Batson fighting racism

England Battles Racism That Infests Soccer

By GEORGE VECSEY

LONDON, Jan. 30 - The bananas would come flying out of the stands and land on the soccer field. Brendan Batson can still recall the monkey chants, with fans grunting in unison every time he and his two black teammates touched the ball.

Batson remembers one miserable rainy night, circa 1978. His West Bromwich Albion team was playing at its regional rival, Birmingham City, and he overlooked a banana lying in the mud.

"Slipped right on it, just like in the cartoons," said Batson, now 49, the general manager at his old team and one of the first minority executives in English soccer.

Those were the bad old days - and not so long ago, either. Now, with blacks comprising as much as 15 percent of the players in the top leagues, England has outgrown its own soccer stereotype and become a leader in the fight against overt racism.

But almost every country in Europe has racist signs, chants and even violence at soccer stadiums, particularly from rightist groups that single out blacks, Jews, Muslims or other ethnic groups. Some demonstrators say they do it only to unsettle the opposing team, but the evidence is that the hatreds go much deeper.

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