The flag which adorns this column every week is rarely flown in Britain, despite being much loved by Brits. You don't see Brits draped in red, white and blue, like you see Trinis draped in red, white and black. Last week on the Paris Metro we were reminded why.
Men like those racist Chelsea supporters make us ashamed of our country. We are shamed by association and our shame was broadcast around the world.
As well as shoving the black Parisian man, Souleymayne S, off a train; Chelsea imbeciles also smashed up cafes near the river Seine, attacked French fans and gave Nazi salutes (just in case their "we're racist, that's the way we like it," chants hadn't hurdled the language barrier.)
I detest Chelsea more than any football club in the world. I used to detest them because of their racist, violent fans. Now it's because their racist, violent fans have a billionaire owner, a European Cup, the best manager in the game, and countless league titles.
As I regularly told a junior reporter (and Chelsea fan) on the sports desk at the Trinidad Guardian, there aren't any fans less deserving of these riches.
That they have picked up a new global following and a slick PR machine offends my very soul. I've asked the 18-year-old reporter if he's ever heard of Ken Bates, the chairman who bought Chelsea Football Club for �1 in 1982 and tried to erect electric fences to prevent their hooligans swarming on to the pitch (a pitch ringed by a muddy greyhound track and cars parked behind the goals–a complete shambles of a ground).
He had not heard of Ken Bates. Nor the Chelsea Headhunters hooligan firm whose members left KKK calling cards with their victims. He hadn't heard of a 'Chelsea smile' where somebody's mouth would be slit in the corners, leaving a 'Joker' like scar. He hadn't heard of Paul Canoville, the black Chelsea player (now an ambassador for the club) who made his debut also in 1982. An inauspicious start which he described in his own words:
"As I ran down the line, I heard the abuse for the first time. 'You black c---, you golliwog'. 'Go back home you nigger.' I expected it on the street, but not in a professional stadium. A lot of the Chelsea fans were doing it, jeering, throwing bananas. As I got on, I swear to God I wanted to come straight off."
Canoville spoke last week about the Paris incident and how it had blighted the hard work Chelsea FC has done to combat racism. Personally I would like to hear from Didier Drogba and some of the other black Chelsea legends: Ruud Gullit, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink...
Their embarrassment must be excruciating. Indeed, it's astonishing that a club with such a reputation has been blessed with these players.
Drogba, supposedly a hero of these racists–the man who won them the European Cup–was born in Abidjan in Ivory Coast but grew up mostly in the Paris suburbs. If he hadn't excelled at football, he could have been Soulemayne S trying to board that train on the platform. I would love to hear his response to these bogus supporters. But modern footballers rarely speak about sensitive issues.
In the days after Paris, the debate was framed around three questions: Was this a societal problem (as Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger suggested), a football problem or a Chelsea problem?
The simple answer is that football is the problem. No other sport needs anti-racism campaigns. No other sport has clubs with visible, vocal extreme right wing presences. No other sport has the same potential for recruiting young, impressionable men into fascist movements. Football is a quite unique and enduring breeding ground for racism and it's puzzling to people who love the game. It's puzzling that Pele, the world's greatest ever player and a black man, has to front anti-hate campaigns.
As Barney Ronay wrote in The Guardian, "Football itself is an athletic meritocracy. It is in its pure form the opposite of racism, an activity that tells you repeatedly that human beings are equal, that what marks us out are the qualities that cut across race: talent, heart, teamwork. Similarly the basic idea of a football club stands as a force for collectivism and shared purpose."
And yet, a friend of mine told me how he "used to watch England in the mid 1980s and some Chelsea fans refused to acknowledge John Barnes. If he scored, it didn't count."
Chelsea aren't the only club. Even at middle class cosmopolitan Arsenal I've heard anti-semetic songs about burning and gassing Jews. At Millwall, Leeds and West Ham racism refuses to go away. But I don't blame society–most societies have dealt with racism (by criminalising it). Football hasn't dealt with its racism problem. Jack Warner's inglorious time spent as FIFA vice-president could have been so much better served. Perhaps he reflects on that with some regret while he counts his cash.
Souleymayne S knew what was happening to him in his own city, but he didn't know why. His bravery in facing up to the thugs was astonishing. Now it's time for football's spineless authorities to face the problem head on.