Zaki - the one type of racist tolerated in football

Amr Zaki stated that he will not sign for Portsmouth FC of the English Premier League because they employ two Israelis - Tal Ben Haim and Avram Grant - as well as an Algerian in the form of Nadir Belhadj. Funnily enough Portsmouth is owned by an Abu Dhabi financier. However, to the point, let’s stop seeking weasel words to absolve Zaki of his hate crime. If it had been any other nationality than Israeli then he would have found no defenders for his slur. The Algerian insult is a side issue based on real actions, which was actually Egyptians attacking the Algerian team. Even before this nastiness, Zaki appeared to be reprehensible egocentric ignorant individual. He is not to be congratulated because he had the courage to spout hate in the same way that one would not admire a Nazi for speaking his “mind”.

If one really wants to look at brutal oppressors why not first go to the Organization of Islamic Countries which has 56 members, and the only one which could be considered remotely democratic is previously secular Turkey. It is not surprising that Zaki is racist coming from a country whose national broadcaster broadcasts the fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Of the UN, only 46% (88 of 192 countries) are democracies, and in the Middle East, only 1 out of 23 countries…..Israel. No misogynistic, homophobic theocracy prevents Israeli Arabs playing for the national team, or for Arabs to play in the domestic league. Contrast that to Israel having being forced to move from the Asian Football Conference to UEFA (via Oceania) because of hate.

This is not about football. Anyone with an open mind knows what this is truly about, notwithstanding the superficial self-serving distinctions made between Israel, Israelis and Jews. It is about only one hatred being allowed to fester and justified.

Nonetheless, will we see any action against Zaki? Of course not, and even if there surprisingly was, he will simply accuse a minority group of some nefarious plot and be allowed to propagate more hatred whilst being made a martyr in his homeland. Perhaps he would be more comfortable playing in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, although they used the football stadia for another purpose.