We should be talking about Antoine Semenyo's football. But football still has a racism problem

New York Times

a day ago

In normal circumstances, the opening night of the Premier League season is when football returns and takes centre stage.
We should be talking about Antoine Semenyo's brilliance and focusing on the two superbly taken goals that brought Bournemouth level from two goals down at Anfield to scare the reigning champions, Liverpool — and only that.
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Instead, Semenyo's second-half performance requires a bleaker context. During the first half of the game, as he prepared to take a throw-in, he was subjected to alleged racial abuse from a member of the home support.
Minutes later, as Liverpool prepared to take a corner, the 25-year-old called over referee Anthony Taylor. The game was halted in the 29th minute as both managers, the respective captains and the rest of the players were informed.
It was an immediate reminder that some issues simply refuse to go away and that football is too regularly overshadowed by the actions of a few. And this time, it was less than thirty minutes into a new season.
'It's totally unacceptable. I'm sort of in shock, to be honest. It shouldn't be happening in this day and age,' Bournemouth captain Adam Smith told Sky Sports following the game.
'I don't know how Ant has played on to be honest, and come up with those goals. It's totally unacceptable. I just feel sorry for Ant. He's a bit down, obviously, and to carry on playing…something needs to be done.
'To be honest, I wanted him to react. That's what I would have done. I would have gone straight over there. But this just shows what type of man he is: not to react when it happened, to carry on, then he reported it to the ref. To come up with those goals shows what type of guy he is and what character he has. Fair play to Ant.'
Semenyo had been asked if he wanted to continue, and he did. When a different reaction would have been completely understandable, he remained calm and composed and channelled his emotions into producing an individual performance that did the talking for him.
'In the heat of the moment, I think Antoine understood the situation,' Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola told reports. 'He was calm. He continued playing, for sure he has been, the head works in the next minutes. But we asked him, he was fine to continue. He looked composed.
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'But it's true that now at the end of the game he was still, for sure he will be, not on purpose, but the head always goes to these things, and for sure he's asking why it still is happening today, and it's a big shame.
'We have to continue reinforcing the messages. It's a big shame because in the end, most of the news will be about this thing. And they have to be about the thing because obviously that still is a big problem, not just in football, but overall.'
Semenyo had other ideas. He refused to let the story be dictated by one idiot; instead, he took control of it on the pitch.
He had already caused former teammate and Liverpool's new left-back Milos Kerkez a number of problems in the first half, but as impressive as that was, he went to another level in the second half.
The forward was more alert than substitute Andrew Robertson when Dominik Szoboszlai was dispossessed when attempting an audacious flick. It meant that when David Brooks was released in behind, Semenyo had the positional advantage over his opponent, and he wasn't going to relinquish it.
He charged into the penalty area, timing his dart perfectly to meet Brooks' low cross, beating Virgil van Dijk in the process. His shot was too powerful for Alisson.
When he received the ball just outside his own area on 77 minutes, he led the counter-attack as Bournemouth outnumbered Liverpool four-to-two.
He ran and ran. Those chasing him could not catch him. Those ahead of him backed off, reluctant to engage. He had options, but he didn't need them. As he got to the Liverpool box, he cut inside and then fired a shot past Alisson, who didn't move. Konate was left on the floor. Semenyo had wheeled off in celebration.
'Antoine has started the season the same way he finished the last one,' said Iraola. 'He was creating a lot of problems for the fullbacks. Different goals. The first goal was a combination through the left, and he arrives well. The second one is transition, but more he takes it himself, and it is a good finish.'
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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot repeated the message, labelling what happened as 'unacceptable'. He was shown speaking to Semenyo at full time, and a number of Liverpool players did too, following the incident, including Cody Gakpo and captain Van Dijk.
Semenyo posted a story on his Instagram account after the game with a caption of 'When will it stop', alongside racist abuse he had received under one of his recent posts on the platform.
It was the definition of resilience. His response in the circumstances deserves huge credit — but it is not something he should have to respond to. The mere fact that he kept playing was inspiring, deserving credit and respect, never mind producing what he then did.
Racism has no place in football; it has no place in society, but it is another example to demonstrate that what is being done to try and combat it is not working. Earlier this week, Tottenham striker Mathys Tel was subjected to racist abuse following his penalty miss in the UEFA Super Cup.
England Women's defender Jess Carter also spoke out publicly after receiving abuse during the recent 2025 European Championship, leading to her stepping back from social media.
The Lionesses collectively decided to stop taking the knee — a symbolic anti-racism gesture — as they felt it was 'clear we and football need to find another way to tackle racism.'
Smith shared a similar feeling that the gesture has lost the power of its initial intention and meaning.
'Taking a knee is not having an effect,' he said. 'We're supporting him (Semenyo) in there (the dressing room) and hopefully he'll be okay.'
'We've had discussions with the Premier League about it, so they have been taking it seriously. But I was just speaking to some of the lads in there, and I just don't know what we can do. We've been doing it for a long time now, and no one's getting it. I don't know what to say any more. I just feel sorry for Ant that he's had to take that tonight, and the whole country is watching. For that to happen is shocking.'
The problem is, what that 'something different' is, is unclear. Something has to be done, but no one seems to have the answer. That's the ugly reality.
Semenyo, of course, did muster his own response — one of defiance.
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