Neymar Refuses To Retract ‘Atmosphere Of Racism’ Statement After Scottish FA Demands Apology

As we should all have expected from the very instant that a banana appeared on the pitch at the Emirates Stadium last weekend during Scotland’s 2-0 defeat to Brazil, the racism row isn’t going to die down anytime soon. After the match, 19 year-old Neymar mentioned in an interview that the ‘atmosphere of racism’ had disturbed him - and he had a point, considering that bananas are used as racist taunts against non-white footballer (and for some reason, Brazilians are disproportionately targetted) across much of Europe and the appearance of one at a football match would be unsettling for even a veteran player.

Meanwhile, the Scottish FA is understandably furious that its supporters were associated with the taint of racism, and has rather vigourously denied the possibility of any such ‘atmosphere of racism’ existing. They were totally correct, as it turned out, as the banana was thrown by a German rather than by the Scottish support, and any jeering was caused by the striker’s habit of going to ground at the lightest touch.

Although the unfortunate banana-throwing incident in the international friendly between Scotland and Brazil looked like it was about to blow over, the Scottish FA has reignited the minor row by demanding an apology from either Neymar or the Brazilian FA for the young forward’s comments after the match. Neymar was understandably incensed after a banana - commonly used in European matches as a form of racial abuse - was tossed onto the field shortly after he scored his second goal of the game, and mentioned the incident in the post-match interview, calling the ‘atmosphere of racism’ sad.

As it turns out, the banana had nothing to do with the Scottish fans, and in turn the Scottish FA feels that their supporters were unfairly smeared by the racism allegations. In a statement today chief executive Stewart Regan said he had written to his Brazilian counterpart demanding an apology:

After Brazil striker Neymar complained of racist abuse in the form of a hurled banana during the friendly between Brazil and Scotland, which Brazil won 2-0, there was quite a lot of fuss - Scottish fans claimed that he was merely being booed for his tendency to fall down a lot, while Neymar quite rightly pointed out that people don’t normally have bananas thrown at them in a gentle and loving manner.

To deepen the mystery, the offending object didn’t even emerge from the Tartan Army end, so nobody had any idea who the perpetrator was, some even accusing Brazil fans of throwing the banana in celebration (if you bought that story, I have several thousand acres on Mars to sell you). Scotland fans were right to suspect that it wasn’t one of their own who did the deed, as it turns out, because according to the Guardian a German has now admitted to throwing it, apparently with ‘no racist intent’:

Brazil and Santos striker Neymar has opted against lodging an official complaint over the now-infamous banana-throwing incident that occurred towards the end of the international friendly between Brazil and Scotland at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Neymar scored both goals in Brazil’s 2-0 win, but drew the ire of Scottish fans for embellishing several fouls and was jeered for much of the match. How things went from fairly standard booing to someone lobbing a banana - a gesture frequently used to taunt players of African descent in Russia - is unclear.

Also unclear is the identity of the fruit tosser. Was he a Brazil fan? A Scotland fan? A neutral? It seems unlikely that Brazilians would be racist to one of their own players, so let’s rule them out, and the Tartan Army section was on the other side of the pitch, although it’s still entirely possible that one of the many Scotland fans scattered throughout the stadium could have been the banana-delivery-vector. Anyway, whoever it was isn’t going to get in any trouble over the incident (although they should be ashamed of themselves). When asked if he was going to file a complaint, Neymar responded (quote via Daily Mail):

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:

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.