Evra accuses Suarez of racism

[TheElephantMan]

None of this makes any sense, the FA must have some compelling evidence. I find it hard to believe that the FA would come to their verdict otherwise, they would be made to look complete fools.

[Neil Young]

The FA's handling of all this is abysmal. The report should have been with the club within 24 hours. There's no excuse for this kind of incompetence.

[Neil Young]

None of this makes any sense, the FA must have some compelling evidence. I find it hard to believe that the FA would come to their verdict otherwise, they would be made to look complete fools.

I assume you're being ironic.

[Exiled_red]

So presumably the club have the information and it's being assessed?

There was a report in one of the papers saying that it could be a month (middle of January) before the club receive the detailed report from the FA. The 14 day period to decide if we are to appeal or no only begins when the club gets the report. I would imagine when the club get the report we will be aware of it because we will then find out when the 14 day period is due to end.

Whether the report will be made public by the FA I don't know.

[G]

By Tony Evans in today's times

I don’t know much about South American culture and slang. I do know, however, a little about the mechanics of confrontation. Even at Sunday League level, I’ve had verbal spats and faced down opposition players from Everton Valley to East Los Angeles. As a fan, I’ve exchanged insults — and worse — with rival supporters from Trafford Park to the Tiber.

That’s just the football-related stuff. In real life, I’ve been in the middle of riots, squared up to police on picket lines and fought fascist bully-boys with bare knuckles.

What have I learnt? Not much, but enough to know that if I’m having a row with a black man and I make a reference to his colour, he’s going to think it’s a racist slur.

Luis Suárez, Liverpool Football Club and legions of their fans seem bewildered that the word negrito directed at a black man in the course of an argument would lead the individual concerned to assume that he had been racially abused.

Nobody would deny that the exchange between Suárez and Patrice Evra was acrimonious. Nobody would deny that the word negrito makes reference to blackness. So where are Suárez’s grounds for defence?

Well, the linguistic experts tell us that negrito is not a pejorative term. In fact, it appears that it is a friendly phrase in Hispanic culture. In one defence of the Liverpool striker, the writer talked of hearing a young, white woman with a dark complexion being referred to by the same term during a business transaction in Buenos Aires.

The problem with this is that Evra is not a young white woman, nor is he Hispanic. He is a short, black Frenchman, who, from his perspective, appears to have been called something akin to “little black boy” by someone he was having a row with. Suárez, quite clearly, was not being genial. He was winding up Evra on the pitch in the heat of a Liverpool v Manchester United game. No wonder the defender felt racially abused.

In September, a mere handful of Liverpool fans would have even heard the term negrito. Now they are experts in the semantics of Hispanic slang, describing in detail how it is a term of affection. Well, if Suárez was being affectionate to a United player during a game, the club should crack down on him. An eight-game ban? Surely that should be a sackable offence?

There are so many words in English, French and Spanish that can be used in a quarrel that referencing colour in any way seems at best ill-advised and at worst racist. Either way it’s bloody stupid.

Suárez may not have had any racist intent but the Hispanic subtleties were lost on Evra. They’d be lost on most in Britain.

So this unedifying spat continues with Liverpool supporters — almost to a man — behind Suárez.

It is embarrassing. Is it not possible for Liverpool fans to have some empathy with Evra? To see that he felt racially abused? Seemingly not in the pathetically tribal world of football, where basic decencies are thrown out the window and the “my club right or wrong” ethic prevails.

If it were all a cultural misunderstanding, why didn’t Liverpool nip it in the bud in October? It may be me, but once the word negrito cropped up I winced. I may be culturally naive, but it sounded ugly. It would sound worse to a black man.

The club should have put out a statement that read something like this: “Patrice Evra has alleged that Luis Suárez made racist remarks to him during the game at Anfield. Suárez denies this emphatically but has come to realise that it was easy for Evra to misunderstand the nuances of the Spanish phrase used and believe that he had been racially abused. Suárez would like to apologise unreservedly for any upset caused and make clear that he is against racism and discrimination in all its forms. It was a poor choice of words in the context but any student of South American culture will explain it has no racial overtones. In future, Liverpool Football Club will issue its players with a set of guidelines as to what is acceptable and not acceptable.”

Effectively, just say sorry, I didn’t mean that, I feel a bit stupid now.

Suárez is not a racist but he has been a fool. The trick is not to compound foolishness.

Instead, Liverpool put out a statement that threw the blame back at Evra, then gave us the risible sight of Suárez warming up at the DW Stadium before the Wigan Athletic match in a T-shirt supporting himself.

Pointing the finger at Evra is shameful. It can only harden the FA’s determination to make its point. And despite the more rabid conspiracy theorists, this is a battle that the FA would rather not have.

This situation — along with the John Terry/Anton Ferdinand incident — has brought the game into disrepute and exposed racial fault lines in football and society that most thought had been buried forever. One look at the abuse that Stan Collymore — a former Liverpool forward — has been receiving shows that. Sadly, it looks like decency has been buried instead.

[Jack D Rips]

Problem with Tony's article is that Evra is a fluent Spanish speaker. Fluent enough to know how to insult Suarez in Spanish.

Presumably being fluent in Spanish he would know the meaning of the word "negrito"

[spanky]

A lot of that seems based on the assumption that evra has never heard the term "negrito" but i got the impression that Hernandez uses it at Manu?

just a very messy situation that will likely drag on into the new year

[Kenneth]

We should appeal and the FA should reduce the ban due to 'cultural nuances' and everybody should try and move on.

[Chris]

Horrendous from Evans, nothing new there then!

[BobTheCharmer]

Horrendous from Evans, nothing new there then!

aye, he's basically saying, I'm english, I realise I know very little about cultural differences but once I heard the spanish word for black, he's guilty.

[Kenneth]

I do wonder what would have happened if such a statement, issued straight after the allegation, was released. Would probably have led to a better outcome all round in reality.

[BobTheCharmer]

one thing that should never happen, is suarez should never apologise to evra.

[Kenneth]

one thing that should never happen, is suarez should never apologise to evra.

Why so categorical?

[destinydude]

I do wonder what would have happened if such a statement, issued straight after the allegation, was released. Would probably have led to a better outcome all round in reality.

For that to have happened, Suarez must be knowing that 'negrito' was the word with which Evra took offense. I really don't think Suarez knew what it meant and if that was the particular word that caused the whole issue.

having said that, if Evra wanted an apology he could have lodged a complaint with us threatening to tell the FA than running directly to them. He knew what he was doing. He did not want an apology and after all the ruckus I'd be livid if Suarez apologises to him.

It's him who has taken all the heat for a complete non starter of an alleged offense

[dww]

Looking back at everything I suspect that pretty much everyone has something to learn from this - most especially LFC, Suarez and the FA. It's been a mess and no one has come out of it looking good.

Fell sorry for both Evra and Suarez in some ways. The latter really should however make some statement of apology/explanation. I suspect the whole legal/FA process might make that difficult, but it would be more helpful than some statements that have come out of the club.