The sad thing for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is that the cycle of racism feels endless. It was prevalent in football before his playing days and throughout his career as a prolific striker, and it has persisted since he retired in 2008.
Football’s racism problem has been thrust back into the spotlight in recent weeks after Vinícius Júnior accused Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him in Real Madrid’s Champions League tie with Benfica, and four Premier League players were racially abused on social media across a single weekend, prompting police investigations.
“We keep on getting dragged back into it,” Hasselbaink says. “It’s like we have to start all over again. It never ends.”
Hasselbaink knows first-hand how it feels. During his time at Atlético Madrid he sometimes heard racist chants, and once, walking out of a stadium, was spat on by supporters.
“I was the only one being spat on, and I was the only black player in the team really,” he says. “Nobody helped me.” He trails off.
How did it make him feel? “It makes you feel worthless. It makes you feel like you’re a piece of shit. Everybody moved on. It wasn’t really spoken of. People saw it. What can you do when you stand by yourself?”
Hasselbaink says he “didn’t have it as bad as Vinícius”, who has been allegedly racially abused 20 times in eight years at Real Madrid – most of them in Spain.
The 53-year-old worries it will be difficult for Uefa, which has launched an investigation, to prove the accusation against Prestianni after the Benfica winger covered his mouth with his shirt. Kylian Mbappé alleged he had heard Prestianni call Vinícius a “monkey” five times but Prestianni denies using racist language.
“We all think he has said something, because why is he covering his mouth?” Hasselbaink says. “But we cannot prove it. That is still a grey area.
“In the name of law, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt, unfortunately, if he says: ‘I didn’t say anything.’ But maybe next season you should bring in that you cannot be talking like this any more” – he covers his mouth with his hand, then his T-shirt – “on the pitch.”
Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, said on Sunday that a player covering their mouth during a confrontation should be sent off. The law-making body, the International Football Association Board, has discussed the idea recently.
“He must have said something controversial, otherwise why are you covering your mouth?” Hasselbaink says. “You’re not going to cover your mouth and say: ‘Vinícius, you’re a magnificent player, absolutely great, can I have your shirt?’”
Benfica’s manager, José Mourinho, inflamed the situation by linking the way in which Vinícius celebrated his winning goal in front of the Portuguese club’s fans to the incident which then unfolded.
“What the hell is he talking about?” Hasselbaink says. He references Mourinho’s famous celebration for Porto against Manchester United, when he hurtled down the Old Trafford touchline and slid on his knees.
“What a hypocrite,” Hasselbaink says. “What a bloody hypocrite. Unbelievable. He should’ve gone to his player and really asked him: ‘What did you say?’ And really put it on him. ‘What did you say?’ And then if he says he hasn’t racially abused him, you say: ‘OK, I spoke to the player, this is what he said. If he has racially abused him, he needs to be punished.’ Mourinho has black players playing in his team in Benfica. How the hell must they feel?”
The UK Football Policing Unit has reported a 115% increase in reports of online abuse in the space of a year. The unit is investigating racist messages directed at four players across one recent weekend. The Burnley midfielder Hannibal Mejbri and Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana were targeted on Saturday 21 February; the following day the Sunderland winger Romaine Mundle and the Wolves striker Tolu Arokodare were abused.
Wolves said Arokodare received horrific posts from multiple accounts after he missed a penalty in a defeat by Crystal Palace. Hasselbaink says: “You can’t play your heart out, miss a penalty – it happens to everybody – and then be racially abused because you have missed a penalty. What the hell are we doing? He’s not missing a penalty because he’s black. He’s missing a penalty because he didn’t shoot the ball properly.”
Hasselbaink points out that when fans racially abuse their own player after a miss, it increases the pressure on the player the next time they step up. As assistant to Gareth Southgate with England, Hasselbaink worked with Bukayo Saka when the Arsenal forward prepared to take his next penalty for England, in the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland, after the torrent of racism he, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho faced for missing in the shootout in the Euro 2020 final defeat by Italy at Wembley.
“I’ve got so much respect for these players. For Saka, for Rashford, Sancho. I had Saka in the European championships and he was ready to take another penalty and he took one. He was so brave. He just took it on the chin and moved on.
“That is pressure. He took it. So much respect for the boy. It shouldn’t have to be like that. It’s not right. It makes it harder for the player. Where is the logic in that?”
Some England fans previously booed the team for taking a knee to protest against racism. “What do we want? We’re getting racially abused, then when we highlight it by putting a knee down, we get more stick,” Hasselbaink says, laughing in exasperation. “How do you want this to be resolved? Let people keep on racially abusing people and say nothing? I don’t get it.”
He believes it is time for lifetime bans for fans chanting or making gestures in stadiums or posting racist abuse online. “Punish them really hard, it’s not difficult.”
He wants longer bans for players found guilty, too. “The club should not pay the player as well during that period,” he says.
Hasselbaink is now a director of the Football Safety App – a platform founded by the former England striker Emile Heskey to report abuse in and around football. “Not enough is being dealt with, it’s way too slow,” he says. “The app is instant, you can report and it goes straight away to the club and the police.”
What frustrates him is the sense that those in power aren’t listening. “It’s very simple to adjust it,” he says. “It’s very simple to take a stand on it. Uefa have here and there fined clubs – minimum money. But it’s embarrassing. I’ve not figured that out yet.
“I’m a football lover. It hurts me to see those kinds of things happening. On social media, all that kind of stuff. It’s painful to see. Because I’ve experienced it myself, I know what they’re going through. We should be able to stamp this out.
“I will always love the game. And I will always watch the game. But the politics around it, I hate.”
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