I'm Not A Racist, But....

During the week an item on the FFA Cup website heralded the arrival of a new club called Shamrock Rovers Darwin. Quite how this club formed by Irish backpackers conforms within the FFA's National Club Identity Policy (NCIP) rules is quite bewildering. Unless you accept that the FFA is selective in how it applies it own rules, that is.

Is incorporating the entire name of a club from overseas a loophole which other clubs can utilise? Is it possible to see the return of South Melbourne Hellas Verona, St Albans Dinamo Zagreb or Richmond Alemannia Aachen?

It comes just a week after the controversial NCIP was again called into question during the A-League's "Erase Racism" round, as covered in this piece by Anthony Colangelo on The New Daily. So does the FFA merely pay lip service to eradicating racism? Does it perpetuate racism with the NCIP? If the NCIP is not racist, is the selective manner in which it is enforced racist?

How do you defend something like the NCIP and the whitewashing of Australian football?


I'm not racist, but for the game to appeal to all we can't have ethnically-aligned clubs.

I'm not racist, but British and Irish cultures are part of Australia's culture, not like these other ethnic groups.

I'm not racist, but ethnic football clubs held the game back for years and need to be eradicated.

I'm not racist, but names like O'Neill, Buckley and Gallop can take the game further than people with names who sound like they run fish and chip shops and milk bars..

I'm not racist, I loved the diverse fan groups at the Asian Cup. But they need to assimilate properly to be a part of Australian football.


Is it racist?