Neymar Refuses To Retract ‘Atmosphere Of Racism’ Remark

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.

With neither side really considering how offended the other was by the events of Sunday, it’s totally unsurprising that the row has escalated. As soon as it was proven that the banana was not tossed by a Scotland fan, the Scottish FA wrote to their Brazilian counterparts to demand an apology from either the FA or Neymar himself, rekindling the affair after it looked to have died down. Neymar, for his part, thinks that there’s absolutely no call for him to apologise:

At no time, even at the end of the game, still enveloped by the thrill of scoring the two goals that won the game, did I accuse any person or any group of supporters, of whatever nationality, of having committed such an act.

Yes, I did lament the fact, condemn any and all prejudice, but I repeat, at no time did I accuse anybody. So I do not understand why I have to retract what I said.

The requirement from the Scottish, after all that happened, seems somewhat ironic, since, if there has been prejudice, it is us, the players, who should ‘require’ a formal apology.

Elements of that statement are bizarre - there was certainly a strong implication that Scotland fans were the ones causing problems for Brazil, and thus were being implicated in the racism fiasco. But at the same time, it seems like lunacy to demand that a player who believed he was suffering from abuse apologise when a racist gesture was clearly made.

Neither side is coming across particularly well here, and until one of them lets it go, we’re going to be stuck in an annoying back-and-forth for the rest of our mortal days. What fun.