THERE was something so familiar about the look on Glen Kamara’s face as Slavia Prague player Ondrej Kudela cupped his hands and dripped his words into the Rangers player’s ear at last Thursday’s Europa League match.

Even without knowing what was said, I could tell from the momentary inwards crumpling of Kamara’s face that Kudela had cut his opponent down in a most hurtful way. In what was an already cauldron-like atmosphere following an utterly horrible challenge by his team-mate Kemar Roofe on the Slavia Prague goalkeeper, Kamara alleges that Kudela racially abused him after Kamara tried to intervene in an argument. Kudela for his part denies this, saying he simply said: ‘You’re a f****** guy’ and not ‘You’re a f******* monkey, and you know that’ as Kamara alleges.

Regardless of what UEFA’s investigations bring in the next few weeks, this whole incident is surprisingly not without an upside.

One bit of good news is that if racism did play a part, the response from most quarters has been one of condemnation. Kudela’s own team-mate Simon Deli tweeted out a meme the following day: ‘Black or White we all bleed the same colour. Racism is taught by small people.’

And many supporters of Kudela have rallied to say words to the effect of ‘he’s not that sort of person’. It’s astonishing to have to say it – but that is progress.

I think it’s fair to say that many Eastern European countries are still struggling to accept that racism negatively affects black and ethnic minority people, including the Roma, throughout Europe, reducing their life chances significantly.

Images of Slavia Prague fans holding a racist banner that included the n-word surfaced after the match, and Kemar Roofe received an onslaught of racist online abuse from Slavia Prague fans.

But it’s not just Eastern Europe. Kamara’s own country of Finland rated worst in an EU survey in 2018 of harassment suffered by black people in European countries – 63% of those surveyed said they had experienced racial harassment in the five years preceding the survey.

It’s crucial that players like Kamara share their experiences and push UEFA to investigate and bring the maximum sanctions against any players found guilty of racism so that his story resonates from Finland, where he plays for the national team, to the Czech Republic and everywhere in between. A 10-match ban should help to focus a few minds, and it goes without saying that Roofe should face sanctions too for the disgraceful tackle.

Here at home the whole incident has seen Rangers fans stepping momentarily into the shoes of their team’s black players and expressing solidarity with Kamara. The ability to see the injustice through the eyes of someone we consider to be one of us is powerful and salutary.

Manager Steven Gerrard’s choice of words when he referred to Kamara as ‘one of my own’ was really noteworthy. If he’d been talking about Tavernier I’m sure he wouldn’t have used those words. Gerrard, whether on purpose or not, was actively making an effort to include Kamara and not to ‘other’ him, something that is consistently at the heart of racism and other types of discrimination.

The second action that Gerrard took, as a man who’s presumably been around this kind of thing for a long time as a player, is that he very quickly said that he believed Kamara. Gerrard knew that the first accusation levelled against black people when they complain of racism is that it is made up, that the race card is being played. It happens every single time there are allegations of this type.

Well, here’s the thing about that. Kamara is a respected international player whose club has just won the league, so it’s reasonable to assume he’s feeling pretty good about himself. The last thing anyone in that position – or in life in general – wants to be is cut down because of his or her race, diminished somehow because of a few drops of melanin and genetics that he or she can do nothing about.

No one wants to be reminded of this. Frankly, it sucks, and it’s often why folk don’t report racism – because it’s demeaning. And that is why in his statement with regard to online racist abuse Kamara said that he and other black players were ‘sick of the freedom that such bigots are given to parade their hatred on social media’. They, like most black people, just want to be able to get on with their lives and do the best they can for their team, their families and themselves. It’s a small ask really.

But credit where it’s due, Rangers Football Club has much to be pleased with – their Everyone Anyone campaign unveiled by the club in 2019 to ‘send a clear message of inclusion, togetherness and zero-tolerance to all forms of discrimination’, is paying dividends. And the actions of Scott Brown in offering very public support reflected well on Celtic and Scottish football.

The Rangers' charter asks fans to accept there is ‘no place in society for bigotry, racism, sectarianism or homophobia,’ and it is with that reassurance that players like Kamara can have the confidence to speak out if they have been treated unfairly.

Players will be at their sparkling best knowing that they are supported by their teammates, leaders and fans. Arguably, Ranger’s unbeaten league performances this year are a testament to this campaign where diversity, widening the pool of talent and a sense of shared destiny have brought a renewed vigour to the team – a blueprint, no pun intended, for other workplaces and organisations both here and on the continent.

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