The tall defender Matthew Booth is the only white player in South Africa’s national side. The crowds at South Africa’s matches are overwhelmingly black. Booth, who plays for local club Mamelodi Sundowns, is back in the national team after a long absence. When Booth touches the ball, you can hear sounds of “Boooooootttt.” Booth, who plays for local club Mamelodi Sundowns, is back in the national team after a long absence.
But as Mark Gleeson (probably the most knowledgeable reporter on African football) writes on the Reuters Soccer Blog, some foreign reporters (and visitors) think the crowds are booing Booth:
To the uninitiated, when Booth touches the ball, the chorus of approval sounds like a wall of derision. Given the racial history of South Africa, it could be misconstrued as negative barracking and because he is white and the majority of the crowd black, it takes on an even more negative connotation.
Booth patiently explained to confused foreign journalists at some length after the match against Iraq on Sunday about the chant. Almost all wanted to know why the crowd were on his back. Was it because he was white?
But some missed the explanation, including the Spanish daily El Pais who wrote of the “sadness” of a white player being derided by the majority black crowd. The irony is that it could not be further from the truth.