Photo of the Day: Racism in Lithuania
By: Laurie | February 5th, 2008
This banner was displayed at the Lithuania-France Euro qualifiers in March, 2007. It’s an outline of Africa, decorated with the France flag, and reads, “Welcome to Europe” in French. Apparently a way to point out that the Lithuanian team is 100% white. The France team? Much less so.
France had the last laugh, though. They won the game on the way to qualifying for the Euro 2008 Championships.
Championships which Lithuania will be watching from home.
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Category: World Football
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Comments
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The majority of French players were born in France. Does the fact that they’re of African descent make them less French?
Posted from
United States
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I’m not exactly shocked when I see racism from any crowd at an international football game.
Posted from
United States -
my point is not that they are born in france,but that they have non-french origin.i myself think its unfair to allow so many players with arguable attachement to france to be played.it leaves little room for real french homegrown players and it makes france look like a squad of mercenaries.
Posted from
United States -
Mathieu Flamini has a “non-French” origin, but I doubt you’re complaining about him, dumitru.
Posted from
United States -
No. I am shocked that there is still racism going on.
That being said, the dumitrus of the world are on the losing end of history on this one and many others and France is leading pretty strongly on this issue.
Immigrants are not “non-french”, they are French. Proud French. And sons of families that aren’t even immigrants, whose lineage goes back as far as those “realer, aka whiter” French are damn French as well (pardon my french).
It’s good France remembers that. Even if Lithuanians and Americans have a chip on their shoulder about their and my “non-native origin” bs.
Posted from
United States -
dumitru: “my point is not that they are born in france,but that they have non-french origin.i myself think its unfair to allow so many players with arguable attachment to france to be played.”
non-French origin?!?!!? So are you saying that children of immigrants can’t represent the country they were born or raised in?
So basically you are saying that a player, despite being born in France, having received a French education, having been trained by the French, speak French, and consider themselves as French, aren’t French because their parents grew up in another country? So what makes a person a native? How can you say that they aren’t attached to France?
FYI, you realize that other countries such as the Netherlands, Portugal, England, etc, have players on their NT who descend from immigrant families. And let’s not forget the biggest melting pot of them all - the US! Our very own Freddy Adu was born in Ghana. See, I don’t get how Americans can have that attitude about France, and I take offense that an ignorant moron can decide that someone’s origin and parentage prevent them from being part of the culture they have chosen to accept whole heartedly.
“it leaves little room for real french homegrown players and it makes france look like a squad of mercenaries.”
See, this makes me think you actually don’t know what you’re talking about, dumitru. All the players on the French NT are homegrown. As children, they learned football from French academies and youth clubs. Almost all have spent a significant time playing in L1. They are definitely homegrown.
Posted from
United States -
to me this seems less like racism and more like a dig at the fact that for many years france has had many players on their national team that are from various african nations (former colonies). Its actually quite creative, so lets not get our nickers in a bundle just yet.
Posted from
United States -
Awesome. Is this the first race riot on The Offside? Top notch stuff, really. I also love how it eventually came around to Americans also being the villains.
Next time you should post audio of red star fans making monkey sounds at DaMarcus Beasley. That’d be tops.
Posted from
United States -
i dont have any problem with players that come from immigrant families and i totally accept that they can play for the national team they want.i am not a racist,i am just pointing out the fact that this naturalisation thing is going too far.it keeps coming to my mind that salomon kalou initially intended to play for netherlands and after he was rejected he chose to play for the ivory coast instead.doesnt this make ivory coast look like the second choice?it does to me.
Posted from
United States -
AND they got the grammar wrong. Idiots.
Posted from
India -
Also, no, it isn’t the first “race riot” on this website - Martha at the Italy Offside, for one, often has to deal with people trying to convince her that calling people ‘foul gypsy’ is totally okay in Romania.
Posted from
India -
On a marginally related note, I was just checking out a youtube video of Donovan scoring against Mexico last year - you know, the one where Oswaldo Sanchez tries to take out Eddie Johnson’s legs well after the play?
Well, the comments section on the video is just awesome, it pretty much immediately degenerates into “You stupid American!” - “You stupid Mexican!” and all kinds of fun slurs and whatnot.
I LOVE IT! I LOVE THE INNERNET!
Posted from
United States -
i dont think this subject has anything to do with racism.its about france using naturalisation to add world class players to their squad,wich gives them an edge when their national team plays in international competitions.do you think that france would have the same succes without the likes of zinedine zidane,thierry henry,dessailly,thuram or makelele?i dont think so.
Posted from
United States -
Ugh. I agree with Old Apple. When I saw the photo and read the blog post, I didn’t think it was intended to point out that all Lithuanian players are white and France’s aren’t (i.e. overtly racist). To me, it’s just a little dig at the fact that the Lithuania players came from Lithuania (and probably their parents and grandparents), while France has a history due to its colonies so they have a larger cache of players for selection. No biggie dealio. And apparently Offside readers agreed since nobody commented for almost an entire day until demitru piped up, and then everyone else decided to go bat-shit crazy over it for no reason.
Posted from
United States -
“To me, it’s just a little dig at the fact that the Lithuania players came from Lithuania (and probably their parents and grandparents), while France has a history due to its colonies so they have a larger cache of players for selection. No biggie dealio. And apparently Offside readers agreed since nobody commented for almost an entire day”
Or do you think there’s the possibility of Offside readers not commenting because Laurie already said it all?
Posted from
Germany -
No, Jan, I think he’s absolutely got it spot on as do the rest of the racism-apologists.
I find myself struck dumb and unable to respond to the awe-inspiring quality of their firm rebuttal wherein:
1) They ignore the fact that their main assertion that France somehow steals Africans and pretends they’re Frenchmen (thus a legitimate complaint) is actually a lie they cling to despite actual evidence to the contrary.
2) That because I dared point out that America has a spotty history in respecting immigrants, I must somehow be Anti-American.
3) And that as the son of immigrants, I, like the French National Team must not be French, must not be American. On that note, I really should tell the Registrar about that, because that means I just voted illegally.
Next to such awe-inspiring mastery, who are we mortals to complain or respond? Who are we to say that these pillars of the online community have not silenced us with their brilliance rather than willful and insulting ignorance?
Not me, that’s for sure.
I only came here for the footy news and the wonderful community atmosphere.
Posted from
United States -
For what its worth, I was just checking the recent French squads named for the friendlies with Spain and Congo and there are only three players born outside of France (Evra - Senegal, Makalele - Zaire(now Congo), Vieira - Senegal) in the full squad and there are two in the “A” squad (Mandanda - Zaire, Boumsong - Cameroon).
However, I do agree that the banner didn’t strike me as racist. I think its a popular misconception that most of the French team is from outside France. In fact, that is what I thought until I checked all of the current squad. A lot of the players are decscended from former French colonies, but they were born in France, as French citizens. I’m just guessing that those Lithuania fans don’t realize that those players of African descent were actually born and raised in France.
Who knows, I could be totally off base though…
Posted from
United States -
Jon, I don’t get how this is “No biggie dealio” when the Lithuanian banner was obviously meant to offend. It was picking at an issue that is a sensitive one for the players. Last year, a prominent politician (I forget who it was) basically said that he wanted to see more white players in France’s lineup. That was very hurtful to the entire team, but most especially to the players that were attacked, basically questioning their right to wear the colors of France.
Posted from
United States -
Alright this cyber-conversation has gone on too long without someone cyber-comparing someone else to Hitler. Get on it!
Posted from
United States -
For the love of sanity, people.
Nationalist borders and barriers suck. Go open a beer and watch Bill Hicks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W27wBf7Jw34
And Laurie = Hitler. (Kidding, of course, but Lucas is right… this conversation is beyond ridiculous at this point.)
The end.
Posted from
United States -
Lucas: Godwin’s Law doesn’t seem to apply to The Offside. This is a special place.:-)
Posted from
Germany -
Yea! Godwin’s Law DOES work!! My faith in humanity is restored.
Posted from
United States -
Dammit, Jan, you beat me to it.
Posted from
United States -
What’s funny is that this conversation is quite tame and calm and reasoned relative to what I get on my France page on the same topic.
Posted from
United States -
Late in chiming in, but I’m in agreement with old apple and Jon.
Posted from
United States
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