With Martin Luther King's legacy being commemorated across the country, it's an eye-opening shame that blatant forms of racism still exist around the world, specifically in the soccer forum.
Over the weekend, U.S. midfielder Maurice Edu and Rangers teammate Kyle Bartley were the subject of racial abuse via Twitter, an incident that resulted in the arrest of a 41-year-old man who was due to appear in a Scottish court on Monday.
Racism involving Scottish soccer is unfortunately nothing new. The Edu/Bartley incident was the second act of social media racial abuse in Scotland in January, as Inverness forward Gregory Tade was also the subject of a malicious tweet.
DaMarcus Beasley, who had his car set on fire while he played for Rangers almost two years ago, and Edu have been the subject of racial abuse on multiple occasions during their careers in Scotland as well.
Here are a few more stories from around the soccer world:
INDIA LAUNCHES PREMIER LEAGUE
The United States has another competitor for landing former standout, yet aging, international players.
India has launched a past-star-studded, six-team Premier League, one that its organizers said is partly modelled off Major League Soccer.
Some of the players participating in the league reportedly include Fabio Cannavaro, Robert Pires, Hernan Crespo, Robbie Fowler, Fernando Morientes, Juan Pablo Sorin, Maniche and Jay-Jay Okocha. The league will have a short inaugural season that takes place from Feb. 25 to April 8.
According to Reuters, each team will have $2.5 million to spend in its first year and teams can have no more than four foreign players and must have six Under-21 Indian players. Also, 30 players and six coaches, all foreigners, will be auctioned off as part of the roster distribution. Much like the Designated Player system, the high-profile names listed above will be distributed as "icon" players, with each team getting one.
TEIXEIRA FILING APPEAL OVER KICKBACK DOCUMENTS
At least one FIFA executive has no desire to see documents detailing the organization's financial kickbacks from World Cup television deals get published.
Brazilian federation president Ricardo Teixeira is reportedly set to file an appeal in hopes of preventing the sought-after documents from being published for the public to see. The documents are said to have clear-cut information about which FIFA executives received payments from former marketing firm ISL. At the very least, Teixeira's latest appeal should delay the unveiling of the documents for months while the process takes its course.
Teixeira is one of the FIFA executives who has been implicated in kickback allegations in the last couple of years. He had already filed one appeal in a Swiss court to delay FIFA president Sepp Blatter from publishing the documents last month.
SAMBA HANDS IN TRANSFER REQUEST
Blackburn is trying to stave off Premier League relegation, but it appears more and more likely that the club will have to do so without centerback Christopher Samba.
The defender reportedly handed in a transfer request, putting the onus on the team to deal the 27-year-old starter by the end of the month.
The transfer request comes just after Blackburn manager Steve Kean claimed that Samba was a part of the club's long-term plans and that he had no intention of selling the player.
—————————-
What do you make of the Edu incident? Do you think the India Premier League can be a success? Think we'll ever see the FIFA kickback information? Do you see Blackburn staying up with or without Samba?
Share your thoughts below.