Racism in Football

[Fulham Broadway 16,410]

Right I am talking about the recent outpouring of media coverage in the UK -not the nutters in Serbia or Russia.

Former Newcastle goalkeeper Shaka Hislop described John Terry’s four-match ban as ‘soft’ and said that there was anger amongst black players after what he described as a ‘terrible 12 months in terms of racism in the game’. Hislop said: ‘For too long, black and minority players have felt that the authorities have paid only lip-service to the serious issue of racism in the English game.’

So what has this terrible 12 months’ of racism amounted to? One incident of racist abuse, and one of using racist language on the pitch, a few malign internet trolls and a handful of complaints about abusive fans. It’s hardly evidence that the English game is plagued by racism. The truth is that racial abuse - from players or fans - appears shocking precisely because it is so rare.

If they (the FA) really want to look at racism in the English game they need to look at the complete absence of black let alone Asian people at any substantial level of the clubs -or heaven forbid in the hallowed rooms of the FA. They wont because theyre institutionalised racists themselves, and its convenient to point the finger at a couple of ill educated players. It then descends into a farce of will he wear the T shirt, will he shake his hand ?

Chelsea FC could actually be held up as a bastion of anti-racism instead of ''JTs KKK club'' as the media would portray it. Jewish owner, jewish board, we've had Emantalo a black man at a level that no other club has had a black man, and a jewish manager with Grant.

rant over

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Chelsea FC could actually be held up as a bastion of anti-racism instead of ''JTs KKK club'' as the media would portray it. Jewish owner, jewish board, we've had Emantalo a black man at a level that no other club has had a black man, and a jewish manager with Grant.

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And Eddie Newton. How many assistant managers are minorities on other clubs? Chelsea's multiculturalism was one of the reasons I loved them in my first years of fandom. Most other clubs were basically just slow British players who liked to lob the ball up the field and hoped to get a head on it. We had Zola and Desailly and Poyet and Babayaro (in fact, Chelsea have been one of the best clubs at bringing African players over as well. We've had Essien, Mikel, Drogba, ) It bothers me when people try to act as if we're a racist club (like say, half the teams in some parts of the continent or Leeds.)

[Fulham Broadway 16,410]

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And Eddie Newton. How many assistant managers are minorities on other clubs? Chelsea's multiculturalism was one of the reasons I loved them in my first years of fandom. Most other clubs were basically just slow British players who liked to lob the ball up the field and hoped to get a head on it. We had Zola and Desailly and Poyet and Babayaro (in fact, Chelsea have been one of the best clubs at bringing African players over as well. We've had Essien, Mikel, Drogba, ) It bothers me when people try to act as if we're a racist club (like say, half the teams in some parts of the continent or Leeds.)

How could I forget Eddie ? Yes I am sure thats why we have a united nations of fans on this forum because of the multi-etnicity of CFC.

Around 25% of professional footballers are black. The Premier League is awash with foreign players. The bad old days of monkey grunts and banana skins are long gone. So what is it that Jason Roberts and his disgruntled colleagues think needs to change? The player says he wants better funding for Kick It Out, more staff in the PFA’s equality department and positive action to increase the number of black coaches. In other words, more jobs for the boys. David James was spot on when he accused anti-racist groups of talking up the problem. ‘I think that some people have an agenda to keep themselves in existence and, as a player, I don’t see the racism issue - anywhere, personally'

Instead of tackling racism within the foundations and hierarchies of football It is now all about language, symbols and gestures. Of course, wearing t-shirts doesn’t make black players equal but neither does the criminalisation of name-calling.

[Changingman_2000 876]

I think the gutter press have gone completely over the top with this issue this year. Racism should not be tolerated at any level but some would have you believe that it is happening at every game, every week.

Take the Sordell incident at Millwall. I have a couple of Millwall friends who go week in, week out. WIth Sordell, it seems that a 13 year old kid shouted "Oi, you look like a fish" as Sordell warmed up. Sordell allegedly aimed an insult back at the kid, about him being ugly. Next thing, he's reported it and it all goes off. It would seem that Millwall tried to force the kid to write a letter of apology, which he grudgedly did. Although his old man was none too pleased about it. All this led to the banner at the following 'wall home game:

[Hutcho 8,443]

A lot of it is just BS, like how the JT thing dragged for a year.... Really. Give him a fine, and a ban and move on. If that is a criminal case then there will be so many criminal cases for name calling it will be unbelievable. He said my mum is a cunt... Ok, then thats bring out the jury and waste tax payer money. Extreme cases like in serbia should be treated harshly, but what did they do, fine then 17 grand or somthing stupid... And then you have some players who refused to wear an anti racism shirt singleing themselves out for not wearing a shirt promoting the thing that they are protesting against wearing... The irony is extremely high and makes zero sense to me.

Also what is with Ex-players coming out saying the problem is worse... Back then racism was a regular thing, and it was much worse, but obviously not many people cared. or they didn't have enough of a voice to show their discontent.. There have been many sitcoms in years gone by, before my time, where they used to call black people all sorts of names. Many of which won't get shown on british tv today.