LOUGHRAN: Tabichi’s win and football racism show bittersweet world we live in

This is about football and footballers, but it is not a sports report.

There was a time in Britain when racist fans made monkey noises at black players and even threw bananas into the pitch.

Those days now seem as distant as King Henry and his six wives. But make no mistake, such activities still go on in certain European countries, as the English national team discovered last week.

The game was a qualifier for the Euro 2020 contest, played against Montenegro in its capital, Podgorica, and England won 5-1.

What surprised television viewers was to hear monkey hoots and racist chanting when England’s black players were on the ball.

After only six minutes, a BBC commentator said he heard racist chants when left back Danny Rose touched the ball.

Callum Hudson-Odoi, making his first international start at age 18, said, “They were saying ‘ooh ooh aa aa’ monkey stuff when me and Danny went over.”

When Raheem Sterling scored England’s fifth goal in the 81st minute, he ran to the chanting crowd and smiling broadly, stuck his fingers in his ears.

He said afterwards, “It was to let them know they need to tell me more than we are black to affect us. In England, we have a diverse country and lots of different faces.”

Photographers at pitch-side described the abuse as “disgusting” and BBC reporter Phil McNulty talked of “an unforgiving, hostile and unpleasant arena”.

Montenegro, meaning Black Mountain, is a Balkan country of only 622,000 inhabitants which borders the Adriatic Sea and is about 42 times smaller than Kenya.

It is one of several Balkan countries accused of racism at football matches.

In 2012, neighbouring Serbia was fined £65,000 and ordered to play a game behind closed doors after Danny Rose was racially abused in an under-21s game.

England’s manager, Gareth Southgate, said he would report the latest abuse to European football’s governing body, UEFA.

Asked if he should have called the players off the pitch, he said, “I’m not certain that’s what the players would want. Maybe that’s something I’d have to consider for the future.”

Sterling said, “This stadium holds 15,000… the punishment should be the stadium is closed… the fans would then think twice… they all love football.”

Sterling has often spoken of racism in sport, including in Britain. Recently he blamed the mass media for highlighting the purchase of expensive houses by black British players.

It’s not often that Kenyans make international headlines but Peter Tabichi certainly did when he won $1 million (Ksh100 million) for being the world’s best teacher.

A brother of the Franciscan religious order, Peter, received the Global Teacher Prize from the Varkey Foundation at a star-studded event in Dubai.

His work as a maths and science teacher at Keriko Secondary School in Pwani village near Nakuru placed him ahead of 10,000 other nominees from 179 countries.

The fact that Peter gives 80 per cent of his wages to help poor pupils at the school was highlighted by hundreds of leading media houses around the world, including the BBC, Guardian and Independent in the UK, and Time Magazine and the New York Times in the United States.

Also in the limelight last week was the Kenyan movie actress Lupita Nyong’o, star of a new horror movie, “Us”.

Film critic Mark Kermode wrote in The Observer newspaper: “Special credit is due to Nyong’o, who commands two pivotal roles with a conviction that is simultaneously engaging and alarming.”

Lupita, daughter of the Kenyan politician Peter Anyang Nyong’o, made her name in the 2013 historical drama “12 Years a Slave”, for which she received the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress.

Warders were curious when they found three dead rats in the grounds of Guys Marsh prison near Shaftesbury, Dorset.

The rodents all had stitches across their stomachs, and when these were snipped open, the officers found five mobile phones and chargers, three Sim cards and a large amount of drugs, including spice and cannabis.

The rats had been thrown over the prison fence by friends of certain inmates with the intention of selling the contraband to their fellow prisoners for large sums.

Previously, drones, tennis balls and pigeons have been used by prison smugglers.

Unwritten Laws of the Office:

You can go anywhere you want provided you look serious and carry a clipboard.

When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.

There will always be beer cans rolling around the floor of your car when the boss asks for a lift home.

The longer the title, the less important the job, and the authority of a person is inversely proportional to the number of pens in his breast pocket.