[Nicky91]

The Dutch national men’s, women’s and youth football teams have said they will boycott a popular television sports programme because of racist comments made by one of its football pundits.

A number of players have published a statement on social media saying they will no longer be interviewed on Veronica Inside because of the comments by Johan Derksen, who likened a Black Lives Matter campaigner and rapper to the blackface character Zwarte Piet.

‘This is way beyond the limit,’ the statement said. ‘It is not for the first time and not for the second… enough is enough.’

Football analyst Derksen, 71, made the comment about a pro-Piet campaigner in full blackface at the recent anti-racism demonstration in Groningen. ‘How do we know that is not Akwasi,’ Derksen said, referring to the campaigner.

A spokesman for the Talpa television network which broadcasts the programme said that the comments are ‘up to the people’ at the table. ‘Veronica supports freedom of speech and opposes the deliberate insult of people or population groups.

’Oranje captain Virgil van Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum, Memphis Depay, Jasper Cillessen, and Daley Blind are among those publishing the statement.

National coach Ronald Koeman said he had discussed the issue with Van Dijk before publication and that the move had his full support.

‘The players see how others are regularly insulted or made to look ridiculous,’ he told the AD. ‘It is always dismissed as harmless “pub talk”, but it goes too far.’

Advertisers

On Friday broadcaster NOS said a number of companies which advertise in or around the programme were rethinking their strategies.

Brewing group Bavaria, one of the main sponsors of the show, issued a statement saying Derksen’s comment was ‘not a joke and is a step too far’. The sponsorship contract ends this month and will not be renewed, although this decision was taken before Derksen’s latest comments, the spokesman said.

Other companies which advertise around the programme, including fruit company Zespri, bookies Toto and telecom firm KPN said they were in talks with Talpa.

Not the first time

In the past Derksen has said a black tv presenter and anti-Zwarte Piet campaigner would be ‘running around as a proud as an monkey’, a comment he later apologised for.

He has also come under fire for describing two men who launched a petition to make football more gay-friendly as ‘two young, hysterical little gay men’ and saying that having too many Moroccan players is spoiling amateur football.

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/0...cist-comments/

Update: Former international footballers Ruud Gullit and Edgar Davids have backed the current squad’s decision to boycott TV talk show Veronica Inside in response to racist comments by regular guest Johan Derksen.

Davids, speaking on NOS’s Studio Sport show, said it was time to draw a line and stop dismissing complaints of racism as ‘exaggeration’. He also called on the media to take responsibility for the contents of its programmes.

‘It’s not the first time that racist things have been said and usually it’s always been waved away. But now everybody has had enough.


Gullit, who captained the only Dutch national team to win an international trophy at the 1988 European Championships, told the Ziggo Sport show Rondo that the time had come to talk honestly about racism in Dutch sport and society.

”We need to follow through now,’ he said. ‘What makes me angry most of all is when people say it’s not so bad.

‘For me and [fellow panellist] Henk [ten Cate] it’s not so bad because of our status. But for a lot of people it’s not OK. I think it’s especially important that [prime minister Mark] Rutte has admitted that there is racism in the Netherlands.

‘We live in a great country. I’m really proud of the Netherlands, but you shouldn’t say it doesn’t happen.’


https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/0...e-netherlands/

[LeatherTrumpet]

I never knew Holland was so racist

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

I never knew Holland was so racist

we are not racist, also if we ever were, that thing ''zwarte piet'' was never with intention to be racist, but more harmless fun for children's festivity sinterklaas for many many years, all those years without any criticism or complaints

all bc of this current way too PC world

[Niamh.]

#IstandwithVirgil