Soccer
21:12, 06-Apr-2019
Third-tier Berliner AK experienced in dealing with discriminatory incidents
Updated
21:31, 06-Apr-2019
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With racism in football a hot topic this week, CGTN's Guy Henderson went to visit Berline AK, a German club that's no stranger to such abuse.
It is one of the German capital's oldest soccer clubs. And yet, Berliner AK still feels like an outsider. Immigrants make up most of the side: including manager Burak Isikdaglioglu, who is of Turkish descent. He says this club was once regularly targeted by racists, though less so now.
"The problem of racism remains serious but with all the ongoing campaigns, it has been reduced. But there's still a core issue: a racist is a racist," said the head coach.
16-year-old Nana Badu was a rising star in Berliner AK. Badu watches events elsewhere in Europe with growing concern.
"When I saw the racist incident during the Juventus game against Cagliari recently, where a professional player was racially insulted, that was simply not acceptable. And it affects me as a colored player," Badu said.
On Tuesday, when striker Moise Kean scored the winning goal for Italian giants Juventus, opposition Cagliari fans responded with racist chants. Kean's treatment led to sympathy from officials at the very top of European football.
"I'm ashamed to see extremist movements use our sport as a vehicle for their messages of hatred and intolerance. A stadium must not and must never be a forum in which people are allowed to express their sickening fascist nostalgia," UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said.
When England played Montenegro in late March, some of its players received similar treatment. Some of the sport's biggest names are now calling for matches to be stopped when such things happen. It's a problem some see as linked to wider political changes on the continent.
"It's serious, it's persistent, and it's actually getting worse because with the success of right-wing populist parties, many right-wing extremist fans also have the feeling that time is on their side and they are more open, and they are more aggressive about their attitudes," said Daniel Dylan Boehmer, a journalist for Die Welt.
At Berliner AK, firm action against racism has worked, but teams far higher in the rankings are struggling to repeat that success.