Football locally and globally likes to advance its anti-racism credentials, but words mean nothing if not backed-up by actions.
The FFA Constitution requires that its participants – people who play, administer, coach and referee matches – should “take all reasonable steps to ensure that discrimination … does not occur among Football participants on any grounds regulated under any Equal Opportunity Law.”
In the FFA Code of Conduct, it’s really clear that if a ‘member’ (the same group of people) is involved in “vilification of person on an account of an Attribute” that they, prima facie, have brought the game into disrepute. An ‘Attribute’ is later defined as including race, colour, religion, gender and more.
Those words may make us feel good that football gets it right when it comes to race and racism, but one young player from Sydney might be excused for thinking otherwise.
Recent media reports have highlighted the plight of Angus Chance, now 22, a former NPL3 player with Dulwich Hill football club. Angus Chance is a pretty good player, having been awarded Football NSW’s Under-20 Player of the Year three years ago.
In May 2018, Angus was at training with the rest of his Dulwich Hill teammates when another, much older teammate, racially vilified three Japanese trialists.
According to a report in news.com.au, Angus Chance stood up for the Japanese trialists and told his older teammate to “grow up and stop being racist” – an action entirely consistent with the values espoused in the FFA Constitution and Code of Conduct, as well as by FIFA.
The reaction? The 34-year-old teammate punched Angus Chance twice breaking his jaw, dislodging his teeth, and leaving him with injuries so awful that he was in hospital for weeks.
Medical professionals at the hospital to which Angus was eventually taken by his mother – after another player on his red Ps was told by the club to drive him home, not to hospital – called the police as Angus’ injuries were consistent with a physical attack. This is something medical professionals are required to do by law if they suspect an offence has taken place. The treating doctor said that Angus suffered multiple fractures including a broken jaw.
The 34-year-old teammate was convicted with assault in December 2018 and ordered to serve home detention for 18 months.
Angus’ medical bills are significant and ongoing but so far his family have seen none of the expenses met from Football NSW’s insurer, even though the assault on Angus Chance occurred at an official training session of his team.
In January last year, Angus’s father Chris Chance asked FFA to intervene in an attempt to speed up the insurance process. He and Angus met with then FFA CEO David Gallop and a bevy of FFA internal and external lawyers in February 2019.
But since then? Nothing.
More than six months later, and with still no contact from the insurer or Football NSW, Angus Chance initiated legal action for negligence against Football NSW, Dulwich Hill FC, and the insurance company in October last year on the basis of a range of factors, including that:
the club failing to call an ambulance after the assault;
the club called the Chance family asking them not to tell the police what really happened;
the speaking ban on Angus Chance;
the costs of medical treatment which is still ongoing;
the club failed to take action against the assailant beforehand as Angus Chance had reported to the coach threatening messages sent by the assailant to him even before the assault took place; and
the family has incurred legal costs in pursuing the matter when it could, and should, have been dealt with by the insurer and Football NSW and the club issuing an apology.
As a result of the media reports in three different mastheads, as well as two of the highest rating radio shows in the country, you might think that the Board of Football NSW would be moved to consider its position and take positive action – at least to talk. But, in yet an example in Australian football of anything but good governance, the Board is doing nothing while the reputation of the sport and its administration takes yet another hit in the mainstream media.
The UK investigative journalist and author, Andrew Jennings, wrote an entire book on football’s code of silence entitled Omerta. Jennings’ book was about football corruption, but the ‘silent treatment’ is common in football whether the issue be corruption, racism, defamation action, or a range of other matters.
The parties are now before the courts and face mediation later this month.
According to Chris Chance, all of this could have been avoided if Football NSW, the club and the insurer had shown empathy and fulfilled its obligations of the most very basic aspects of duty of care to his son.
Chris Chance said that he and his family are grateful to the NSW Police, Director of Public Prosecutions and the Victims of Crime for the help they have received.
“They all showed such care and decency, such compassion for our family. They did everything they could to give Angus justice and closure, help him try and become the guy he was again, [and to] help him get back on the sporting field. I sincerely thank them and give them 10 out of 10 for their efforts,” Chris Chance said.
“But for all other official sports bodies in this country, I have to reserve my comments, as no one has given us any help us whatsoever.”
In the meantime, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said last year that “a zero-tolerance approach” should be shown by member associations, leagues, clubs and disciplinary bodies to racism in football.
In a statement, he urged football bodies “to apply harsh sanctions for any such kind of behaviour”.
“We will continue to be at the forefront of the fight against racism and we guarantee to all our member associations that they have our full support in taking up this challenge. We will not hesitate to do everything in our power to eradicate racism, and any other form of discrimination, from football, at any level and anywhere in the world,” Infantino said.
If Infantino’s words are to be more than words, and if the FFA Code of Conduct means anything more than the paper it’s typed on, then it’s clear what FFA should be urging Football NSW and Dulwich Hill FC to do at the mediation session later this month.
Angus Chance called-out a teammate for racial vilification of three other people. It was an act of courage that is to be lauded for living up to football's values, rather than what it has become – a drawn out legal battle because the insurer doesn't want to pay-up, and about which the club and Football NSW are too pusillanimous to make a stand.
Football could do itself a favour by doing something straightforward: live up to its values by actions – not just words.