Des Kelly/The Daily Mail
DES KELLY: These ignorant racists clearly haven't evolved
Just look at the hairy ape in the picture below. The unevolved evolutionary throwback was caught on camera abusing Liverpool players as a collection of feeble-minded locals laughed in amusement or joined in.
It is a picture that should remind us just how far we have come in British football since the shameful 1980s when scenes like this were commonplace.
It should also serve to demonstrate just how far some corners of Europe still lag behind when it comes to standards of basic decency.
Caught in the act: A fan pictured aiming monkey chants at Liverpool players
This individual has apparently been caught in the act of aiming monkey chants at Liverpool's two black players, David Ngog and David Amoo, during Thursday night's Europa League match against FC Rabotnicki,
If that proves to be the case, and it's hard to argue otherwise looking at this image, it is depressing but hardly surprising. They have recent form for this kind of thing in Macedonia, where England's black players Emile Heskey, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole were racially abused during an international.
We are told the human race is constantly advancing physically and intellectually, it is clear not everyone is on the genetic highway. Some remain stuck on the hard shoulder, knuckles dragging on the Tarmac, grunting to themselves and pointing at the sky whenever a big, shiny metal bird passes overhead.
And if man evolved from the ape, why are monkeys still on the planet? There appears to be an element of choice in this whole evolutionary thing, a moment when a species reaches a fork in the road and is faced with a choice between using the right knife at the dinner table or pointing and making 'ooo-ooo' noises at football grounds.
Unfortunately, the oaf you see here is among The Ones Who Have Been Left Behind (forgive me if I'm getting too scientific), preferring to slop around in his stagnant gene pool untroubled by advances in education or social behaviour.
UEFA say they are now 'investigating' the incident at FC Rabotnicki and waiting for reports. That's what they do.
In the meantime, the East European club will no doubt cook up an alternative reality and, since Greek centre back Sotirios Kyrgiakos was also jeered, they will claim he was the target of these monkey impersonations, not the black players (which would be a first).
Amid the confusion, UEFA will dole out some inconsequential fine and hope everyone forgets about it. Imagine it was the other way around. Imagine black players from Macedonia had been racially abused at Anfield on Thursday night.
It would be headline news across the world. There would be flashbacks to the Heysel Stadium disaster, talkshow phone-ins on the scourge of racism and calls for Liverpool to be kicked out of Europe.
Odd that. But one of the reasons Mario Balotelli is 'anxious' to flee Inter Milan for England is because of intolerable levels of racism directed at him inside Serie A grounds. Last year Juventus fans chanted: 'A negro cannot be Italian' and 'If you jump up and down Balotelli dies' at the Sicilian-born player of Ghanaian descent. It reached the point where Juventus were ordered to play behind closed doors.
This overt racism happens regularly in Spain too, something Thierry Henry alluded to when he left La Liga and signed for New York Red Bulls.
'Unfortunately in Europe, it's a reflection on society. If you are from another religion, or another country or a different colour then you can hear some bad stuff,' he said. 'I never heard any bad stuff about racism happening in the US.' He might want to miss any club trips South, then. But without being complacent, as we still have our fair share of apes, all of that seems astonishingly crass to us here now.
Liverpool are not making an official complaint about this incident in Macedonia, but say they are happy for UEFA to investigate. So what happens if there is a repeat at Anfield in the return game this coming Thursday? Hopefully police will drag the offenders to a nearby cage. Then we can feed them bananas through the bars and wait while they evolve.
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