The Spanish just can’t get enough of making slanty eye gestures to show that they’re in Beijing, China! (I saw this first reported at EWC, and now on Gen’s blog.) The tennis team got into the action as well as the well publicized basketball one. Then again, open racism in Spain’s top soccer/football league La Liga seems pretty common, so something like this coming from the Spanish delegation is ugly, but not totally unexpected.
Last season Eto’o threatened to walk off the pitch after being racially abused by fans in a match at La Romareda in Zaragoza. Real were fined after the incident.
A number of other Liga clubs, including Atletico Madrid, Malaga, Racing Santander and Getafe, have been fined over the last two years after fans directed racist abuse at visiting players.
Outbreaks of racist abuse have become a common occurrence in Spanish football matches in recent years, with leading clubs such as Atletico Madrid, Real Zaragoza and Getafe receiving fines because of the behaviour of some of their fans.
National coach Luis Aragones caused an uproar in 2004 when he racially insulted Arsenal’s French international striker Thierry Henry.
Japan, Hockey, Baseball, etc. 