Racism in Football

[Kenneth]

Doesn't zero tolerance mean that all incidents are punished, rather than all punishments are massive?

[Kenneth]

Footballer probably racially abused another football. Footballer protests his innocense amd pays fine of a quarter of a million quid. Every arsehole has an opinion.

[Alex]

Would you rather we didn't talk about it? Just accept what happened and move on? Some opinions have been hysterical. But I think the discussion on here as been fairly decent.

[Exiled_red]

Doesn't zero tolerance mean that all incidents are punished, rather than all punishments are massive?

Yes

[scully]

IMO, yes. If he chooses not to wear the anti racism shirt. Why did he not just go ahead and do it, rather than make a big thing about it in the rags

A protest isn't exactly effective unless it's publicised, is it? This is from the BBC:

Kick It Out facts
•Kick Racism out of Football began in 1993
•It became the more wide ranging anti-discrimination body Kick It Out in 1997
•Its first Kick It Out week of action was held in 2001
•In season 2010-11 the organisation had an annual budget of £453,913
•Of that, £330,000 came from the Football Association, the Premier League and the Professional Footballers' Association
•It employs seven staff

(a) an organisation so dependent upon contributions from the organisations it seeks to hold to account is somewhat neutered from the outset;
(b) It employs seven staff. How 'Blue Peter' does that sound? I just envision 7 little ineffective milk bottle top collectors recording racist incidents and imagining that pointing them out is the same as ensuring they don't happen again. The whole campaign is completely tokenistic, if I was a black or other 'ethnic minority' footballer I would feel utterly patronised by it and likewise be demanding racism were dealt with more effectively. Fergie's criticism of Roberts and today's threat of punishment for Ferdinand for not wearing the T-shirt is utterly offensive - with the exception of his nose, Fergie, as a white man, has no right dictating to black players how they should respond to racist incidents, I don't even think he is capable of grasping the relevance of Kick It Out to the issue of racism as a whole, he just sees going along with it as an act of establishment conformity. Roberts, Ferdinand and others are exposing that very pointlessness.

[Vermilion]

Doesn't zero tolerance mean that all incidents are punished, rather than all punishments are massive?

It does, but if the punishments are consistently deemed feeble and lame, then people still see the offence as being tolerated. imo.

If the law says it has a zero tolerance on murder, but then only fined murderers £20, would that be seen as zero tolerance ? I don't think so.

[Kenneth]

Would you rather we didn't talk about it? Just accept what happened and move on? Some opinions have been hysterical. But I think the discussion on here as been fairly decent.

The discussion here has been good as ever. But when the discussion is about supporting one group or another, wearing tshirts or not wearing tshirts, shaking hands or not shaking hands, whether disapproval is voiced quite loudly enough etc, then its questionable whether it's actually about racism or more political. Who's the most right on etc. There are very few racist incidents in English football, far less than society at large, and the issue doesn't warrant the coverage imo. Its a bandwagon that enables players to build their profile, the media to make money from sales and everyone else to feel better about themselves. Sick of it.

[Vermilion]

The discussion here has been good as ever. But when the discussion is about supporting one group or another, wearing tshirts or not wearing tshirts, shaking hands or not shaking hands, whether disapproval is voiced quite loudly enough etc, then its questionable whether it's actually about racism or more political. Who's the most right on etc. There are very few racist incidents in English football, far less than society at large, and the issue doesn't warrant the coverage imo. Its a bandwagon that enables players to build their profile, the media to make money from sales and everyone else to feel better about themselves. Sick of it.

Me too, i think the reason is, that if it had just been a general football thing, i'd have avoided most of this stuff tbh, but because we as a club have been directly involved i've ended up taking the whole sorry saga in, and all the other stuff that came since.

Yep, fed up to the back teeth of it all.

[Red_Polo]

Kenneth would you say there is no problem other than those satisfactorily dealt with and that everyone should move on?

[Kenneth]

I would say that the problem has received sufficient action and more than sufficient coverage over the last year and while it is not a subject that can be ignored, continuation of the saturation coverage of issues peripheral to the actual incidents is unnecessary and should cease, yes.

[Red_Polo]

I would say that the problem has received sufficient action and more than sufficient coverage over the last year and while it is not a subject that can be ignored, continuation of the saturation coverage of issues peripheral to the actual incidents is unnecessary and should cease, yes.

Think you've got that completely the wrong way around. If anything the media focus has been far too much on the cases and not enough on the surrounding issues, which are more important than the individual cases because they are systemic/continuing.

You're in danger of putting everyone who still has something to say down as a bandwagoner or careerist. Some are, but not all. You can't expect everyone to slip into silence and inaction just because the level of coverage has gotten boring. They should do whatever they see fit.

[dom9]

Was that really a moral stand though or just a convenient way to get someone they didn't want out of the club?

On a side note what happened with the 17m euros Mutu was supposed to pay them?

Maybe, but they did it with Bosnic too, and a youth player if memory serves.

[Kenneth]

Think you've got that completely the wrong way around. If anything the media focus has been far too much on the cases and not enough on the surrounding issues, which are more important than the individual cases because they are systemic/continuing.

You're in danger of putting everyone who still has something to say down as a bandwagoner or careerist. Some are, but not all. You can't expect everyone to slip into silence and inaction just because the level of coverage has gotten boring. They should do whatever they see fit.

obviously I can't/shouldn't expect people to do what I wish, and i don't. But there is nothing interesting left to say in my view, so I personally wish the noise would stop.

[Assassin]

Apparently tatty head terry will not be offered a new contract by the chavs.......

[destinydude]

His current deal goes till 2014. He still has enough time. Cunt.