Curtis Fleming and Niall Quinn speak out against racism

by Daniel Mc Donnell
Soccer Correspondent at Irish Daily Star

IT'S THE moment that every footballer dreads and two weeks ago Curtis Fleming finally accepted that his time had come. That it was time to hang up his boots.

The 37 year old had hoped to sort himself out with a new club after his release from Shelbourne but for one reason or another he just couldn't find the right one.




And now he's looking to the future after a career that took him from the League of Ireland with St Patrick's Athletic to the Premiership and the chance to represent his country.

"I'm just going to retire, I couldn't organise anything and I think there's a point when you just have to retire at some stage. Nothing's happened", admits the Dubliner.

"I've been doing a little bit of radio work on Middlesbrough in the North East of England but I'm going to hand to coaching and if that comes off then if I could get a job in the UK or in Ireland then I'd do it.

"I've been doing the badges with the PFAI after they started one up and down the line it's something I would like to make another career of.

"Everyone says I should do it so hopefully I'll love it and I'm good at it. I'll have to see", he laughs.

If he displays the dedication that carried him through his playing days then you get the feeling that Fleming will do just fine.

His story has been well documented, and Fleming laughs when he says that his friends are sick of tired of hearing about it.

"I think people say to me sometimes, "Ah will you shut up talking about it, how you got into the League of Ireland, how you worked in a shop and people said you were good enough to go away and you never did until eventually the move came."

"But that's the way it was. That's the way it happened. At 21, if you had said to me that at 37 I would have played in an FA Cup Final, played in the Premiership with some of the best players in the world and 10 times for my country I'd have said, 'Yeah, good one, no chance', he says with a broad smile.

Fleming was speaking at the launch of a subject close to his heart with the Show Racism the Red Card campaign moving to Ireland.

As someone who spent time in the League of Ireland as it's only coloured player Fleming suffered from taunts although they were nothing compared to what he experienced in England.

"It wasn't so bad for me when I was in Ireland because the football community was more of a family then. Everybody knew everybody around Dublin , I'd played against them the whole way up.

"You might get a bit in schoolboy football from fathers on the side of the pitch, saying don't let that black kid kick my Jimmy and stuff like that."

"But because I was seen as a footballer, well, people put that before my colour. Sometimes I'd hear people asking about this Curtis who was a good footballer and the answer would be, 'the black fella'", he recalls.

"My first thing was football and if I didn't have it then things might have been different on the street or in school."

"I remember that famous game against Rovers at the RDS when half of Dublin claimed to be there and I heard a few chants then but it was when I went to England that I got a bit more of a shock.

"It was pure hatred, I remember getting an awful hammering at Roker Park one time. But when they brought in all seater stadiums these lads couldn't get together."

In England the problem has been solved, but across Europe the problems still exist. Fleming experienced it first hand in Bucharest last year as a Shelbourne player, along with Joseph Ndo.

"It's improved in England but when you see what's happened in Europe recently then it shows there's a lot of work left to be done", he asserts.
"You see Zaragoza fans abusing Samuel Eto'o last week. Well, last year they did the same to another player and do you know what they got fined? 600 euros. Their groundsmen probably took it out of his back packet and paid it.

"How is that going to affect anybody? How will that encourage clubs there to stamp it out?"

As he surveyed a room of ethnically diverse school children at Tolka Park on Monday, Fleming acknowledges that he finds it hard to believe how much has changed.

In his early days in the Irish squad, there was a few idiots who sent letters to the Star after a feature which included Fleming, Paul McGrath, Chris Hughton and other black Irish sportspeople under the title 'Proud To Be Irish'.

"I was a kid who just wanted to play for Ireland. Don't tell the wife but it was the happiest day of my life when I made my debut for my country and it's terrible to think that when I was singing the anthem there was people watching who didn't want me there.

"But I think those days are gone. You see the young kids now with different origins growing up now in Ireland who want to play GAA or want to play League of Ireland", he continues.

"It won't be long before you have an Irish international team with a Kozluk or a Benjani or something like that playing alongside Murphys and Keanes."

Should they want a role model, then those kids should look no further than Fleming. He looks back with no regrets.

"Of course there's loads more I would have wanted to do. Instead of ten caps, I would have wanted 20, instead of losing the FA Cup Final I would have liked to win it."

"But there's always ifs and maybes in life. But I don't have regrets. When I look back I'll say alright, I proved I could play at the top level consistently and I got my Irish caps so I'm very happy with that. It's not a bad way to end it."

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NIALL QUINN told a story about Curtis Fleming this week which accurately summed up the racist culture which existed within English football at the start of the 1990's.
When Fleming arrived at Manchester City on trial a social night was arranged with the entire first team squad going to watch a well known comedian.

Said comic spent most of his routine poking fun at Fleming because of his colour and while the youngster tried his best to take the joke, the rest of the squad laughed heartily.

"It was just mickey taking but I don't think we realised at the time how much hurt it could have caused Curtis", recalls Quinn.

"But we didn't know any different. It was just something that was in the culture but it's only now that you look back and think how wrong it was."

Quinn arrived as a fresh faced youngster at Arsenal just as the picture of the game in the UK was changing.

The youthful side at Highbury that he joined included the likes of Paul Davis, Michael Thomas and David Rocastle.

"At Arsenal, there was no such thing as a clique. Everyone was so well integrated and we all had fun and that's probably why the team did so well.

"I enjoyed the company of Dave and Michael. They would have a laugh at my expense, and take me down to South London or somewhere different like that and while I might have preferred to be up in Kilburn, it was a good experience for me.

"I may not have liked their clothes or their music", he laughs. "But it was great to explore and hear their stories."

Of course Quinn himself suffered from a very different kind of racism, the anti Irish attitude that existed amongst certain sections of society.

"I got letters from Combat 18, the crowd that caused the hassle in Lansdowne Road, but I didn't go public on them.

"It was just hate mail from ignorant people who didn't and maybe still don't know any better. It didn't bother me because you don't want to give these people the time of day and take them seriously.

"I'm glad that those people have been weeded out of football and that the attitude has changed."