Racism in football is nothing new; it’s something real and something that needs to be addressed. The latest victim of a racial attack in football is the Colombian defender Breyner Bonilla, who plays for Boca Juniors (Argentina).

Racism is the belief that people who have a different skin colour, nationality or culture are inferior. Racism has been used to justify the means of oppressing groups all around the world. Racism can be displayed in many different ways; the most common are verbal abuse and physical attacks. It is wrong to judge a person and their capabilities based on their background.

Last weekend, when Boca Juniors visited Colon in Santa Fe, Bonilla was sent off after he brought down midfielder Facundo Bertoglio with a studs-up tackle. Soon after the foul, the defender found himself surrounded by veteran striker Esteban Fuertes, German Rivarola and Eduardo Coudet as well as other players from Colon’s squad.
During a television interview with local television station TyC Sports, Bonilla made a serious announcement that compromised veteran striker Estaban Fuertes. The allegation was based upon a racist remark that Fuertes made after Bonilla was sent off. Fuertes allegedly said “ I’m going to break your bones you black shit, go back to Africa”.Fuertes said the following on his defense “I’m surprised by all this, with Bonilla we clashed and exchanged words during the match, but at no time I did call him ‘black’ ”.

During the interview the 23 year old defender broke down in tears and said “One feels impotence when people say you want to hurt an adversary. We’re all South American and I came here to work, not to rob someone”. He continued to mention how he felt, he expressed that it was hard to understand because according to his knowledge Colombians are much respected in Argentina.
Bonilla was sanctioned with 2 games after his red card. The Argentine Football Association has yet to make a statement on the matter, and whether or not they will sanction Fuertes.

I had the chance to meet Breyner before he made his debut on the first team. That morning we had visited Abel Alves, at that time the reserves coach. Alves said to us “Breyner is a loyal defender, but what stands out about him is his charisma, his character. He is a very good team player, and has earned the respect of his peers”.

Racism in football is wrong, Racism in any sort is wrong and we need to advocate against it. We are in 2010, a modern era; we need to stop with this. We are all people, we have the same capabilities, the only difference is how we look.

FIFA claims, ‘Racism has no place in football. FIFA is deploying all the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination.’ And there’s more: Racism is banned under Article 6 of FIFA’s Ethics code. A message to Mr. Blatter, do something about this, because our fellow Colombian is going through a tough time, and this issue needs to be addressed.

To all of our International readers, I assure you this takes me by surprise. Argentina is not known for racism, actually the league holds players from all backgrounds, including Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil, and racist acts are very uncommon.

I want to finish this article using a quote from Samuel Eto’o: “Racism is something created and anything that is created can be undone”.

Breyner Bonilla victim of a racist remark