Publicly, everyone’s in support of the walk-out. The coaches, ex-All Whites, New Zealand Football.
Privately, a lot of people might have a different view, as myunscientific poll of five guys in the clubrooms indicated.
Now before ‘Those Who Love To Be Offended’ get offended, I must stress that I, like you, am strongly against racial abuse. It must be removed from our game, all games, and everything else.
But is picking up your ball and going home the way to do it?
If the same thing happens at the next World Cup finals, assuming the All Whites get there, will they quit again? If they’re true to their principles, they will. Will Brazil walk off the pitch in the semifinal if Vinicius Jr is racially abused? With no room to reschedule matches, leaving the pitch early just isn’t an option. Fifa would have to award the match to the team left standing.
Should a team walk off if an opponent spits on one of their players, and the ref doesn’t see it? Spitting, to some, is as offensive as racial abuse.
If an opponent commits physical abuse - for example, deliberately hurts you in a tackle or with a swinging elbow - or says something nasty about your sexuality, or about your sister or mother (male relatives are rarely mentioned in these situations) and the ref misses it, do you pack up and get on the bus?
All Whites players are visibly upset after an incident that happened minutes before the halftime whistle. Photo / Photosport
If walkoffs become a regular thing, footballers, being the shameless cheats that so many of them are, will quickly learn to manipulate the situation to get games abandoned if they’re losing. Whisper some filth into an opponent’s ear and hope his team don’t come out for the second half. Or, in a crowded penalty box, turn to the ref with your most outraged expression and claim “Ref! I’ve been racially abused! Send him off or we walk!”
What we do know is that if your particular code of honour demands justice, and the referee isn’t giving it to you, then sportsmen, since time began, have found other ways to get it. Some have gone the full Zinedine Zidane on the offender and attacked him on the spot. They’re not worried about getting a red card, because their honour is more important than three points, or even, in Zidane’s case, a World Cup final.
Some are a bit cleverer. They keep quiet so the referee doesn’t know they have revenge in mind, and then seek retribution later in the game with a Roy Keane-type tackle. If they’re lucky, they escape with a yellow card or even get off scot-free. If they’re not that sort of player, they have the enforcer in the team do it for them.
And there is the tunnel, where all sorts of retribution has been dished out down the years, beyond the gaze of the officials. There is no doubt that had Boxall had five seconds with the Qatari racist out of sight of the referee, he could have helped the odious little man see the error of his ways.
Fifa are to conduct an “investigation” into the incident, but it’s unlikely to satisfy the All Whites. Qatar have offered the classic playground defence - “He abused me first!” - and without definitive proof of what was said, what can Fifa do?
Probably nothing in this instance. And probably not a lot in the future, unless they install super-sensitive listening devices and a litany of lip-readers around pitches all over the world to capture every word uttered by the players.
