Racist
The World Cup match between Portugal and The Netherlands (not a real country) got nasty last Sunday, no thanks to the incompentency of the referee, Valentin Ivanov, who issued a World Cup record twenty cards, including 4 reds, during the game.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter had this to say:
'I consider that the referee was not at the same level as the players. There could have been a yellow card for the referee.'
In order to clear his name Mr. Ivanov had this to say:
'You would expect some dirty tricks from the Portuguese. They are known for time-wasting or hitting from behind,' he said.
I'd stay away from the cod if I were you, Mr. Ivanov. Racist bastard.
Comments
How is this racism? Seems like bias against a country, which is pretty much no-fly for a referee, but racism?
He said: "You would expect this from the Portuguese."
He is setting his expectations on someone's behavior based on their race. Not the particular actions of an individual, but on their genetic construct. It's flat-out racism.
And, yeah, we do consider ourselves a race.
At least he doesn't thinly veil his racism. Ahem:
;)
"The World Cup match between Portugal and The Netherlands (not a real country) got nasty last Sunday..."
(That part didn't make it through when I posted my previous comment.)
Was he quoted in English, German or Russian? Levelling an accusation like racism against someone because of a definite article?
This isn't the first time he's made waves with his World Cup cardplay. Though to your point, he did give 10 cards to a single Portugese player in 3 games in 2004.
If you added the word "team" on the end, wouldn't it pretty much entire eliminate the racism (i.e. anti-nationalism) from the comment? Given that the guy is a "professional" (and that's in quotes because I think he's a travesty) World Cup referee being inteviewed about a World Cup game, I'm going to guess that the context didn't require the qualification.
That said, the comment was totally out of line for a supposedly neutral official who just set a World Cup record for being an asshole. Just not for racism/anti-nationalism, I suspect.
By the way, if you sense a little resistance to the idea that this was racism, I'd put forth that it's because the people are a little slap happy with the term, which is a shame because it waters down the evils of racism.
You should have heard what this ref said before the gypsies vs. the cripples qualifier match.
Stop time wasting and hitting from behind!