{"id":2161,"date":"2020-12-30T12:55:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T12:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2020-12-30T12:55:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T12:55:38","slug":"footballs-racist-shame-part-one-foundations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/2020\/12\/30\/footballs-racist-shame-part-one-foundations\/","title":{"rendered":"Football\u2019s Racist Shame (Part One) Foundations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (December 18th<\/sup> 2020) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abnormal Sport in an Abnormal Society\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In an era where English football is taking a stand against racism with a nod to the Black Lives Matter movement by taking a knee before matches since the resumption of football after the COVID-19 pandemic halted football and everything else, it is timely to look at football\u2019s contribution to the worst racist abomination \u2013 Apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa had suffered a long exile from African sport \u2013 there was no argument that there could not be normal sport in an abnormal society, and South African society under Apartheid was as abnormal as it was possible to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was South Africa\u2019s liberation movements and sportsmen and women disadvantaged by a crime against humanity \u2013 Apartheid \u2013 that said so They calleed for South Africa\u2019s exclusion from sport including the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

CAF Stands Tall<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

South Africa had been a founder member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), but was quickly suspended when its co-founding nations, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan refused to allow South Africa to send a non-racially mixed team to the first AFCON in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apartheid sport would not be allowed to showcase its racism at AFCON\u2019s and rightly so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founder member or not South Africa would be a thorny issue, just a few years after then National Party Prime Minister Daniel Malan established Apartheid in South Africa. He was granted dictatorial powers to suppress anti-Apartheid activism in 1953. A year later he resigned \u2013 the same year that significant events took place regarding African football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following constructive talks at the FIFA Congress in Lisbon on June 7th<\/sup> 1956, CAF was established in Khartoum on February 8th<\/sup> 1957 \u2013 just under a month before Ghana became independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Build-up<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The build-up to the formation of CAF had begun in 1954, after the FIFA Congress a year earlier had concluded that an African should be on FIFA\u2019s Executive Committee (ExCo). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egyptian, Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem, was given that honour, taking up his position in 1954, before CAF was formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina had objected, saying that African football was not competitive enough to deserve representation on FIFA\u2019s ExCo. Significantly, Africa was accepted as a FIFA zone at FIFA\u2019s Congress in Bern, Switzerland, in 1954.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salem became the first President of CAF. The first AFCON trophy was named in his honour. His Presidency of CAF lasted until 1958. He was succeeded by compatriot General Abdel Aziz Moustafa who stayed in office until 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sudan\u2019s Abdel Halim Muhammad was the first non-Egyptian President of CAF. He is also the only person to head CAF twice \u2013 sandwiching the Presidency of Ethiopian former player, coach, referee, and administrator, Yidnekatchew Tessema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Implacable<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The only Ethiopian leader of CAF has been strongly criticised for his treatment of Eritreans, especially by the Eritrea-born captain of Ethiopia\u2019s 1962 AFCON-winning team, Luciano Vassallo. However, Tessema proved to be an implacable opponent of Apartheid, refusing to allow even a founder-member of CAF to abuse the sport to achieve racist ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa was expelled from FIFA during Tessema\u2019s Presidency, as CAF members supported the Brasilian Jo\u00e3o Havelange\u2019s bid for the Presidency of FIFA. Havelange campaigned on the basis that if he ousted incumbent, Sir Stanley Rous, the renegade Apartheid state would be expelled from FIFA. He kept his word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muhammad led CAF from 1968 until 1972 and again from August 18th<\/sup> 1987 \u2013 the day Tessema died \u2013 until Issa Hayatou was elected on March 10th<\/sup> 1988.[1]<\/sup><\/a> Muhammad died aged 99 in 2009.He passed away, an Honorary President of CAF \u2013 the same honour that Hayatou will receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Important events in CAF\u2019s policies and the thorny issue of what to do about South Africa\u2019s appalling racist state were tackled during these Presidencies of CAF. The contrast between CAF\u2019s actions and FIFA\u2019s are telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> Hayatou lost the Presidency to the former President of Madagascar\u2019s FA, Ahmad Ahmad just over 29 years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (December 18th 2020) Abnormal Sport in an Abnormal Society\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In an era where English [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/2163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}