'I would have been skipper for 10 years if I was white." says ex-England footballer Sol Campbell

I remember Sol Campbell as one of the most popular and able footballers of the 1990s to 2000s. He was one of the most talented English defenders I had ever seen or heard of. 

Back in those days, I heard a lot about racism among footballers and fans. By the way, here is what former English player David James said in a Guardian article he wrote in 2012:

“In the 20 years that I have played professional football, I have experienced abhorrent racism in various forms – chocolate bars hurled on to the pitch at myself and other black players as a 20-year-old playing for Watford, National Front leaflets raining down from the stands while I sat on the bench as a young keeper during England games at Wembley. I wholeheartedly condemn racism…”

Way back then, I lived off Green Street in the east end of London right next to Upton Park Station. When a march was on, the whole area would become a ‘no go’ area especially for black and Asian people or you would get mugged. Police men on horse backs would flood the area well before the crowds arrived and they would hang around well into the night after a match. That’s how it was then.

The first I heard about the allegation made by Sol Campbell was on LBC radio when presenter Nick Ferarri said Campbell’s claim was hogwash. Nick Ferrari said it was impossible for managers like … to be racist. Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has rejected this claim and so has Former England manager Graham Taylor. No one knows for sure if these managers or other footballers are racist but there have been numerous reports of racism and discrimination incidents against black footballers by the FA. 

Here are a few incidents that come to mind:

• Channel 4 documentary shows police often turn a blind eye to racism and homophobia at football grounds. The documentary revealed that more than 90 percent of top black player are abused racially.
• Kick It Out an initiative founded by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), the Premier League and The Football Association. to help rid football of racism.
• Former England midfielder Carlton Palmer once said that victims of football racism should ''grow up and accept it''.
• A Russian club was given a partial stadium closure after Manchester City's Yaya Toure was the subject of racist abuse.
• Tottenham FC is working closely with the police to monitor the use of the word 'Yid' and have threatened to follow up sanctions with possible arrest.
• Recently, footballer, Stan Collymore deleted his Twitter account but later returned and called on social the network to take action against racist abuse after he faced continuous abusive racist comments
• John Terry was made part of Roy Hodgson's England squad at World Cup 2014 after his racist spat with Anton Ferdinand.
• Everton F.C. centre forward, Dixie Dean, recalled how racist comments were aimed at him as he left the pitch at half time during a match in London in the 1930s.
• In the 1960s West Ham United players, Clyde Best who is black and from Bermuda, and Ade Coker were subjected to "monkey chants" and had bananas thrown at them during a West Ham game.
• The high-profile cases involving Chelsea captain John Terry vs Anton Ferdinand and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez are still fresh to our minds. An 11-month delay in proceedings, conveniently allowed the European Championship to take place with Terry part of the squad.
•  London-born Jack Leslie, a prolific striker for Plymouth Argyle between 1920 & 1935, scored over 400 goals.

Football discrimination in NUMBERS

• 3 = the number of black English captains since football began in 1872
• 4600 = the total number of black footballers in England
• ??? = the allegations made by black footballers 
• 74 = the number of black English players

The English football website englandfootballonline notes:

"Racism, of course, often takes more subtle forms than racial epithets and explicit exclusion on racial grounds, both of which have been widely condemned for some time.  Far more threatening than overt racism in more recent times has been hidden racism--racism effected through discretionary decisions, where its influence is concealed precisely because these decisions are discretionary and thus readily rationalised on other grounds.  Squad and team selections reflect discretionary determinations in which racism may play a covert role.  This more subtle form of racism may also play a part in journalistic and fan support for and criticism of certain players, or at least the level of that support and criticism."

What Sol Campbell has said in his new biography, serialised in the Sunday Times:

• “I would have been the first-choice England captain for 10 years had he been white.”
• “Former Tottenham team-mates were to blame for false rumours about his sexuality.”
• "I believe if I was white I would've been England captain for more than 10 years," Campbell writes. "It's as simple as that. I think the FA wished I was white. I had the credibility, performance-wise, to be captain. I was consistently in the heart of the defence and I was a club captain early on my career.”
• "I don't think [the attitude] will change because they don't want it to, and probably the majority of them don't want it, either. It's all right to have black captains and mixed-race in the under-18s and under-21s, but not for the full national side. There is a ceiling and although no one has ever said it, I believe it's made of glass."
• "Michael Owen was made a captain ahead of me. I thought: 'What is going on here?' I think the FA didn't want me to have a voice … it was embarrassing. I've asked myself many times why I wasn't [captain]. I keep coming up with the same answer. It was the colour of my skin."
• Racism in football:  "It's got to start changing because when you look behind the scenes, it's just not representing English football."
• Campbell also talked of the abuse he received following his controversial move from Spurs to Arsenal in 2001, and discussed the homophobic slurs repeatedly used to bait him by rival crowds. "Because people didn't see me falling out of clubs or shagging in the alleys with different girls every week, they thought something was wrong with me. I'm a footballer, after all."

Achievements

"Sol" Campbell’s real name is Sulzeer Jeremiah. The 39-year-old footballer has played for Tottenham Hotspur, aged 18 in 1992 and for, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United, as well as the English national team.

At Tottenham, Campbell scored 10 goals in 255 appearances, and captained the team to victory in the 1999 Football League Cup Final against Premier League side Leicester City. He won two Premier League winners’ medals at Arsenal and two FA Cup winners medals, encompassing the 2001–02 League and FA Cup double. He was part of the team known as 'The Invincibles' for their undefeated 2003–04 Premier League campaign. 

At the age of 21, Campbell gained his first full cap for the England national football team. In May 1998, age 23, Campbell became England's second-youngest captain, after Bobby Moore, aged 23.Campbell is the only player to have represented England in six consecutive major tournaments, playing in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 European Championships, and the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups, and he has a career total of 73 England caps.