http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3568
by http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4527
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4306
Well done Manchester United, winners of the UEFA Champions League Final. Hard luck, Chelsea, brave runners up. Yes, Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed his second European Cup and Manchester United’s third, with the team’s close fought victory over major rival Chelsea in a match that went to extra time and, finally, a penalty shoot-out. But rather than getting elated or despondent, the overwhelmingly White fans of both teams should take a step back and consider the real contest that was played out under the surface of this titanic club struggle.
Rather than being fooled by the false dichotomies and artificial rivalries that club soccer sets up, and supporting anything and anyone in the ‘appropriate’ team shirt, fans should look beyond to the bigger picture. In addition to the battle between the two corporate brands of Chelsea and Manchester United, this game was also about the triumph of White over Black players in an arena – the European Champions League Final – that, by rights, belongs to Whites. Regardless of which highly-financed collection of superstars finally got its hands on the famous jug-eared trophy, this game represents an important victory for White sportsmen over those who seek to replace them in the name of giving non-Whites a prominent and glamorous role in society that they haven’t earned.In the build up, two important anniversaries were stressed – 50 years since the 1958 Munich air disaster that wiped out Sir Matt Busby’s promising young Manchester United team, and 40 years since the team Busby rebuilt from the ashes went on to win United’s first European Cup in 1968. Both these anniveraries reminded fans of how much the European club game has changed. Unlike these modern ‘English’ Premiership teams, the teams of 1958 and 1968 were British teams; in the latter case combining the phenomenal skills of Northern Ireland’s George Best, the tenacity and precision of Irish-Scot Pat Crerand, and the thunderbolt shot and positional sense of Englishman Bobby Charlton.
Although this UEFA Champions League final featured two of England’s Premiership teams for the first time, the number of ethnic British players among the 28 players employed throughout the game was just seven plus three players of mixed British and Black ancestry.
With such limited representation, there was little likelihood of ethnic British players dominating either team as they did in the great European Cup Winning teams of the past – Glasgow Celtic 1967, Manchester United 1968, and the Liverpool and Nottingham Forest teams of the 1970s and 80s. Instead, the main interest for ethnically aware British soccer fans like myself was in the battle being played out between the ten Black players and the fourteen White players on the field.
While there was little to separate the two club sides in the final, the gap between the White and Black players was much wider. For example, both goals were scored by White players – Ronaldo in the 26th minute, after completely flat-footing his marker the Ghanaian Michael Essien, and Frank Lampard in the 45th minute. In a tight competitive game that went to penalties, the two White goalkeepers, Petr Cech and Edwin van der Sar, as well as the central defenders, Ricardo Carvalho, John Terry, and Nemanja Vidic, all played key roles. While Terry and Carvalho were solid at the back for Chelsea, United’s best defender was Vidic, who looked sharper and more energetic than his mixed race central defense partner Rio Ferdinand.
Chelsea’s Black strikers, especially the highly-fancied Didier Drogba, proved disappointing. Apart from hitting the post once with an opportunistic shot, Drogba spent much of the match being closed down or muscled off the ball by Vidic, or missing free kicks and wasting chances laid in his path by other players. A dismal performance was crowned minutes from the end of extra time when he was sent off for slapping Vidic, apparently niggled by the ease with which the canny and uncompromising Serb had controlled him.
Although it’s never satisfactory to see a game at this level end in a penalty shootout, the final kick of the game nevertheless underlined once again the superiority of White over Black players in this competition. With 14 penalties having already been taken including two misses, Chelsea needed to score to prolong the shootout. Up stepped manager Avram Grant’s 15-million-pound signing, Black striker Nicolas Anelka, to face Manchester United’s Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, signed in 2005 for 2 million pounds. Despite the difference in their price tags, Van der Sar managed to palm away Anelka’s shot as the United fans erupted into celebration. Yet another disappointing and over-rated Black player had cost Chelsea dearly.
http://www.castefootball.us/viewarticle.asp?sportID=8&teamID=0&ID=23291