Black racism in soccer OK?

Nigeria's national football coach, Stephen Keshi, is in the middle of a race row. Keshi got into a public altercation with Malawi national team coach, Tom Saintfie, a Belgian, over suitability of a match venue for a crucial World Cup qualifier.

Saintfie wanted to petition Fifa to move the match from Calahar, a southeastern city in Nigeria, citing safety concerns. Keshi was not pleased and fired a racist remark; "If he wants to talk to Fifa, he should go back to Belgium. He is not an African person, he is a white dude, he should go back to Belgium."

No prizes for guessing how Saintfiet received the remarks. He did not take Keshi's comments kindly and has reported him to Fifa accusing Keshi of racism.Fifa has been campaigning to kick out racism from the sport, but the template case that Fifa and high profile football associations have been dealing with are usually cases of black people as the victims and white players or fans as the offenders. This case is therefore unusual.

If Saintfiet had said, "Keshi is a black dude, who should go back to Nigeria," your guess is as good as mine. He would been disgraced for a lifetime. Saintfiet was quoted as saying, "If Fifa takes racism seriously, then you have to take it seriously in both directions. If a European said something of this nature about an African, you would have a huge problem." Many will be following this case with keen interest. By the way Keshi is still in charge of the national team.

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