Mourinho’s Notebook – October 17
GATTACA! GATTACA!
One for anarchists and Eastern European nationalists alike, the Serbia-Albania game was called off after a drone flew into the stadium dangling a modified Albanian flag. There was already a load of drama there, with Albanian supporters banned from attending for anti-rioting reasons.
They paused the match when the drone showed up, but things got angry when Serbia’s Stefan Mitrović wandered over and tried to take it down. That pissed off the Albanian players who charged over to give him what-for and soon the benches cleared. All the while the Serbian crowd are chanting: “Ubi Ubi Ubi Siptara”… Kill the Albanians.
Said Albanians got pelted with trash and debris as they left the pitch. It was a mess.
How incredible would it be to be there? To be a part of something with that much passion and such an underlying feeling of violence. Badass, man. It’s just a shame that the TV cameras zoomed all the way out but I guess it’d take a brave cameraman to sit tight through that madness. Luckily there's crowd sourced stuff out there.
The game was abandoned and UEFA are in for it after letting a game like that happen in the first place.
Arthur Wharton: Footballer and Civil Rights Pioneer
You may not have heard of him, but the man has been given a statue at the FA's national football centre on account of his being the first black professional footballer in the world. While guys like Viv Anderson and Laurie Cunningham were breaking down racial boundaries in the 1970s, they were long preceded by Wharton, who began his career in 1885.
Wharton was born in Accra to a Ghanaian mother and Grenadian-Scottish father. He moved to England as a teenager to pursue an athletic career and he was allegedly the first man to run a sub 10 sec 100 metres in England. He was (mostly) a goalkeeper, and while there were a few other mixed-race footballers before him, he was the first to go pro.
He bounced around a few different clubs in his career, having his best success with Preston North End – reaching the semis of the FA Cup in 1887. However he succumbed to alcoholism after retiring and died broke and unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. This new statue is the product of a campaign led by artist Shaun Campbell (himself of mixed race) and endorsed at various times by the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Stevie Wonder.
Arthur Wharton was a part of a history that many people never realised existed. Great to see him recognised by the Association.
Rude Rio
Speaking of the fella, Mister Ferdinand’s been fined by the FA for breaching their twitter code of conduct when he said some mean things about a heckler’s mum last month. Here’s the damning evidence.
The BBC Explains That Football Is Expensive
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29527838
