Pitch Black (22 page)

Although small, Harper was skilful and strong and, as one of only two black kids on the sprawling estate, football was an important part of his integration and acceptance into the world of his peers. However, while his proficiency as a footballer had gained him acceptance, it hadn't provided freedom
from racist abuse. Growing up in the 1980s, Harper constantly had to fight to defend himself from racist abuse from other children. Furthermore, after he'd given another child a beating for racially abusing him, their parents would often seek him out to provide him with additional racist abuse.

His introduction to organised grassroots football came when a game he was playing with a friend was suddenly abandoned after his friend had been forced to leave to attend football training. His friend invited Harper along and Harper went to play for Celtic North in nearby Sighthill. Sighthill would later become a housing location for asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants, due to its low occupancy rate and poor conditions. After a year at Celtic North, he played for West Park in Bishopbriggs, an affluent area of north Glasgow.

His manager at Bishopbriggs was to have a huge influence on his childhood. Bert Rowan would pick Harper up from his home and drop him off in his car. He organised a number of trips abroad for the team to play in international youth tournaments. Harper's mother worked three jobs to save enough money to buy him football boots, so foreign football tournaments were out of the question. Rowan would arrange sponsorship for Harper to fund his trip and provide him with a little spending money.

Harper suffered constant racist abuse not only by opponents but also by coaches and parents on the sidelines. It cut him deeply, particularly the experience of being racially abused by adults, which he found especially horrific. Referees did nothing, unwilling or unable to address the behaviour. In the absence of FIFA directives or leadership amongst grassroots administrators, he was left to deal with the situation pretty much on his own. As his mother couldn't drive
and had therefore never seen him play, she could offer him no support or protection.

By the age of thirteen he was constantly told how good he was and began to realise that he really was a talented footballer. As he became one of West Park's stand-out performers, opposition coaches and parents would constantly implore their charges to ‘break the black bastard's legs'. As Harper was no shrinking violet, he would get into fights on the pitch and arguments on the sidelines, until Rowan took him aside and encouraged him to allow his football to do the talking.

He began to attract the attention of professional clubs. At a tournament in Paisley, Alex Miller, manager of Hibs, was watching his son play when his attention was drawn to an adjoining pitch, where a small black kid was ripping through opposition defences at will and helping himself to a hatful of goals. A couple of weeks later, Miller turned up at Harper's home, along with Hibs coach Martin Ferguson, brother of Sir Alex. At the time, Harper had been training with Hearts and had also received interest from Dundee United and Spurs, but was impressed with Hibs because their manager had made an effort to come round to a rough housing scheme that he would have heard about for all the wrong reasons. He also felt that he'd get the opportunity to get into the first team much quicker than at other sides, so he agreed to sign schoolboy forms with Hibs. A week before his sixteenth birthday, he signed professional forms and began his rise through the ranks. After a handful of reserve team appearances, he made his first-team debut at the age of seventeen. In so doing, Harper became the first home-grown black player to appear in the Scottish Premier League.

In 1991, the Scottish FA had belatedly condemned the boos and monkey chants suffered by Mark Walters after his experience at Tynecastle had been brought to national attention by Archie Macpherson's expression of shame on Scottish television. It continued to sit on the sidelines as racist behaviour and actions continued to blight the Scottish game. In August 1995, George Galloway, Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead, had announced the possible takeover of Partick Thistle by a consortium of Asian businessmen fronted by Charan Gill, a businessman and restaurant owner. Thistle desperately needed investment in the team, while fan groups had voiced concern over the continued lack of investment in playing staff and over the Thistle board's running of the club. Days after Galloway's announcement, Partick Thistle chairman Jim Oliver stated that Galloway was trying to win support for Asian votes, the club was being hijacked and he would not sell it ‘simply to satisfy the wishes of some Indian with a curry shop'. When Oliver was asked if his comments were racist, he replied, ‘As I understand it he is an Indian and he owns a curry shop. If he is not an Indian with a curry shop, then I'll apologise … if they are Asians, Eskimos, or one-eyed black lesbian saxophone players, if they have the money we will talk to them.'

The media debate around the takeover – or ‘takeaway', as it was often described – was full of racist language, crude stereotypes and racist ‘humour'. The unashamed description of the club as ‘Paki Thistle' by Ian Archer, a journalist from
The Herald
in August 1995, demonstrated the depths to which Scottish newspapers were prepared to sink. Meanwhile, the Scottish FA remained silent.

It was in an Edinburgh derby game at Hibs' Easter Road ground in September 1996 that the Scottish FA further
demonstrated its craven attitude towards issues of racism. Harper had been subjected to monkey noises by Hearts supporters every time he picked up possession. Hearts were 2–0 up when Harper picked up a pass on the right-hand side. With a body swerve, he put one defender on his backside and picked up pace, and with a drop of the shoulder he pushed the ball past Hearts captain Gary Mackay. Comprehensively beaten for pace, Mackay brought him down. As Harper picked himself up and made his way towards the penalty area to wait for the resultant free kick, Mackay barged into him and got right in his face. As Harper continued on his way, Mackay allegedly made monkey noises at him (which Mackay has denied). The match ended with a 3–1 victory for Hearts, but the following day Harper was contacted by a journalist from
Scotland on Sunday
and asked for his comments on the issue. A subsequent piece appeared in the paper, in which Harper spoke about the need to integrate ethnic minority kids into the Scottish game and how the incident sent out the wrong message to them.

The SFA had an opportunity to undertake some kind of investigation into Harper's allegations, but chose not to. They also had an opportunity to bring charges of ‘bringing the game into disrepute', or similar, but didn't. There were none of the channels to deal with issues of racism that should clearly have been put in place after Mark Walters and then Paul Elliott had been racially abused. Mackay was an established and high-profile Scottish international and was never questioned or called to account for the allegations, which he has always denied. Mackay undertakes high-profile anti-racist work within Scottish football, including with Show Racism the Red Card. Harper was only twenty years old at the time and was left frustrated and angered by the lack of action by the custodians of the Scottish game.
Pointedly, there was no support for Harper from his club or teammates, their inaction a reflection of simply not knowing how to react.

Hibs were relegated at the end of season 1997/98 and, as one of its brightest stars, Harper went to Derby County in the English Premier League for a week-long trial before being sold to them at the start of the following season as Hibs desperately sought ways to cut costs.

The now 22-year-old had been suspended as a result of a red card he'd received as Hibs' battle to stave off relegation faltered. Therefore, he hadn't played any games for Hibs and wasn't fit enough to feature for his new side in the immediate aftermath of his transfer in September 1998. Harper observed that Premier League players were bigger, fitter and stronger than he was used to in Scotland and, although Hibs were a professional outfit, the level of professionalism and the standard of facilities that existed at Derby were of an altogether different magnitude. His coach at Derby was Steve McClaren, future England manager, whom Harper describes as the best coach he's worked with. McClaren's sessions were geared towards honing preparation for matches. Sessions were short, sharp and high-tempo and were varied to maintain the interest of players and to focus on different aspects of their play. Just prior to matches, the squad would play fast-paced games of seven-a-side to increase sharpness for the game ahead. As well as specialist seven-a-side pitches, there were massage chairs, big screens to watch videos of games, and specialist training facilities – a far cry from what he was used to at Hibs. In addition, there were some great players and internationals at Derby such as the Croatian Igor Štimac, the Costa Rican Paulo Wanchope, the Italian Stefano Eranio, the Norwegian Lars Bohinen, the Argentinian
Horacio Carbonari, and Deon Burton, who had represented Jamaica at the recent World Cup, as well as home-grown black players such as Dean Sturridge. The multinational and cosmopolitan nature of the Derby side was a far cry from the overwhelmingly Scottish nature of the Hibs squad.

Some six weeks after signing for Derby, Harper was fit enough to be included in the first-team squad. He had been put on a weight programme as part of his fitness regime, and now, visibly heavier, he made his first start at Anfield against Liverpool. In spite of his small stature, Harper had always been a good header of a ball and had a prodigious leap. Employed on the right but with licence to drift infield, he got on the end of a deep cross from the left to employ his leaping ability to great effect and put a firm, well-placed header beyond David James into the Kop-end goal to put Derby 1–0 up. He also had a hand in Derby's second goal by Wanchope and, despite a late rally by Liverpool to pull a goal back, Derby ran out 2–1 winners.

However, Harper's move to Derby was a rather unhappy one overall. It was the first time he'd been away from his mother and he didn't settle well and wasn't sleeping. He was living in a hotel, where there were also other Derby players, including Rory Delap, with whom he got on well. He was also friendly with Deon Burton, but Burton lived in Nottingham and Harper felt largely isolated and had few friends, which in turn caused him to become too independent and seek out his own company far too readily.

Harper's form was affected and he failed to impress. His appearances were largely as substitute, and part way through the following season he was loaned out to Walsall. Initially, this was to be for the remainder of the season, but his loan period was cut short when he was sold to Portsmouth
in March 2000. His time at Portsmouth was special and coincided with one of the most exciting times in the club's history. The club were embroiled in a relegation battle from the First Division when he joined and they managed to stay up on the last day of the season. Manager Tony Pulis, who'd signed him, was sacked in October 2000 and was eventually replaced by Graham Rix in February 2001. The side were languishing in mid-table when Rix was sacked and replaced by the club's Director of Football, Harry Redknapp, in March 2002. With newly acquired money from club owner Milan Mandarić, Redknapp brought in England internationals like Steve Stone and Paul Merson. He also signed high-quality players like Shaka Hislop and Nigerian international Yakubu. Harper played thirty-nine games at right and left wing-back during the 2002/03 season despite suffering a double hernia in October. He was on Voltarol consistently and played on until the last but one game of the season, when he finally had an operation to correct his hernia problem. Portsmouth won the First Division title at a canter to gain promotion to the Premier League.

He played a few games in the Premier League before he was loaned out to Norwich City in the First Division, where he helped the side to gain promotion to the Premier League. He then went to join his former manager Tony Pulis at Stoke City but suffered a number of injuries. He found he had a defect in his back that affected his calf muscles and put them under undue strain. His injury problems meant he was unable to hold down a regular club place and he moved around before returning to Scotland.

During his time at Hibs, Harper had made nine appearances for the Scotland under-21 side and had scored a hat-trick on his debut. Like Iffy Onuora, he should have got
a call up for Scotland under Craig Brown. Brown had stuck with an older generation of players for the Euro 2000 campaign, mistrusting younger players and keeping the old for one tournament too long. The consequence of this was that a generation of Scottish players were denied the opportunity to gain international experience, which deeply affected the national side and the ability of subsequent managers, like Berti Vogts, to have an impact on the team's progress. During the period in which Harper had won a First Division winner's medal with Portsmouth, he was cruelly overlooked for an international cap. Brown gave the impression he thought the English First Division was not of a good standard and Scotland generally were going through one of their occasional periods when English-based players were being overlooked. Undoubtedly, had he played for Celtic or Rangers, Harper would have won a number of international caps.

Through his career, Harper was uniquely positioned to assess the main differences between Scottish and English football with regard to racism, and they proved to be overwhelmingly cultural. The more cosmopolitan nature of the English game and, in particular, the influence of more black players in English teams meant that home-grown white players had far more education and awareness of issues of racism than their Scottish counterparts. This, along with some prominent anti-racist campaigns, had had a significant impact on English society. Meanwhile, Scotland's lack of organised far-right racist groups within the Scottish political framework had allowed a narrative of complacency to develop within Scottish politics and society, giving rise to the idea that racism was somehow an English phenomenon and that Scotland was a far more tolerant and welcoming nation than England. Harper's experience as a child, growing up on
one of Scotland's biggest estates in its biggest city, challenges that idea.