Racism Hits the French Team at the World Cup

The racism strikes again. And this time, we're not just talking about a peculiar frustrated team from either Spain or Italy, but about the World Cup. The match between Spain and France represented a new chance for the Spanish "monkeys" to start making racist remarks on Raymond Domenech's team.

The French coach stated yesterday that, before their game against Spain in the first knockout round, the Spanish supporters in front of France's bus started to imitate monkey sounds and made some racist remarks over his players. "When I arrived with the bus there were fans making monkey chants", said Domenech.

The issue is far more serious since Spain's coach himself, Luis Aragones, reportedly said one of his protégés that plays for Arsenal that: "don't worry, if you'll play like this, that crow will no be able to take your place in the team", referring (clearly) to Frenchman Thierry Henry. The French players responded to him immediately, Thuram saying that: "No black player should ever talk to him again. He wouldn't understand it anyway, since he doesn't speak the crow language". During the match, the same Aragones wanted to say something to the referee, but Vieira told him to shut up.

The Juventus midfielder made him a "ssst!" sign, which got to the Spanish coach. And, when Zinedine Zidane came into the discussion, Aragones totally lost it. He couldn't stand the fact that two "monkeys" are talking back at him. When you have such a disgrace of a coach, what more can you expect from your fans.

Referring to the whole racist problem, the FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, was very disappointed, especially since it involves the same nation that already received a racism-based fine by FIFA after the England - Spain friendly: "The first responsibilities lie with the national associations and if they are not doing what is expected of them then FIFA's executive committee must intervene. The power and the responsibility lie with FIFA and the suspension of a federation is the ultimate sanction available to the disciplinary committee. This is a fight against a devil that still exists, unfortunately, in our sport".