weeks later, something happened a long way from Urmston in every sense. Manchester City travelled to Chelsea in the Premier League and footage posted on social media showed a home fan allegedly subjecting Raheem Sterling to racist abuse.  A week earlier a Tottenham supporter had [thrown a banana skin at Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/18 /tottenham-fan-fined-for-hurling-banana-skin-at-black-arsenal-player) during the north London derby. Racism was on the agenda again and [Sterling spoke up](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/dec/09/raheem-sterling- newspapers-fuelling-racism-alleged-abuse-chelsea) the morning after City’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, telling his millions of Instagram followers that the media had fuelled racism with their portrayal of black footballers. The England international took control of the debate with one post on social media, bypassing the traditional routes to spread his message and forensically take apart the idea that racism is a problem only in faraway eastern European countries.  A banana skin thrown by a Tottenham supporter at Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images  Yet Sterling’s intervention has not slowed the flow of abuse. Quite the opposite, in fact, given how much racism has been in the news since the turn of the year.  In February a West Ham fan [allegedly shouted Islamaphobic abuse at ](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/06/west-ham-police- investigating-alleged-islamophobic-abuse-mo-salah)[Mohamed Salah](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/06/west-ham-police- investigating-alleged-islamophobic-abuse-mo-salah) at the London Stadium, and on Thursday the Liverpool striker was the target of [chants by Chelsea supporters](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/apr/11/chelsea-fans- barred-bomber-chants-mo-salah) describing him as a “bomber”. Also on Thursday a video on social media appeared to show an Arsenal fan [racially abusing Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/apr/12 /arsenal-investigate-video-napoli-kalidou-koulibaly).  A Burnley supporter has been charged with a racially aggravated offence after [allegedly aiming abuse at Brighton’s Gaëtan Bong](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/12/burnley-fan-charged- racist-abuse-brighton-gaetan-bong), a Cameroon international. Millwall have been [charged by the Football Association](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/21/millwall- charged-over-racial-abuse-fa-cup-everton) after a section of their fans allegedly used a term derogatory to the Asian community during their FA Cup win over Everton.  Homophobic chanting remains an issue at Brighton games, Huddersfield Town’s Phillip Billing has received racist abuse on social media, [Peter Beardsley has been charged](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/22/peter- beardsley-charged-by-fa-with-using-racist-language-towards-youth-players) by the FA with three counts of using racist language to players in his former job as Newcastle United Under-23s coach (he denies the allegations and says he is not a racist) and in the women’s game Sophie Jones, the former Sheffield United player, quit the sport in protest after being found guilty by the Football Association of [racially abusing Tottenham Hotspur’s Renée Hector](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/20/sophie-jones- sheffield-united-tottenham-renee-hector) and banned for five games.  In November Kick It Out, football’s anti-discrimination organisation, reported an 11% rise in reports of discriminatory abuse last season. The organisation received 520 complaints through its anonymised reporting system, with racism up by 22% and homophobia by 9%, and it is likely the figures will rise again this year. Worryingly the statistics do not take into account unreported allegations of abuse, raising the possibility that the situation is worse than Kick It Out’s figures suggest.  Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling is allegedly subjected to abuse at Stamford Bridge. Photograph: Michael Zemanek/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock  It is not just football’s problem. When a couple of Southampton fans allegedly chant about the Holocaust during a game against Tottenham, it comes at a time when antisemitism in the United Kingdom is on the rise. When a fan screams that Salah is a “terrorist cunt”, it comes at a time when Islamophobia has entered the mainstream. Nobody transforms into a racist after walking into a football stadium. They bring their views in from outside, where society’s divides have been exposed by austerity, knife crime, a broken political system and the Brexit debate. Britain feels angrier than ever.  Siminas says that his car, which had Greek number plates, was vandalised after the EU referendum. Hate crime has increased in the past three years and the splintering of society has left room for racist views to emerge again. “Without a doubt racism exists in football because it exists in society,” Tajean Hutton, Kick It Out’s grassroots officer, says. “It’s never been eradicated or reduced.”  Hutton runs AFC Wembley, a local club in north-west London, alongside his day job and is well placed to discuss the anger brewing within marginalised communities. He points out that if football is a pyramid structure then it follows that discrimination will be even more rife at the bottom of the game. His mission is to give a voice to the powerless and to challenge a system that means reports of abuse at the grassroots level often take too long to be properly investigated by county FAs.  Sign up for The Recap.  That aim is complicated by concerns within Kick It Out that its days are numbered. The organisation is struggling as it looks to replace Herman Ouseley, its chair since its inception in 1993, and is worried as it awaits the outcome of an investigation by the Charity Commission, which opened a “regulatory compliance case” after a group of former employees complained that Kick It Out’s trustees and senior management have not fostered an environment where staff can comfortably raise workplace concerns.  Kick It Out, funded by the FA, Premier League, EFL and Professional Footballers’ Association, who each have a trustee on the board, fears that the investigation threatens its existence. There was disquiet when the Premier League announced its own initiative, No Room For Racism, last month.  **A** Premier League source insists the plan is not to replace Kick It Out with its own anti-discrimination body. The message is that the league has responded to calls for it to be more visible in the wake of the Aubameyang and Sterling incidents.  Yet Kick It Out, which received £648,948 in core funding last season, is concerned that funding will be withdrawn when the report is released. There is indignation at suggestions it has failed if racism still exists in 2019. It employs 17 people and is crying out for more money.  “Some people within our organisation – for example, some of our trustees – may feel that because we have been given opportunity to have an office and personalised email addresses and we are in FA and Premier League boardrooms, that that’s support,” Hutton says. “A lot of these people allow us to be in these environments or give us ‘support’ to tick a box.”  At the same time there is an awareness that Kick It Out struggles to gain respect at grassroots level. “The general public feels that Kick It Out is a tokenistic organisation,” Hutton says. “The issue we have now is silence, which becomes more damaging than speaking up.”  **A** t the time of writing Kick It Out has received 80 reports of abuse at grassroots level this season. Hutton winces at that figure because it means victims are staying quiet. The suggestion is that a lack of diversity on the 46 county FA boards means complaints will not be treated with empathy and dealt with properly.  “At my own club I still don’t feel that reporting works,” Hutton says. “I can report an incident and it can be given a leeway of up to six months to be concluded. Within those six months the perpetrator has an opportunity to discriminate against how many other kids? There are people who look like me and do the same [report abuse] nationwide.  Dr Colin King, a veteran of the grassroots game and a leading figure at the Black and Asian Coaches Association, at Dulwich sports ground, London. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian  “British society is not designed to be inclusive. At the very core of this country, in places of authority, we are not designed to be inclusive. It’s class and hierarchy and it’s not limited to football. It’s about women being admin assistants instead of CEOs. Black people serving instead of giving the PowerPoint. We are very intelligent in how we market ourselves as embracing gay people and Asian people, but when you go to the offices where decisions are made it’s not that way.”  Hutton’s frustration is clear. “You have people telling the community what they need instead of asking what they want. It’s a lack of empathy.”  ## ‘We’re shattered. We’re dead’  The sense of numbness is captured at Ferndale where, as the skies darken and the expensive adult leagues kick in, King surveys the pitches and lets out a sad sigh. “We are very divisive now in terms of how we play,” he says. “Look out there now. It’s just white men playing. There is one black player out there now. Four pitches. One black guy. This is what gets me mad about this place. It’s all white men out there tonight. They have no black friends?  “This is how segregated we are becoming in football. This is Brixton. People won’t believe that. But it’s perpetuated by the system. These guys can afford how much it is to play out there. It mirrors society. More black people in prison, more black people in mental health institutions, more in the criminal justice system.”  King and Hermitt rule Ferndale while coaching children earlier in the evening. Hermitt is completely in charge as he admonishes a young boy for his attitude. “You have to play,” he says, ignoring the kid’s complaints about being kicked by an opponent.  It can sound macho but Hermitt believes that a black player will have to be tough to survive park football. There has not been a high-profile black referee since Uriah Rennie quit in 2009 and while the FA had hoped that 10% of its officials would be BAME by 2016, the numbers fall short of that.  “I ended up getting someone to come and film the games,” Hermitt says. “You see away games where you’re better than the home team but you lose because of a biased referee. You complain to the county FA but it’s like going to the Police Complaints Commission. Why bother?  “Look at the balance of the teams between white and black at non-league. See who wins based on the officiating. I’ll foul him – free-kick! He fouls me – play on! Ref? Bit of equality here? Yellow card! One more of that and you’re off.”  I ask Hermitt if he ever reports anything to Kick It Out. “Waste of time,” he responds. “What can they do?”  King chimes in. “I’m a qualified referee and I wouldn’t do it any more. I’ve had white teams chase me out the ground looking to fight me. I’ve got to get to my car. But it’s not just about the n-word. It’s about white teams not shaking your hand or exchanging shirts. They don’t want to be in the same space. You can see the parents don’t want to be around black players.”  There is a quiet rage to King, who lets his frustrations pour out when I ask whether the fight for equality has taken a toll on him and Hermitt. “We’re shattered,” he says. “We’re dead. They don’t want to work with people like us. I’ve been told that to my face, people at the county FAs saying they don’t want to work with me and Wallace.  “I’m part of the county structure and when I go they don’t want to talk about race equality. If you have a privilege you don’t want it taken away and shared with someone else. There’s a threat to your national identity, your status, to who you are. There’s a patronage to handing power down to people who look like you.”  The FA says “discrimination in any form is unacceptable” and a spokesman said: “When it takes place in football, we work in partnership with clubs, leagues, players, campaign groups and fans, to tackle the issue together. The FA has funded two extra grassroots officers, based at Kick It Out, who work directly with our county FA network as well as grassroots clubs and community groups, partly to encourage and raise awareness of reporting discrimination channels.  “Additionally, we have a robust system in place to ensure aggravated breaches of discrimination are reported by the county FAs to the FA, who oversee all discrimination cases and take the appropriate steps. We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination and encourage all fans and participants who believe that they have been the subject of, or witness to, discriminatory abuse to report it through the appropriate channels: the FA, our county FA network or via our partners at Kick It Out.”  The discussion with Hermitt and King turns to the portrayal of black players in the media. There is an insidious effect to praising Manchester United’s Paul Pogba for his pace and power instead of his vision and skill. It is framed as a compliment, but in reality is just a more polite way of calling a black player a “beast” – in other words, making him seem less human.  A former black player tells me his non-league manager stuck him on the right wing because of an assumption that he was fast. The player reckoned he had the nous to play in central midfield and if we are incapable of realising the danger posed by the stereotypes that made his manager think otherwise, perhaps it is because of the lack of BAME representation in the English media.  The former West Bromwich Albion manager Darren Moore, left, and Sol Campbell, the manager of Macclesfield Town. Photograph: Getty Images and Rex Shutterstock  Language informs our thinking. Minorities are forced to stay in their lane, unconscious bias closes minds and the best example of a glass ceiling is the lack of BAME coaches in the professional game. Last year the League Managers Association published a report stating less than 8% of head coaches in the 92 teams of the Football League were BAME and aspiring coaches despaired when Darren Moore, who is black, lost his job as West Bromwich Albion’s manager.  West Brom were fourth in the Championship and [Moore’s sacking](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/09/west-brom-sack- coach-darren-moore) has been a hot topic among BACA’s members. “Darren Moore is somebody who represents us,” King says. “But he epitomised something that is really dangerous too. If he fails as a manager, he fails as a black manager, not on an individual level. Then it makes it harder for clubs like West Brom to employ black managers. The outcome is we all have a go at West Brom.  “Let’s talk about the politics of whiteness and the privilege that white managers have to lose a job and not be accountable to the white race. White managers mess up left, right and centre. They get another job.”  King compares Sol Campbell [starting his managerial career at the bottom of League Two](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/28/sol-campbell- finally-gets-his-chance-to-manage-after-years-in-the-shadows) with Macclesfield Town with Steven Gerrard getting the Rangers job and Frank Lampard starting at Derby County. Hermitt cuts in to say that black managers always seem to get the worst jobs and they both worry about Chris Powell, struggling with Southend United in League One. Powell is sacked a week later.  Some people see no unconscious bias in boardrooms. No wonder “shut up and get on with it” has become a common phrase at grassroots level. “We don’t see it as racism,” King says. “We think it’s what we deserve. The reason black players keep dealing with racial abuse is because it’s fucked them up so badly.  “The psychological abuse me and Wallace have suffered has silenced us. It’s to stop the abuse. It’s very hard to talk about it because people feel so abused by the system. When they do talk about it they have to relive it, report it and act it out knowing that they could be seen as more trouble than the person who perpetrated it.  “You think you won’t be heard. Someone comes down, you tell them what happened, they say that’s not racism. What the fuck did you ask me for then?”  King’s point is that racism can take subtle forms and the danger is falling into the trap of not empathising with the victim when the abuse is not immediately obvious.  There is a similar vibe in the stands. Last month there was outrage when England’s black players were targeted with monkey chants in Montenegro. Sterling stepped up again, speaking out and using social media to hit back, and for a brief moment it was possible for English football to occupy the moral high ground.  Not for too long, however, bearing in mind Gareth Southgate’s post-match remark that “we have the same issue in our country”. England’s manager has not hesitated to raise some uncomfortable points and his criticism was backed up by what happened after Juventus’s Moise Kean stood up to abuse from Cagliari fans. Derby, Northampton and Wigan reported incidents of racial abuse four days after Kean made his stand, while Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha called out an online message branding him “a diving monkey” last weekend.  Danny Rose and Ross Barkley during the match in Montenegro where England’s black players were targeted with monkey chants. Photograph: Michael Zemanek/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock  **I** t is no surprise that Danny Rose, the Tottenham and England left-back, has said that he [cannot wait to retire from football](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/apr/04/danny-rose- football-racism-england-tottenham) because of his disgust at the racism blighting the game. Even if it is not as intense as in Montenegro, it still exists in our grounds. Nor are black players the only target. It is there in the antisemitism when Tottenham play Arsenal, Chelsea or West Ham. It was there when I heard a West Ham fan bellow “Gook” at Tottenham’s Son Heung-min at the London Stadium last October. Someone else called the South Korean a “Chink” and shoved another fan down two rows of seats after being asked to stop using abusive language. Speaking up is a risk, even when done in the relative safety of social media. In February a QPR fan tweeted footage of alleged racial abuse by a Leeds United fan at Loftus Road and ended up deactivating his account after being labelled a “grass” and a “snitch”.  There are calls for the FA to send out firmer messages. There is a feeling that punishments for racism are not strong enough, an argument that the only way to stop the abuse on and off the pitch is to hit clubs with points deductions and stadium closures.  However, many conversations come back to a single topic: education. Some clubs are leading the way, with Chelsea winning plaudits for their attempts to tackle antisemitism and the Premier League keen to point to its community programmes, and it is clear that simply banning supporters is only pushing the problem away. “It has to be deeper,” Hutton says. “The guy’s racist friends will still be at the club. His ideology is passed down to his kids.”  ## ‘The political climate has had an impact’  With that in mind I head to Liverpool in search of togetherness. I make my way to the Liverpool Mosque and Islamic Institute, a 20-minute drive from Anfield, and see people from different walks of life coming together. Outside the mosque there are countless boxes of food, to be donated to the city’s foodbanks, and spirits are high inside.  **I** an Byrne, co-founder of the Fans Supporting Foodbanks campaign, is from Spirit of Shankly, a Liverpool fan group. “Hunger doesn’t discriminate,” says Byrne, who is joined by Dave Kelly, an Evertonian and a representative of Blue Union, and John Ratomski, the chairman of the West Ham United Independent Supporters’ Association.  Ratomski wants to apologise to the Muslim community after the alleged abuse Salah suffered at West Ham. He gives Shafiqur Rahman a West Ham scarf and the Imam wears it while he leads Friday afternoon prayers, even though he is a Liverpool fan and friends with Sadio Mané, who often prays at this mosque with Salah.  Imam Shafiqur Rahman, wearing a West Ham United scarf, talks with worshippers at Liverpool Mosque and Islamic Institute. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian  The worshippers thank Ratomski afterwards. “We have something in common,” Rahman says. “Away from football we are all human beings.”  Yet these are worrying times for Muslims. A woman tells me that her son faces constant racial abuse at school and Rahman says that he hopes working with Fans Supporting Foodbanks will help to alter perceptions of Islam. “We want to meet the Liverpool community, to show Muslims are part of the community,” he says. “Our religion doesn’t mean we can’t work together. These projects are not just for Muslims. We do this a lot for the homeless.”  Yet he is worried about the anti-Muslim rhetoric in Britain. “We represent the mosque but we have a large congregation. If they were to do something the whole mosque gets a bad name.  “People need to come into mosques more. Players come here and on a lot of occasions we have English fans waiting outside. We tell them to come inside and meet the players after our prayers. They feel they aren’t welcome, but education would tell them they are allowed to wait inside.”  I leave Liverpool feeling upbeat, but the Salah incident did not happen in a vacuum. It happened in a country where Muslims are demonised in sections of the media and society. “There’s been a rise in hate crimes since the Brexit vote,” Osei Sankofa, Kick It Out’s education officer, says. “Before those acts there’s a thought that occurs first. The political climate has had an impact. We made this decision, we want our independence … which is great. That’s also showing itself to be creating a very hostile environment for a lot of people.”  Football has to be wary of the far-right. Although it is a far cry from the days when the National Front would try to recruit supporters outside grounds, there is the thorny topic of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance, a group condemned by anti-racism campaigners and accused of spreading Islamophobia.  Matthew Collins of Hope Not Hate believes that backing for the DFLA, which has received support from Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League, is dwindling. Yet the DFLA does hold an appeal. West Ham have a youth coach, Mark Phillips, who went on a DFLA march last October and the group took part in a pro-Brexit rally outside parliament last month. This is no time to be complacent.  A week after the visit to Liverpool, 50 people were killed during the attack on the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a reminder that words matter.  I speak to Amjid Khazir later that day. He has worked to tackle prejudice and Islamic radicalisation in Middlesbrough since his uncle Mohammed Zabir, a taxi driver, died of a heart attack in 2011, a month after being attacked by a drunk passenger. Khazir set up Media Cultured, a company that promotes integration, and last year helped to set up Boro Fusion, which is linked to the Football Supporters’ Federation’s Fans for Diversity campaign.  “Boro Fusion is the first BAME supporter club set up for Middlesbrough,” Khazir says. “I worked closely with the club on the back of an event that happened at a Birmingham game a couple of years ago, where a couple of Middlesbrough fans had torn up copies of the Qu’ran. They sang: ‘Eff you and your holy book.’  “The club were taken aback by the event and thought they should speak to a local Muslim. We’ve delivered sessions to the club around extremism. We’ve done sessions for the first team. Fusion works around Media Cultured. It helps us tackle prejudice and get out in the community.”  Education fosters inclusivity. So does talking. At the Football Supporters’ Federation Anwar Uddin, a former Dagenham & Redbridge defender, often meets with fans guilty of discriminatory behaviour. He wants to reach them. It does not always work, but he remembers meeting one so appalled at his own behaviour that he broke down in tears.  There are reasons to be hopeful. Yet changing deepened attitudes is not straightforward. Sankofa, a former Charlton Athletic defender, remembers going on loan to Bristol City in 2006 and seeing bananas placed under the locker of a fellow black player in the changing room. He has trained at a club where discrimination took on a competitive edge: instead of constituting a sackable offence, the policy was that players who came up with “racist banter” in the dressing room would receive a £2 reward.  ## ‘I feel like we are a ticking time bomb’  It is easy to push people into a corner and maintain a veil of innocence. Dave Cumberbatch, the only black member of staff on Haringey Borough’s coaching team, knows the feeling of isolation. “When we go to away matches we turn up in a Haringey Borough van,” he says. “The players go through, the managers go through, and there were two or three times last year when I got stopped at the door. They said: ‘Where’s your pass?’ I said: ‘I’m with them.’ They said: ‘No, no, you need a pass.’ I’m thinking ‘Wait a minute …’  “It happened two or three times and it became a bit of a standing joke. I was thinking: ‘Wow, it’s still out there.’ Subconscious racism. I got quite upset with one guy and he said: ‘You could be anyone, couldn’t you?’ I’m thinking all my colleagues have just walked in in front of you, with the same gear and the Haringey Borough logo, and they were white. And you stop me at the door.”  Then there was the trouble after a Haringey away game last season. “One of the players was there with his girlfriend,” Cumberbatch says. “After the game she was allegedly subjected to heavy racial abuse from supporters of the other club in the car park. She came out crying and all the players ran down there. It got a bit messy. The woman was heavily pregnant and people were saying: ‘We hope your baby dies.’  “It needs a top player to do something on the day. We need a player to stop the game right there. We just shut up. We worry people will ask if we really heard something. If I put my head above the parapet, will it stop me progressing in the game? Will people think you’re just playing the race card?”  Troy Townsend, Kick It Out’s development officer and the father of Andros Townsend, wants to see change in the corridors of power. “Far too many in the county FAs at the higher level are reflective of the hierarchy of the game,” he says. “Everyone says all they are about is collecting money through petty fines. Not putting a number on your teamsheet or something. Do that, you get fined instantly. Report discrimination, it takes a lifetime.”  Townsend talks about taking an under-17 side off the pitch. “And we get chucked out the cup for failing to complete the game,” he says. “We go to a hearing six weeks later. No action against us.”  Troy Townsend, Kick It Out’s development officer and the father of Andros Townsend. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian  He says the other team continued in the cup. “By the way I had to agree to the charge,” he continues. “It was not completing the game, so I had to agree to that and give my mitigating circumstances. They accepted those but also asked why we didn’t complete the game. I said it was the only option available to me because I wanted a personal hearing. They homed in on the fact I ticked the box. I am sure that would be the charge levelled at any team who walked off at the highest level.”  Townsend considers whether football needs a figure like Colin Kaepernick, the NFL player ostracised from his sport for kneeling during the American national anthem. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a movement came out of the next incident,” he says. “I think we are close to players taking control. If there are one or two more high-profile incidents this season I think we are on the cusp of it. Are we close to a team walking off a pitch? I think we might be.  “The players are frustrated. They don’t feel protected. I don’t think the game empowers the players enough to tell them that it’s dealing with these situations. We are in a challenging period in society and football has to take some initiative because it has a powerful brand. If it sent out powerful messages it can influence what’s happening.”  What’s happening is not just something for football to resolve. Corrosive tribalism is present in parliament, on the streets, in the media and online.  “There’s a massive divide in this country,” Townsend says. “I’d like to say it’s right down the middle but it’s all over the place. Sometimes when we talk publicly we talk them and us. We feed the narrative by almost making it like that. But that’s only because it’s been them and us for years. It’s made that way by them.  “I am hearing too many stories where people are jacking it in at grassroots. That level is the wild, wild west. If we don’t sort out that level something horrendous is going to happen soon. I feel like we are a ticking time bomb. When that explosion comes everyone will be shocked and the game will be under the microscope.”  Townsend’s closing remarks are a reminder that this is about more than Sterling and his one-man stand after the incident at Chelsea. It runs deeper than the high-profile cases. We fooled ourselves into thinking that the fight against racism was over, but the truth is it never went away.  People like Sotirios Siminas are crying out for help. All they want is for someone to listen. A few weeks after our first conversation, however, Siminas gets in touch to say that he has been told there is insufficient evidence to take his complaint forward.  The experience has drained him. When Siminas coaches, he feels that he is contributing to society. Now, deflated and disheartened, he is not sure if he will be back on those pitches next season.


theguardianuk--2019-05-21--McDonalds investigated over racism and harassment claims in Brazil

McDonald's investigated over racism and harassment claims in Brazil

It was a busy day at a McDonald’s branch in São Paulo. Marcelo says he was struggling to keep up with demand while manning the chips and white meat stations when the shift boss called him a “damned stupid blackie”.  Marcelo protested and said he would pursue legal action for racism. The store manager fired him the next day, according to his statement in court documents seen by the Guardian.  His is one of 25 individual allegations of racism and sexual harassment found in two of Brazil’s 26 states, which have sparked an investigation by federal labour prosecutors against McDonald’s in the country. The investigation was due to be publicised on Tuesday for the first time.  The complaint came to prosecutors from Brazil’s General Workers’ Union (UGT), who say the cases they’ve highlighted demonstrate a “systematic pattern” of sexual harassment and racial discrimination that they allege are a “widespread standard”.  At the same time as Brazil’s labour prosecutors announced the investigation, 23 new sexual harassment complaints were announced against McDonald’s in the US by the Time’s Up legal defence fund, formed last year to push the #MeToo movement, and the American Civil Liberties Union.  “The complaint presented worrying evidence of sexual harassment and racial discrimination at McDonald’s,” said Alberto Emiliano de Oliveira Neto, the lead prosecutor on the investigation in Brazil.  “It’s a complaint that has broad, national implications that required immediate action from the federal labour prosecutors’ office,” he said, stressing that he could not assess whether the problem was systematic before conducting the investigation.  He said the first action would be to call a hearing with McDonald’s and labour unions.  “We saw a lot of cases involving sexual harassment and racism and because of the quantity, we thought, ‘There is something wrong here,’” said Alessandro Vietri, a lawyer for the labour union. “We need to think about collective rights. Some of the cases get resolved individually but with a company this large we’re talking about public interest.”  “With McDonald’s the issues are recurring and systematic,” said Ricardo Patah, the president of the UGT. “We’re living through a moment where people are speaking up about sexual harassment in a way like never before,” he said, referring to the arrest of a world-famous Brazilian healer named John of God, Brazil’s first major #MeToo scandal. More than 200 woman had made allegations of rape and sexual abuse against the healer: he denies the allegations.  “As a union we are here to show our indignation with this abuse and stop it. Our reaction needs to be as big as the company itself,” Patah said. “Because it can be so humiliating to speak out alone, from the moment this investigation is publicised I am sure the cases will multiply.”  With 1.9 million workers, including in its franchises, in more than 100 countries, McDonald’s is one of the world’s largest companies.  In Brazil McDonald’s is run by Arcos Dorados – Golden Arches in Spanish – the world’s largest McDonald’s franchisee, with exclusive rights to own and operate in 20 countries in Latin American and the Caribbean. The company says it employs more than 90,000 people in Latin America, 73,000 of whom are aged 16-25.  Arcos Dorados in Brazil said it had not been notified about the investigation, but added: “The company does not in any way tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind. The company also reaffirms its commitment to respect and follow Brazilian labour laws, as well as to providing adequate working conditions to all its employees.”  It said all employees take part in a training course that teaches them to be respectful and adhere to company rules. “The company, as always, is at the disposal of authorities to clarify its practices,” the statement read.  The court documents contain allegations from McDonald’s workers that they were called blatantly racist names by superiors. One case alleges that a man’s female co-worker touched his private parts without his consent and that when the man reported this to his manager, the manager did nothing and claimed the worker was “enjoying it”.  One female employee said her coordinator had embraced her and “stroked” her private parts several times and that her duty manager had once followed her into the bathroom, “intimidating her with malicious invitations”.  In another case, a manager is accused of trying to leverage his position for sex, “caressing” his female employee’s body and saying that, “if she wanted a promotion she would have to give something in return”.  The investigation comes at a time when labour rights have been under attack in Brazil. After taking office in January, President Jair Bolsonaro scrapped the labour ministry and much of the monitoring of workplace practices. Most of the labour ministry’s responsibilities were transferred to the ministry of economy, headed by free-market economist Paulo Guedes.  The National Federation of Lawyers has filed a suit in the supreme court claiming that there is a conflict of interest between the two ministries.


theguardianuk--2019-07-05--UK universities condemned for failure to tackle racism

Senior academics and politicians have condemned UK universities for failing to tackle endemic racism against students and staff after a Guardian investigation found widespread evidence of discrimination in the sector.  University staff from minority backgrounds said the findings showed there was “absolute resistance” to dealing with the problem. Responses to freedom of information (FoI) requests the Guardian sent to 131 universities showed that students and staff made at least 996 formal complaints of racism over the past five years.  Of these, 367 were upheld, resulting in at least 78 student suspensions or expulsions and 51 staff suspensions, dismissals and resignations.  But even these official figures are believed to underestimate the scale of racism in higher education, with two separate investigations by the Guardian and the Equality and Human Rights Commission identifying hundreds more cases that were not formally investigated by universities.  Scores of black and minority ethnic students and lecturers have told the Guardian they were dissuaded from making official complaints and either dropped their allegations or settled for an informal resolution. They said white university staff were often reluctant to address racism, with racial slurs treated as banter or an inevitable byproduct of freedom of speech, and institutional racism poorly recognised.  Their complaints come as students staging an occupation at Goldsmiths, University of London, enter the 17th week of their protest to demand it takes action against institutional racism.  Suki Ali, associate professor in sociology at the London School of Economics, said: “There has been absolute resistance to facing the scale of racism in British universities. If you’re in a climate where you think that people don’t understand the problem, don’t take it seriously, don’t have procedures and policies that seem to be effective, why and how would you make a complaint?”  Priyamvada Gopal, a reader at the faculty of English at Cambridge University, said complaints of racism were often met with “race illiteracy”. She said: “Complainants get exhausted and give up simply because there is no comprehension of what racism is. There is either outright denial, ‘gaslighting’ or minimising. Often when issues are raised, in my experience, they are either ignored or dismissed. There are few mechanisms and still fewer trained staff able to deal with race matters.”  Between 2014-15 and the current academic year, the Guardian found there were were 461 complaints made against students, with the majority lodged by other students, and 535 complaints against staff. About half of the complaints made against staff were from students, including 144 against academics.  The universities that recorded the largest number of formal complaints were Cambridge (72); Cardiff (39), Oxford (39), Bedfordshire (36), Nottingham Trent (23), Birkbeck College, University of London (21), Salford (21), and Coventry, Liverpool John Moores and the London School of Economics, each with 20. But these figures may reflect that they had better complaints procedures.  The Guardian found more than a quarter of the universities surveyed lacked centralised records of racism complaints. Some did not specifically record racist incidents, lumping them together with other forms of discrimination, harassment and bullying.  Some universities had only begun recording racist incidents in the last few years; others only recorded racist incidents against either staff or students, not both.  The vast majority of universities also said they did not record informal complaints, while more than half did not record antisemitism and Islamophobia as racism.  The Labour MP David Lammy, who has campaigned for universities to better address racial inequality, said: “It is absolutely clear from these findings that many universities are not treating racism with the seriousness it deserves. If universities do not act fast to change the culture, from the lecture hall to the student union, talented students from BME backgrounds will continue to be locked out.”  Christina Barnes, the senior principal inquiries and intelligence at the EHRC, said its inquiry had found a similar number of formal complaints over the past four years as the Guardian. But 1,600 students, lectures and other staff had responded to its call for evidence of racist incidents in universities over the same time period – the largest response to an inquiry it has ever received.  Barnes said its investigation, due to be published in September, was examining the significant disparity between the official number of racism complaints and what staff and students actually experience. She added: “Our evidence indicates that there is a significant number of people who suffer racial harassment and do not make formal complaints. They may raise informal complaints, or may not make any form of complaint at all. Our report will look at the barriers to making complaints.”  More than 240 students and lecturers have shared accounts of racism with the Guardian, with many reporting that complaints were poorly handled.  The Guardian’s FoI findings revealed that only one university provided dedicated anti-racism training to all staff, while more than half provided no training on institutional racism. Only five universities said staff who investigated complaints had received specific anti-racism training. No universities provided mandatory training for students.  Ilyas Nagdee, black students’ officer for the National Union of Students, said racism on campus continued to be brushed under the carpet. “As students of colour continue to face harassment in their places of study [and] abuse in their halls of accommodation, universities remain ill-equipped and unwilling to tackle the issue at large,” he said.  Heidi Mirza, visiting professor of race, faith and culture at Goldsmiths, University of London, said universities’ poor handling of complaints was driving BME staff and students to quit. She said: “This week I have written three references for senior black female staff who want to leave and go to America or anywhere else but England. The attrition rate is symptomatic of the fact that the complaints system doesn’t work.”  “People come and tell me of something horrendous that has happened to them and they just want to leave. They will not go to the university with it. They know the university will crush them.”  A spokesman for Cambridge University said it “strives to create a culture free from racism and takes any complaint extremely seriously”.  He said its complaint figures reflected reforms designed to make reporting harassment and discrimination easier . “We are pleased to see this begin to take place,” he added.  Goldsmith’s has previously said about the student occupation: “We have committed to taking action to address the protesters’ key demands and have already made progress on steps such as reviewing how reports of racism are handled, recruiting additional student wellbeing staff and planning mandatory race equality training for staff.”  The universities minister Chris Skidmore said: “Universities have a responsibility to ensure that they provide a safe and inclusive environment for all staff and students and I expect institutions to act swiftly to investigate and address incidents of racism reported to them.”  A spokeswoman for Universities UK, which represents 136 higher education providers, said: “There is no place for racism on a university campus. In the coming year we will develop guidance targeted at addressing racial harassment.”


theguardianuk--2019-10-10--Goldsmiths racism report finds BME students feel unsafe on campus

Senior managers at Goldsmiths, University of London, have admitted that its record of addressing racism is unacceptable after a damning report found black and minority ethnic students feel victimised and unsafe on its campus.  The report found that while almost half (45%) of students at Goldsmiths are from minority backgrounds, some have frequently experienced both overt and indirect racism from their white peers and white staff and did not trust the south London university to handle complaints.  The study, Insider-Outsider: the role of race in shaping the experiences of black and minority ethnic students, found 26% of those surveyed reported experiencing racism from students and staff, including the use of racist slurs such as the n-word and the p-word in lectures.  One black female student described how she was “fetishised” and sexually harassed due to her ethnicity by a member of staff, who has since been dismissed. Other respondents reported how white students glamorised the use of the n-word, using it as a greeting. The report, by the race equality specialist Sofia Akel, warned this put black students in particular “at risk of entering racially charged environments and subject to immense discomfort”.  An additional 43% of the 195 students surveyed said they had experienced everyday racialised microaggressions, such as white students and staff questioning their nationality due to being a person of colour.  Nearly two-fifths (37%) of respondents said they felt excluded from participating in university life due to racial discrimination, and more than a third reported that they had modified their ethnic or cultural identify, such as adopting a “white voice” or using a different name, in an attempt to avoid being targeted.  Many respondents described a “racial battleground” in lectures, with their white peers’ racism going unchallenged by white lecturers, who would also dismiss or suppress the voices of BME students and make racist assumptions about their knowledge and academic abilities.  The report connected this to BME students receiving poorer degree grades than their white peers, noting that almost half (49%) of respondents felt that Goldsmiths’ curriculums did not represent the lives and achievements of BME people.  The study also highlighted Islamophobia on campus, with several female Muslim students reporting being afraid to wear their veil due to fear of reprisals for being wrongly perceived as extremists.  More than three-quarters (79%) of those surveyed said they did not know where to report a hate crime at Goldsmiths. Many lacked confidence in its complaints procedures, with only a third saying they trusted the university to handle reports of racism appropriately.  Prof Elisabeth Hill, Goldsmiths’ deputy warden, said: “These findings are simply unacceptable and paint a clear picture, which cannot be ignored. This report demands a response from everyone at Goldsmiths and illustrates the amount of work we must all undertake to address these vital matters.”  She said work was underway to meet the recommendations of the report, which included mandatory race-awareness training for staff, a review of complaints procedures and improving the number of BME senior managers.  The report follows an occupation at the university by Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action protesters, which ended in July after senior managers agreed to meet their demand for a series of measures to tackle institutional racism at Goldsmiths.  Goldsmiths has previously appointed Dr Nicola Rollock to address the BME attainment gap at the university. She said: “What’s really striking about this report is that BME students are coming to an institution that looks mixed and edgy and radical but they are having to negotiate, fight and strategise every step of the way to deal with racism. This is not just happening in their dealings with white students but with white lecturers too. This report is damning but I’m struck by the preparedness of senior managers to acknowledge they’re not getting it right.”


theguardianuk--2019-11-04--Balotelli returned to Italy with hope. It has been crushed again by racism

Six years have passed since Mario Balotelli spoke those words in an interview with Sports Illustrated. He was on top of the world back then, Italy’s first-choice No 9 and fresh from a triumphant half-season at Milan. Signed from Manchester City during the January transfer window, he had scored 12 times in 13 games for the Rossoneri, carrying them to third place.  The magazine’s front cover depicted him walking on water. Yet even then, back when so much seemed possible for the striker whose goals had obliterated Germany at Euro 2012, Balotelli acknowledged his powerlessness to stop football supporters in his home country from abusing him for the colour of his skin.  Returning to Italy this summer, after stints away at Liverpool, Nice and Marseille, he wondered if things might have changed. “I hope with all my heart that there won’t be any repeat of the things that happened when I was last here,” he said after signing for Brescia. “I hope that Italy has taken some steps forward.”  He was destined to be disappointed. The opening weeks of the Serie A season have witnessed several high-profile instances of players being racially abused, from Romelu Lukaku at Cagliari to Dalbert at Atalanta and Ronaldo Vieira during a home game for Sampdoria against Roma.  On Sunday, Balotelli was the target for monkey chants during Brescia’s game away to Verona. In the 55th minute, he responded. Fighting to keep the ball in play down by the corner flag, Balotelli turned suddenly and lashed it up towards supporters in the Curva instead.  Chaos ensued. The referee, Maurizio Mariani, booked Balotelli for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Balotelli threatened to walk off the pitch. Players from both teams intervened, talking Balotelli down while also informing officials of the abuse he had received. Mariani waved off the yellow card and suspended the game, instructing the stadium announcer to warn fans that it would be abandoned altogether if the chants continued.  After a delay of almost five minutes, play resumed. Verona, already leading through a goal from Eddie Salcedo, extended their advantage through Matteo Pessina. Balotelli responded with a spectacular strike from the edge of the D, struck first time off his right instep into the top corner. It was not enough to rescue his team from a 2-1 defeat.  An ugly afternoon only got worse after the final whistle, when the Verona manager, Ivan Juric, flatly denied that any racist abuse had taken place. “I’m not afraid to say that nothing happened,” he insisted. “There was loud whistling and mockery, but no racist chant. There was nothing. I am a Croatian and I hear ‘gypsy piece of shit’ sometimes because unfortunately that is the tendency in Italy. But today there was nothing.”  What possessed him to take such a hard line, only he can know. In any case, he was wrong. Juric might not have heard the monkey chants himself, but several of his players did, and they were plainly audible on a fan-shot video that circulated on Sunday evening.  This has too often been the default mode for clubs whose fans stand accused of racist chanting: to mount an aggressive defence first – often calling into question the integrity of the victim – and ascertain the facts of what happened later. Verona’s president, Maurizio Setti, supported his manager’s line, claiming his team’s supporters were simply “sarcastic, not racist”.  Verona will likely be sanctioned. The independent observer sent to monitor this game heard the racist chants and included them in their official report – something that did not happen when Lukaku and Dalbert were abused, and which should allow the sporting justice greater scope for punishment.  Still, there are ambiguities that make the verdict hard to predict. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the observer only ascribed the monkey chants to a group of about 15 fans. Balotelli was booed and whistled by many more, but here we are into murky territory. What constitutes racist abuse rather than straightforward jeering of an opponent?  Regardless of the outcome, the discouraging thought is that once again nothing will change. This was a weekend when Roma’s game against Napoli was also suspended in response to territorial discrimination from the former club’s ultras. The initial warning from the stadium announcer had been roundly ignored. Only the intervention of Edin Dzeko, encouraging fans to drown out the chants with cheers, seemed to get things back on track.  Balotelli’s assessment that you cannot force people not to be racist rings as true as ever. On the other hand, Italian football cannot absolve itself of responsibility. Clubs in other countries do a far more effective job of identifying individuals who engage in racist chanting and keeping them out of the stands.  This is a slow process, and even with maximum commitment could not be achieved overnight. It is hard to see how it will ever happen at clubs whose first instinct is to accuse a victim of making it up. • Defeat for Brescia meant the sack for Eugenio Corini – the manager who steered them to promotion. His team have taken one point from their past six games, but to me this still felt premature. This has been a gruelling run, including games against Juventus, Inter, Napoli and Fiorentina – none of whom beat them by more than a single goal. • Roma leapt up to third by beating Napoli in a hugely entertaining game, and Paulo Fonseca really does seem to have his team moving on a positive trajectory despite a long injury list. Nicolò Zaniolo opened the scoring with a wonderful left-foot finish – marking his fourth straight game with a goal – and even Javier Pastore is playing well now that he’s back in his preferred home at No 10. Chris Smalling once again played his part, too, with an acrobatic clearance off the line. • When is a handball not a handball? Don’t ask Matthijs De Ligt, who was not punished in the Turin derby when the ball struck his arm in almost identical pose to that in which it had done so when he gave away a penalty against Lecce. This time: no spot-kick – a contrast that only looked sharper after Juventus edged to a 1-0 victory over their city rivals, courtesy of a volley from the defender himself. • Is it time to start viewing Cagliari as serious contenders for the Champions League? They won 2-0 away to Atalanta, drawing level on points with the Bergamo club and Lazio in fourth place. The Sardinians were aided by a first-half red card to Josip Ilicic but the 23-year-old Uruguayan Christian Oliva was magnificent in midfield. His only previous start came away to Napoli, where Cagliari also won, 1-0. • Two more goals for Romelu Lukaku, who rescued Inter after they fell behind at Bologna. He has nine in Serie A already, placing him second only to Ciro Immobile – who is already on 13 for Lazio.


theguardianuk--2019-12-02--Uefa president admits more must be done to tackle racism in football

Aleksander Ceferin, the president of Uefa, has admitted more needs to be done to combat racism in European football and that he was not fully aware of the scale of the problem when he took charge of the governing body three years ago.  Uefa has come under criticism amid a spate of racist incidents in recent months, ranging from monkey chants aimed at Romelu Lukaku and Mario Balotelli in Italy, to the abuse that was directed at England’s black players during their Euro 2020 qualifier away to Bulgaria in October.  Uefa immediately began an investigation into the shameful scenes that took place in Sofia and ultimately decided to punish Bulgaria by forcing them to play their next competitive home game behind closed doors with a further match suspended for two years. The Bulgaria football union were also fined €75,000.  The sanction was criticised by the anti-discrimination network Football Against Racism in Europe (Fare), which said it was disappointed Bulgaria had not been expelled from the competition after being found guilty of a third offence this year, while Kick It Out said Uefa had “missed an opportunity” to send the right message.  Uefa has been criticised for its handling of another cases – especially by black players – and Ceferin has conceded that a different, stronger approach is required to tackle what appears to be a worsening problem.  “I don’t blame the players for [what they say,]” he said in an interview with the Daily Mirror. “I understand the players are desperate because of the punishments and the incidents that are happening again and again.  “I am not so naive to think we’ve done all we can and now everything is finished. We haven’t. We are trying and we care. We are ready to listen to criticism. Every week there is something – not just since Bulgaria, not since England, not since Cagliari [where Lukaku was racially abused]. We’ve been listening. Every week we hear about some shit happening around Europe. And we speak.”  Ceferin became president in September 2016 having been the president of Slovenia’s football association for the previous five years. Asked by the Mirror if he had underestimated how badly European football was blighted by racism, the one-time lawyer said: “Yes, I did. The situation in Europe is more and more tense. You can feel it.”  Ceferin believes politicians are in part to blame for stoking racism across the continent and is particularly critical of Boris Johnson, who himself had criticised Uefa for their sanctions against Bulgaria.  “When a politician who calls women with burqas postboxes or mailboxes then says publicly that he condemns you Uefa – do you reply to that?” Ceferin said. “Do you believe it’s honest? Come on.”


theguardianuk--2019-12-08--Football faces calls for action on racism in wake of Manchester derby

The arrest of a man on Sunday in connection with alleged racist abuse directed towards Manchester United players in a televised derby has led to renewed soul searching about the extent of the problem in the game.  In the immediate aftermath of the match at the Etihad, in which Manchester United beat rivals City 2-1, former player turned pundit Gary Neville blamed politicians including Boris Johnson for creating a climate where racism was more acceptable.  Sky’s cameras appeared to show a home fan making monkey chants directed towards Manchester United’s Brazilian midfielder Fred during the second half of the match in a clip that quickly went viral on social media. The player said on Sunday that the incident demonstrated that we were living in a “backward society”.  The man has been named in reports as Anthony Burke, who, according to his since-removed Facebook page, works for the construction company Kier Group. In now-deleted posts on his Facebook page, Burke denied that he was racist.  Having tweeted on Saturday evening to say it was aware of the video, Kier announced on Sunday that an employee had been suspended.  “Kier has a zero-tolerance policy towards any racist and discriminatory behaviour. We can confirm an employee has been suspended pending an investigation,” said the company in a statement on Twitter.  Earlier the same day a referee was forced to halt a League Two match at Forest Green Rovers’ stadium midway through the second half after reports of a racist comment directed towards Scunthorpe defender Jordan Clarke. There has been a string of events in recent months that have underlined the persistence of racism in football.  Piara Powar, executive director of Fare network, which works against discrimination in football, condemned the incident but said it was unsurprising.  “There is a contagion,” said Powar. “This is happening everywhere unquestionably because of a few things. One of those is mimicry – people are seeing others doing it and they think that they can follow and it’s legitimate to do it.”     He added that the idea of clubs facing sanctions if incidents of racial abuse committed by their fans were frequent should be debated.  “I think focusing on an individual is a good way to make that individual accountable, but sometimes we need to look wider than that and frame people as a collective.”  Speaking on Sky in the aftermath of the Manchester derby, Neville linked Boris Johnson’s rhetoric on immigration during election campaigning with the number of racist incidents in British society and sport.  “You are watching the prime minister’s debate where he is talking about migration to this country and people having to have certain levels. It fuels it all the time,” he said. “It has got worse over the last few years in this country and not just in football.”  He suggested English football has a greater responsibility after Gareth Southgate’s England team were racially abused in Bulgaria this year. “We always judge other countries on how they deal with racism but we are poor with dealing with it ourselves,” he said.  Powar, whose organisation works with Uefa to monitor racism across Europe, agreed with Neville.  “There are things being said within a political domain that four or five years ago were just not acceptable,” he said.  “Whether it’s Boris Johnson and his well-known comments about Africans or Muslim women wearing burqas, or whether it’s the National Front in France. The poisonous discourse is everywhere. What is said by politicians is followed up by the media, some of whom give it legitimacy.”  Greater Manchester police said a 41-year-old had been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and remained in custody on Sunday for questioning.  Supt Chris Hill of the City of Manchester division said the force was taking the matter extremely seriously. “Racism of any kind has no place in football or our society”, he said. “We will continue to work with Manchester City and Manchester United football clubs on this incident and will investigate any other lines of enquiries.”  Manchester City said that it operated a zero tolerance policy and anyone found guilty of racist abuse would be banned for life.  As United prepared to take a corner, Fred also appeared to have been hit by a cigarette lighter hurled from the crowd.  “Fred and Jesse [Lingard] were in the corner, taking a corner, and I’ve seen the video, heard from the boys,” said the team’s manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær.  “We keep talking about it every bloody week. But he’s been caught on camera. He should in my opinion never be allowed into a football ground again. Unacceptable.”  It is understood that the team reported the incident to City and referee Anthony Taylor, with more than one player feeling they had been subjected to racist abuse.  The Football Association will also launch an investigation and will speak to Taylor, the clubs, the police and other relevant parties. In a statement, the Premier League said it would not tolerate discrimination in any form and that racism was not welcome at games.  Fred said the alleged abuse showed that we were still living “in a backward society”. “On the field, I didn’t see anything. I saw it only in the locker room afterwards,” he told ESPN Brazil. “Unfortunately, this is happening in some stadiums. It happened here, it happened in Ukraine with some friends. It’s sad, but we have to keep our heads up and forget about that.  “We are all the same regardless of skin colour, hair and gender. We came from the same place and we all go to the same place when it’s all said and done. Thank God I have a lot of friends here in the locker room who hugged me, like Lingard. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to move on.”


theindependent--2019-02-08--Kick It Out criticise Premier League and demand aposinstant actionapos and aposresponsible lea

Kick It Out criticise Premier League and demand 'instant action' and 'responsible leadership' to tackle racism

Kick It Out chairman Lord Ouseley has criticised the Premier League for failing to consult the organisation in the battle against racism.  Ouseley has also demanded “instant action” and “responsible leadership” to better tackle the matter.  A meeting of Premier League shareholders took place on Thursday in London with the league confirming they have “discussed enhancing the range of programmes they currently run to promote inclusion and diversity across football.”  The statement added: “All clubs agreed that while good work has been undertaken, more needs to be done to ensure BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) fans and players are supported.  “They also agreed for pathways to be improved to encourage more people from different backgrounds to take up coaching, refereeing and administrative roles in the sport.  “The League will now consult with external stakeholders, including other football bodies, the Government, equality and inclusion groups, and current and former players and managers on the detail of new work we develop in this area.”  Ouseley, chair of anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out, said in a BBC interview published on Thursday: “I think the fact that the Premier League has not consulted with Kick It Out, where there is a considerable amount of expertise and experience to assist them, is contemptuous of the way in which football is.  “It’s sad that the Premier League, who we do receive quite a lot of support from, does not value that in the way in which it is has moved this forward.  “Whether it sees doing this secretly and on its own to gather the acclaim it is maybe seeking because it is right up front with an initiative of its own, I think it is the wrong way to go about doing things and I hope they will see the error of their ways.  “It’s this collective approach and bringing coherence that we’re all in this together that I think is the right way to take forward the spirit of football in the 21st century.  “The problem with football at the present time is it’s very dysfunctional in the way it’s spread across the whole of the game with the Football Association, the PFA, the Football League, the Premier League, the League Managers Association and so on.”  Ouseley – who in December announced his intention to step down from his post at the end of the season – also said: “Those with power do not exercise their responsibilities in the way that will help us deal with this problem.  “Instant action is what we’re looking for – responsible leadership.”  Press Association Sport has sought comment from the Premier League.  The League also on Thursday announced its clubs had voted unanimously to extend the £30 away ticket price cap, which has been in place since the start of 2016-17, for three more seasons.  The renewal of the measure has been welcomed by the Football Supporters’ Federation – even if it feels more can be done.  FSF chief executive Kevin Miles said: “We welcome the Premier League’s recognition of the importance of the £30 away cap and back its decision to keep the cap in place for the coming seasons.  “We have always argued that away supporter attendance needs to be encouraged if the atmosphere and spectacle of a live football match is to be sustained.  “There had been a rapid rise in away ticket costs for many supporters and the cap put a halt on that.  “However, we still believe more can be done and we call on the Premier League to look at ways to further reduce concessionary ticket costs and subsidise fans’ travel costs when games are moved for TV.”  Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writers


theindependent--2019-03-21--England vs Czech Republic Kyle Walker insists racism is aposeverywhereapos and not just confine

England vs Czech Republic: Kyle Walker insists racism is 'everywhere' and not just confined to football

Kyle Walker insists racism is everywhere and made a passionate plea for his team-mates to rise above it.  Raheem Sterling has recently spoken out about his own abuse and the need to stand up to discrimination.  While Chelsea have lodged a complaint over England debutant Callum Hudson-Odoi suffering racist abuse while in Kiev in the Europa League, and Walker has added to the conversation.  “I think it’s just the world that we live in,” Walker told ITV News.  “You can pin up banners, you can put t-shirts on saying keep racism out of football, but it’s not just football. It’s everywhere.  ”Just be yourself, it doesn’t matter if you’re Asian, black or white.”  Danny Rose has also backed Sterling’s recent claims about racism, insisting the entire dressing room agrees with stance.  “Raheem was only saying what we all say in the dressing room,” Rose told BBC Sport.  “It’s sad really but he’s 100 per cent spot on with what he said.  “The stick he used to get from the media was bang out of order. When he put the post up about the media we were all over the moon with that because we all agree. Fair play to Raheem.  “One of the few positive things about social media now is you have a voice and you can influence people.  “Now it’s not just boys in the dressing room talking about the media targeting Raheem, the general public have now seen it.  “We hope it changes but it doesn’t affect Raheem in any way, which we are all grateful for.”  Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writers


theindependent--2019-04-02--Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin aposashamedapos over recent incidents of racism in football

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin 'ashamed' over recent incidents of racism in football

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has admitted he feels "shame" over the recent incidents of racism in football.  England trio Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi were all targeted by abuse during last month's 5-1 victory in Montenegro, while GNK Dinamo and Dynamo Kiev have been punished with full or partial venue closures due to racist behaviour by supporters.  Ceferin has made the trip to Wembley for the first Equal Game conference held to help tackle discrimination and the former lawyer was disgruntled at having to attend a conference to promote diversity.  "I am ashamed, ashamed that in 2019 we have to hold a conference to promote diversity," said Ceferin.  "It is worrying to see world leaders and politicians playing down racist and discriminatory incidents."  English football bosses are also ready to strengthen punishments against racism.  Chairman Greg Clarke has revealed the Football Association is reviewing disciplinary processes, to ensure claims of abuse are investigated more meticulously.  Clarke also revealed a review of training for match stewards on how to handle discrimination issues, with the FA keen to act after England stars were subjected to racist abuse in Podgorica.  "When Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi speak with such maturity and eloquence, we must listen, we must respond - and we must not let them down," said FA boss Clarke.  "Let me be clear, I'm using this match (Montenegro-England) as an example of something that's happening across all our societies, and across all of Europe."  "None of us can be naive enough to think racism doesn't happen at all of our countries and matches. Clearly more needs to be done.  "We must do more in England, and more across Europe, and we must do this together.  "That's the strong leadership we need to ensure we really do have an equal game. Now we must put some concrete actions in place."  Clarke believes it is time to examine once again Uefa's three-step process for halting matches as a result of racist abuse.  Current Uefa guidelines allow referees to stop, suspend or abandon matches due to racist abuse, but Clarke believes it is time to lower the threshold that allows referees to induce that process.  "When Uefa's three-step protocol came out, it was a watershed moment," Clarke said.  "It was firm action. A proposal on how to deal with racism in stadia. Like every policy, it needs to evolve. We need to see if it works and we need to see if it can be improved. I think it can.  "The protocol asks the referee to stop the match if 'racist behaviour is of a strong magnitude and intensity'. I don't now think that is good enough and we should take this opportunity to revisit these thresholds.  "The young men and women who take to the field representing our clubs and countries not only deserve, but should be entitled, to play their football in a safe environment entirely free from racial abuse.  "There should be no judgement call on whether something is of a strong magnitude. Racism is racism."  Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writers


thesun--2019-03-11--Louis van Gaal retires from football at 67 three-years after Man Utd sacking

LOUIS VAN GAAL has announced his retirement from football - almost three years after being sacked by Manchester United.  The Dutchman had two seasons in charge at Old Trafford, but made way two days after United won the 2016 FA Cup.  ![ Louis van Gaal has announced his retirement from management]()  PA:Empics Sport  Louis van Gaal has announced his retirement from management  [Van Gaal](https://www.thesun.co.uk/who/louis-van-gaal/), 67, led the Red Devils to fourth and fifth-place finishes in the [Premier League](https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/premierleague/).  He has since been offered other jobs, including the chance to manage Feyenoord next season, but has instead opted to hang up his tracksuit.  Van Gaal told Dutch TV show VTBL: "I am a pensioner now. I have no ambition to be a technical director or a TV pundit.  "My wife Truus gave up her job for me 22 years ago, and followed me when I went abroad.  ![ Van Gaal guided Man Utd to FA Cup success in 2016 but was sacked two days later]()  Getty  Van Gaal guided Man Utd to FA Cup success in 2016 but was sacked two days later  "I told her I would quit as a coach when I turned 55, but instead kept going until I was 65.  "She is entitled to have a life with me outside of football. I can say she is very happy.  * * *  * * *  "I think I could have worked as a technical director.  "But in this role you can't attend training or say anything for fear it won't suit the coach, directors or media. I don't think I want a job like that."  Amsterdam-born Van Gaal had two spells as Holland's national coach.   He also managed [Ajax](https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/team/1232664/ajax/), Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich before replacing David Moyes at [United](https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/team/1196656/manchester- united/) in 2014.  Van Gaal famously led his hometown team to the Champions League in 1995 and his country to a third-place finish at the 2014 World Cup.  A number of fans from his former clubs were keen to wish Van Gaal all the best in retirement.  A Manchester United supporter wrote: "Happy retirement to Louis van Gaal. It didn’t work with us but loved him. Can’t say the same about Moyes or Mourinho."  While a Bayern Munich follower tweeted: "The man who made Bayern a top team again. Thank you Louis van Gaal."  And another Red Devil commented: "Nothing but respect for Van Gaal."  Watch wacky Van Gaal sing along with Bayern fans


dailyheraldchicago--2019-06-26--Goalie Roberto Luongo retires after 19 NHL seasons

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Florida goalie Roberto Luongo has decided to retire after 19 seasons.  The 40-year-old Luongo made the announcement Wednesday on his Twitter account. His 489 career victories are third in NHL history behind only Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy, and Brodeur is the only goalie to have appeared in more games or made more saves than Luongo.  He was the fourth overall pick in the 1997 draft by the New York Islanders, with whom he made his NHL debut on Nov. 28, 1999. The Montreal native then spent five years with Florida, the next eight with Vancouver and returned to the Panthers on March 14, 2014.  "This is one of the toughest decisions I've faced in my life and it took me a long time to make it," Luongo wrote in an open letter to fans. "After thinking about it a lot over the past two months and listening to my body, I made up my mind. It just feels like the right time for me to step away from the game. I love the game so much, but the commitment I required to prepare, to keep my body ready, has become overwhelming."  Luongo had been slowed by hip problems in recent years, and the off-ice work just to make it through practices and games took a toll.  "From the moment I was fortunate enough to share a locker room with him, Roberto has exemplified leadership for me," Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck said in a statement distributed by the Panthers. "There isn't a classier, more professional guy in this league. He's a great hockey player and somehow an even better person."  The Panthers were prepared for the likelihood that Luongo may step away. Panthers general manager Dale Tallon said last week that Luongo's career had been "illustrious" and that the franchise was giving its most beloved player all the time he needed to make his decision.  "The impact that he has had on the developing core of our team, its culture and our community are undeniable," Tallon said. "He has always approached everything with a determination and level of class that was second to none. He leaves not only a legacy in South Florida, but a legacy in the game itself."  Florida hired Joel Quenneville as coach earlier this offseason, and is believed to be a frontrunner to sign top free agent goalie Sergei Bobrovsky along with Artemi Panerin - both of whom were in South Florida earlier this week to meet with the Panthers in advance of the signing period that starts Monday. Bobrovsky was a top priority for Florida even before Luongo let the team know that he was retiring.  "We play the game to win the Stanley Cup, to give ourselves a chance," Luongo said. "It's hard because I think that this team is right there, close to taking the next step. I wanted nothing more than to be a part of that. With Coach Q coming in, it's an exciting time for the Florida Panthers."


drudgereport--2019-06-26--ESPN Legend Bob Ley Retires After 40 Years

ESPN Legend Bob Ley Retires After 40 Years...

Bob Ley’s break from ESPN will be permanent.  Ley, an institution at the network, announced on Wednesday morning that he would be retiring from ESPN.  “Across 40 years I have enjoyed a professional journey unimaginable when I joined ESPN in 1979. Each day since has been a unique adventure, one I embraced for the challenge and unequaled fun of a job like no other,” Ley tweeted. “Now, it is time for a change. I will be retiring from ESPN, as of the end of the month. To be clear, this is entirely my decision. I enjoy the best of health and the many blessings of friends and family, and it is in that context that I’m making this change.”  Ley, 64, was the most established and trusted voice at the network, and started three days after the network launched. He has long hosted “Outside the Lines,” the investigative news show that covered the most significant subjects in sports. He had also become the face of ESPN’s soccer coverage.  “To (ESPN president) Jimmy Pitaro and his senior leadership team, my sincere personal thanks for their understanding and patience over the past months,” Ley wrote. “Through the decades, and my innumerable experiences at ESPN, I have built many deep and fulfilling friendships. You know who you are. I hope you also know how much you mean to me. We have shared an American story unlike any other. And we will continue to do so in the years ahead.  “I have been gifted by our viewers and consumers with a precious commodity — your trust. To be invited into your homes was a privilege I never took for granted, one I worked each day to uphold. Thank you for that. In September, I signed off my last show saying, ‘I’ll catch you on the flip side.’ Now it’s time to take that vinyl off the turntable (ask your folks), flip it over, and drop the needle on the B-side. There are always great cuts, and hidden gems on the B-side.


eveningstandard--2019-02-28--James DeGale retires from boxing aposIaposm proud to say that Iaposve made historyapos

James DeGale retires from boxing: 'I'm proud to say that I've made history'

James DeGale has announced his retirement from boxing, proudly declaring that he had done things the hard way to become a double world champion and Olympic gold medallist.  Londoner DeGale’s official decision to step down at 33 comes after his unanimous points defeat by Chris Eubank Jr at the O2 Arena last Saturday.  It coincides with the 10th anniversary of the first professional fight of his career – in which he twice reigned as IBF super-middleweight champion.  DeGale, from Harlesden, was the first British boxer to win an Olympic gold – in Beijing in 2008 - and go on to win a professional world title.  He won huge admiration and respect for winning his first world title belt in the USA in 2015 before successfully defending it three times in some gruelling battles across the Atlantic.  He also won it back abroad in Las Vegas last year in a rematch which avenged a shock defeat by little-known Caleb Truax in December, 2017.  “Chunky” has admitted that time had caught up with him but that he “had made history the clean, honest and hard way.”  He said: “There’s nothing left to prove. A majority of the greats go out on a loss and for me, it’s time to hang up the gloves and to move on with my head held high  “I’m proud to say that I’ve made history as the first ever British Olympian boxer to turn professional and win a world title. And I am also proud to have been a road warrior – to have travelled wherever I needed to be to fight and to win.  “Looking back, if someone had told me at the start of my boxing career, when I was in the England amateur squad, that I would become an Olympic gold medallist, a British and European champion and a two-time world champion, I would never have believed them.  “But I did it and I’d like to think I did it the clean, honest and hard way with discipline and respect for the sport I love.  “It’s hard to admit that I’m not the fighter I once was. But I’m human and along the way, my injuries have taken a toll – both on mind and body. These things have contributed to impact upon my performance in the ring.  “I lost the fight last Saturday but I’m touched to have a good send off from the fans in my home city.  “The day after the fight, someone said to me that one fight does not determine a legacy.  “It’s been an unbelievable journey and I’ve had an amazing decade – if I’m honest, the best years of my life.”  Eubank Jr paid tribute to DeGale after his win last weekend, saying: “He showed the heart of a champion and a great chin. He was hurt but he kept coming.”  However, it was clear southpaw DeGale was well past his best and the decision to retire has come at the right time.  The talkative fighter made a compelling double act with popular trainer Jim McDonnell and he will head into retirement winning praise for both his impressive technical skill-set and his toughness and tenacity.  One notable photograph captured him missing his front teeth following a hard-fought draw against Badou Jack in 2017 in which DeGale also suffered a damaged ear drum.  He won the vacant IBF belt by defeating Andre Dirrell on a unanimous points decision in Boston in May 2015.  He then scored a unanimous win against Canadian-Romanian Lucien Bute in his hometown of Quebec in November that year and made a second successful defence against Rogelio Medina in Washington DC in February 2016.  The attempt to unify his IBF belt with Jack’s WBC prize ended in a draw in New York in January 2017, with the boxers each retaining their belts.  After a shock defeat by little-known  Truax in London in December 2017, DeGale won the title back in a rematch in Las Vegas.  He finished with a professional fighting record of 25 wins, three defeats and one draw, having been defeated by fellow Londoner George Groves in 2011.  He held the European and British super-middleweight titles between 2010 and 2012.  At the Olympic Games in China in 2008, he progressed through four rounds before winning the middleweight gold medal by defeating Cuban Emilio Correa  He won a bronze in the same weight class at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.


npr--2019-02-10--Lindsey Vonn Retires As The Winningest Female Skier In History

Lindsey Vonn Retires As The Winningest Female Skier In History  Lindsey Vonn is retiring as the winningest female ski racer in the world and one of the most decorated alpine skiers in U.S. history, ending a career in which she refused to let terrible injuries slow her down. In her final race Sunday, Vonn sped down the mountain to loud cheers, taking bronze in the downhill at the world championships in Are, Sweden.  Sunday's medal makes Vonn the first female skier to win medals at six different world championships, and it also marks the fifth time she has won a medal in the downhill at a world championship.  "I laid it all on the line. That's all I wanted to do today," Vonn said. "I have to admit I was a little bit nervous, probably the most nervous I've ever been in my life. I wanted to finish strong so badly."  Race organizers shortened the course in the morning due to fog and wind, which served Vonn well, as it reduced the pressure on her surgically repaired knees. Vonn recently announced she would retire early due to her injuries. She was originally set to end her career in December.  "After many sleepless nights, I have finally accepted that I cannot continue ski racing," Vonn said last week of her decision to retire.  Vonn, 34, is the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the downhill. Her 82 World Cup victories are the most of any female skier — and she is stepping away from racing just four wins short of the all-time record held by Ingemar Stenmark. Vonn has also won seven World Championship medals, including twin golds in 2009.  "I have always pushed the limits of ski racing and it has allowed me to have amazing success but also dramatic crashes," Vonn said in an Instagram post about her retirement, efficiently summarizing a career marked both by her daring and her resilience in coping with debilitating injury.  Vonn famously recovered from a crash that devastated her knee in 2013, and she has bounced back from broken bones and other injuries over her 18-year career. But she said recent problems with her knees forced her to make this week's FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, in Are, Sweden, her last event.  One year ago, Vonn was winning races and seemed poised to break Stenmark's World Cup record. She won a bronze medal in the downhill at the Pyeongchang Olympics.  In March of 2018, Vonn won a gold medal in the downhill at Are, and took a bronze in the Super-G. The strong showing capped a season that also included wins in Germany, Italy, and France.  Her final alpine racing season has been rough for Vonn, starting in November, when she suffered a heavy and awkward crash during a training run at Copper Mountain, Colo.  At the time, Vonn said she had a bone bruise and a sprained lateral collateral ligament in her knee. But she recently said the injuries were more serious than she had revealed, including a ligament tear and three fractures. Vonn said she withheld that information, and the news that she had surgery last spring, because "I have never wanted the storyline of my career to be about injuries."  But it was the accumulating effects of injuries, she said, that led her to stop racing.  "My body is broken beyond repair and it isn't letting me have the final season I dreamed of," Vonn said before traveling to the world championships in Sweden. "My body is screaming at me to STOP and it's time for me to listen."  Days after she announced her decision to retire, Vonn crashed in her final Super-G race, in a dramatic fall that left fans and fellow skiers cringing. Vonn went airborne as she neared a gate, sending her through the center of the panel rather than around it.  With her skis tangled, Vonn sprawled across the snow and into the netting. Seconds before, she had been rushing down the hill at speeds of around 60 mph, drawing roars from the crowd.  A red medical sled was brought to take Vonn down the mountain. But instead of using it, the four-time Olympian stood up, took stock of herself, and clipped back into her skis. After a few minutes, she skied through the rest of the course, waving to acknowledge the crowd.  "I'm too old to be crashing that hard," Vonn said in an interview with NBC at the bottom of the run. "Oh man. It's just time to be done. It's like my body is not doing what my mind is telling it to anymore, and I can't be taking these kinds of risks anymore, and crashing that hard."  She later added via Twitter, " If adversity makes you stronger I think I'm the Hulk at this point...."  Vonn, who suffered a black eye and sore ribs from the crash, said the light had shifted on the race course, making it hard for her to judge the terrain through the goggles she was wearing. Up to that point, Vonn's many fans, including rival skiers, had been cheering her on as she tried to carve time out of the course.  "I was charging," Vonn said afterwards. "I wanted to lay it all out on the line."  It was vintage Vonn, and proof that she wasn't content to drift quietly into retirement. In being aggressive at the last world championships of her career, Vonn did what she has always done: pushing herself to be faster and attacking the course. And if she fell, she always got back up.  Vonn, the daughter of Alan and Linda Kildow, took up skiing at age 2. She grew up in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota — allowing her to develop her technical skills at the famous Buck Hill program run by ski-racing guru Erich Sailer in Burnsville. At age 12, Vonn moved to Vail, Colo., allowing her to train on larger mountains. Five years later, she made her Olympics debut in 2002.  Injuries are often blamed for taking away Vonn's chances for more Olympic medals. But she was a dominant force on the world ski circuit, earning widespread respect for her athletic ability and tenacity. Her success, combined with the sense of personality she brought to her sport, helped Vonn win lucrative endorsement deals with brands from Head and Under Armour to Red Bull and Rolex.  As she continued to win, Vonn became the face of American skiing. Her image was on magazine covers from Sports Illustrated to Glamour. Her resilience and bravery set an example for younger skiers to follow. And Vonn's celebrity hit a new peak when she and another elite athlete, golfer Tiger Woods, dated for three years. Along the way, she boosted the visibility of alpine skiing and raised expectations for Team USA on the international level.  As Vonn steps away from her sport, her U.S. teammate Mikaela Shiffrin seems ready and able to dominate women's skiing for years to come. Fittingly, it was Shiffrin who won the Super-G race in which Vonn crashed on Tuesday, with the former slalom specialist securing her first world title in that speed discipline. At just 23, Shiffrin has won 56 races on the World Cup circuit — already putting her third on the women's win list.  But on Sunday, it was all about Vonn, as one of the greatest skiers in the world said farewell to the sport that repeatedly broke her body — but whose thrills kept her coming back for more.  "I'll miss that wonderful sensation of speed that you can get only by racing down a hill on a pair of skis," Vonn said at a news conference in Sweden this week. "I don't know yet how I will compensate for that, because I won't be able to do it skiing privately without my ski pass being taken away from me."


tass--2019-08-04--HSBC Chief Executive Officer John Flint retires from his post - agency

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. John Flint, the chief executive officer of the HSBC Holdings Plc, has stepped down from his post, Bloomberg news agency announced on Monday.  Noel Quinn has been appointed a temporary chief executive of the bank following the announced retirement of John Flint.  According to the news agency, "John Flint is giving up the role he has held for a year and a half ‘by mutual agreement with the board,’" and "Noel Quinn takes over as interim chief executive."  Noel Quinn has been the head of the Global Commercial Banking department since 2015 and worked with HSBC for 32 years.  "I have agreed with the board that today’s good interim results indicate that this is the right time for change, both for me and the bank," Flint was quoted as saying in a statement on Monday.  "After almost 30 years with HSBC, I will be sad to leave but I do so looking forward to a new personal challenge," Flint added.  According to Bloomberg, HSBC delivered "the announcement as it reported a 15.8% rise in pre-tax profit to $12.4 billion for the six months to June 30".


thedailyrecord--2019-07-07--Emotional day as long-serving head teacher retires from job she loves

Emotional day as long-serving head teacher retires from 'job she loves'

Pupils and staff at Calderside Academy said a fond farewell to their long-serving depute head teacher last week.  For popular staff member Janice McVean has put down the teaching tools for the very last time in favour of retirement after more than three decades in the Blantyre school.  In fact, some of her former pupils are now parents, and even grandparents, of some current pupils.  Starting her career in Rosehall High School, Coatbridge, before taking up post in Bellshill Academy, Mrs McVean then joined the former Blantyre High School as a home economics teacher back in 1986.  After several promoted posts she took up the job as depute head teacher upon the closure of Blantyre High and the takeover of Calderside Academy in 2008.  Since then she has relished her role and thoroughly enjoyed watching thousands of pupils progress through secondary education.  Clearly emotional about leaving the job she loves, Mrs McVean told the Advertiser: “I can honestly say that throughout my career it has been filled with nothing but highs.  “Watching pupils come up from primary school and growing, learning and developing through secondary is amazing.  “Don’t get me wrong, it can be challenging at times, but I have cherished my years here in Blantyre and I am most definitely sad to go, but the time is now right.”  Never having any aspirations to become a head teacher, Mrs McVean has always enjoyed meeting her former pupils.  She added: “I’ve been here so long that I now have former pupils coming along to the school to watch their children or even grandchildren in our school shows, or at awards nights.  “They usually always seek me out and point who their child or children are, and that has been lovely over the years, but it has definitely reminded of my age!  “So much has changed in education for the better over the years, but now it’s time to take a step back and do a little travelling, as well as enjoy some more time with my lovely family.  “I would like to thank my pupils and fellow colleagues for making my time in Blantyre so enjoyable.  “The support and guidance I have had has been amazing, and it’s been joy to be part of school life here.”

reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk (Leona  Greenan)