Brazil's 2-0 victory over Scotland saw Santos wonderkid Neymar find the net twice, but the game was marred somewhat by the 19 year-old's accusation of racism from fans at the Emirates Stadium. According to Neymar, who has been linked for several months to some of Europe's top teams, a banana was thrown onto the pitch after Brazil had scored their second goal. Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva removed the object from the pitch. After the match, Neymar discussed the situation with the media:
Scotland-Brazil Clash Marred By Allegations Of Racism
I was running down the touchline in the second half and saw it but I didn’t see where it came from. They were jeering me a lot, even when I was about to kick the penalty. The entire stadium was jeering. This atmosphere of racism is totally sad. We leave our country to play here and something like this happens. It’s sad.
As Lucas said after the match, there’s zero place for racism in the sport, and it’s disappointing to hear about something like this. The Scottish fans present at the Emirates have hotly denied that any such incident took place (and considering Scotland’s performance, they’d probably be wise to hotly deny that any such game took place), but it’s unclear as to why Brazilian players would simply manufacture a story about racism after what amounted to a comfortable friendly win. Tartan Army (the name given to fans of the Scottish national team) spokesman Hamish Husband has claimed that it’s somehow inconceivable that members of his group could possibly be racist:
Racism has no place within the Tartan Army and, if it did exist, it would be stamped out immediately. Any suggestion of racism from Scottish fans is absolute tosh. We would not tolerate that it if existed within our ranks.
While I appreciate the sentiment there, the circular reasoning is worrying - every group has undesirable elements and the above quote simply sounds as though Husband is denying even the possibility of a problem. The Tartan Army isn’t racist because it isn’t racist isn’t really a very valid argument, and I’d hope that they’re at least looking into the incident rather than dismissing it out of hand.
This, of course, wouldn't be the first time that a Brazilian player has been taunted with a banana, but it's one of the few high-profile racism incidents to have occurred in England recently, as the FA have taken great lengths to try to stamp it out in the terraces. However, the problem is still rife in Eastern Europe and Russia, where West Bromwich Albion and Nigeria striker Peter Odemwingie was the subject of racist taunts from his own fans when he played for Lokomotiv Moscow.
In the words of Brazil coach Mano Menezes, the situation at the Emirates was a lamentable one, and it's taken far too much focus from a magnificent Brazil performance from a team missing many of their top players. Scotland, captained by Kenny Miller, were simply blown off the pitch and but for a brief spell in the second half which coincided with the introduction of Aston Villa's Barry Bannan never looked like they'd come close to scoring.
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