Fan incident during Oldham game

[G]

I hope the police find what he said asap and announce their course of action.

Until they do we are all speculating prematurely and both sides of the debate will find fault with the opposing sides stance on the matter. It's already happening. We are being accused of covering for the abuser by suggesting that he said manc ******* and not the other thing. The opposing argument to that is by saying he said black ******* then we are hanging him based on hearsay and opinion.

I personally will stay out of the debate until the facts as established by the police are known.

If it was racist I'd be very disappointed that he wasn't lynched by those around him though.

[Shanks]

Fantastic, I hope they catch this idiot, there's no need for racist abuse anywhere. Racists have no place at our club.

Jeez..

[GTi]

Surprised no video footage has turned up yet. If he was racially abused then the people who were stood around him should have dealt with him and handed him in/reported him. Perhaps that has happened. The truth will out (hopefully).

[Shanks]

Surprised no video footage has turned up yet. If he was racially abused then the people who were stood around him should have dealt with him and handed him in/reported him. Perhaps that has happened. The truth will out (hopefully).

The lack of TV cameras will hinder their investigation..
Not as many there as usual..

I think this will rely on key witness statements..

[G]

@propagandaphoto is a Liverpool fan and freelance photographer and was there. He said the incident was caught by tv cameras and was replayed in the press room. This footage was not played on TV though.

[The Birdman]

Another case of a massive over reaction from the majority of people.
IF someone in the Kop racially abused him then ban him for life from all football matches.
IF he didn't then move along, nothing to see here.

Either way it was 1 or 2 people out of 45,000.
Not all Celtic and Rangers fans are labelled as racist becuase they have 1 or 2 idiots shouting sectarian (spelling??) abuse

[Fredo]

yet Holt doesn't speak for Liverpool Football Club, and Liverpool Football Club does. Getting our house in order is our job. And part of that is making sure that we don't leave the club wide open for this sort of criticism. Because as it stands even to a Liverpool fan like me, I read the criticism and it seems justified.

Well I can't blame the club for taking the stance that anyone is innocent until proven guilty.

[Exiled_red]

@propagandaphoto is a Liverpool fan and freelance photographer and was there. He said the incident was caught by tv cameras and was replayed in the press room. This footage was not played on TV though.

Does he say what the guy says? Whether it is a racist comment, or whether as some suggested it was mis-heard.

[BG1973]

**** me people what do you say to that, sounds like there was more than one or two cunts on the day. Speechless. maybe I am naive but I expected better from my fellow liverpool fans

Football fans are a representation of society and unfortunately there are nasty ***** everywhere, at every club including ours.

If it's proven that something racist was said then it's actually a very good opportunity for the club to show it does not tolerate racism by banning the ****s and handing their info over to the police.

[Chazza]

I hope this gets sorted out sharpish, another piece doing the rounds

Andrew_Heaton Andy Heaton
According to Sportwitness, Reuben Hazell received 'abuse' for his account of events last night, sportwitness.ning.com/forum/topics/o…, can anyone verify?
8 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Oldham player upset by abuse

Posted by SPORT WITNESS on January 7, 2012 at 9:47am in Liverpool

Liverpool's 5-1 walloping of Oldham Athletic has been overshadowed by reports of racist abuse towards Oldham's on-loan youngster Tom Adeyemi. The player is owned by Norwich City but joined the Latics in August after having a loan spell with Bradford City last season.

Towards the end of the game, there was an incident involving Tom Adeyemi and one or more supporters on the Kop. The player appeared to be visibly upset and had to be calmed down by others. He clearly had words with the referee and there are pictures showing his anger and apparent bewilderment.

This is from the Guardian:

Witnesses reported seeing two fans wearing Luis Suárez T-shirts – similar to those worn by Liverpool players at Wigan last month, after the Uruguayan was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra – confronting Adeyemi. A witness who gave evidence to Liverpool officials and the police said: "I was to the right of the Kop and the No11 turned to walk away after a tackle. I heard a single voice shout, 'You f****** black b******.' He spun round with shock on his face and started pointing at the crowd, from where the shout had come."

It was interesting and informing reading the views of Reuben Hazell, a player who left Oldham last year and went to the game last night to watch his former team-mates.

"I have finally arrived home after what was meant 2 be a fun filled entertaining Friday nght going 2 watch the Latics make history at Anfield by beating Liverpool & at the same time support some old team mates of mine. The game was a good one, didnt think Oldham deserved to lose 5-1 but Liverpool have quality throughout and it showed in the end. In the 2nd half an incident took place in the Kop end where Oldham right back Tom Adeyami looked like he was having some kind of altercation with a Liverpool supporter.

The game was stopped for several minutes whilst players from both sides and the referee surrounded Tom. I straight away thought this might be racial for him to react to a fan in this way and for no punishment handed out to him by the referee. A lot of the Latics fans started singing to the Liverpool fans 'YOUR ALL JUST A BUNCH OF RACISTS' so obviously they where thinking the same as me.

Anyway after the game I went into the the Oldham dressing room to catch up with my old mates and spoke to Tom Adeyemi directly about what the altercation with the fan was all about. He said he was racially abused by the fan. This is FACT. He also said that police want to speak to him and was asking for advice from his team mates what to do. Everyone around him told him to go ahead and give his version of events to the police."

Reuben was then sent abuse for sharing his side of events.

Adeyemi did make a complaint to the police and alleged he was racially abused twice. The police and investigating the incident and will decide what action to take next.

Whilst we don't know what happened, and very few people will, it's clear the player was upset. Any campaign - even if just by a mindless few insinuating Adeyemi is lying, mistaken, or over sensitive - will do further to harm the reputation of Liverpool football club.

To suggest that Liverpool is a racist club is wrong and inflammatory but all clubs will have a racist element of support, just as a reflection of society. If some at Liverpool now feel more comfortable in expressing this then it needs stamping out, both by their fellow supporters and the club.

[alunevans]

This is getting stupid. Do we know what the bloke said? it could be just a case of a misunderstanding. We are ready to believe the Oldham player heard correctly but not Evra. What ever happened to innocent before being proved guilty.

And to blame the King for this because he supported a player that he believed and still believed has been unfairly treated is just crap. What is he supposed to do, anytime one of our players he thinks is wrongly accused of something racist, do nothing and support the accusation, because doing otherwise makes him condone racism.

On another point, the FA cynical release of the report on New Years eve because they knew that the lazy journalists had already written their copies and would not read the report analytically.

Rant over

This is what LFC's response SHOULD have been.

We should have said that the lad used a racial term and for that he broke the rules and deserves a punishment. We should have said sorry from the off for that and meant it.

We should have said that racial language really is unacceptable even when, as in this case, the player was not intending it as a slur, and lessons have been learned.

We should have said that we agreed with a ban but feel that the extent of the punishment has unfairly given Suarez a reputation in the public eye that we feel is undeserved.

We could have made the point that there were many mitigating factors in this case that pointed to a lesser punishment.

We could have pointed out that this was a nuanced and complex case that depended in part on linguistic and cultural interpretations and we felt it demanded a more considered response from the authorities. We could have made the point that Luis Suarez could easily have chosen to use a racial slur rather than a racial term had this been his aim, and emphasise that everyone has accepted that Luis Suarez is not a racist, including Patrice Evra, Suarez's own team mates and the FA report itself.

We could have reiterated our zero tolerance to racism in football and our 100% support to the FA's commitment to eradicating it from the game.

We could have reiterated that we feel Luis Suarez broke the rules and deserves punishment and that our only question would be over the length of the ban, which makes this look a much more straigthforward case than it really was.

But we didn't. We acted with all the extreme emotions of a fan and created a crusade. It was foolish.

[TheElephantMan]

After recent weeks/months we really don't need this. An excellent result for the reds marred by one dickhead. Part of me hopes that the offender isn't a Liverpool supporter at all, but in all probability he is. I've received messages from people via Twitter accusing me of being a racist because I have the audacity to have the Liverbird as my avatar. Everyone is so uptight about this issue and we are wrongly accused of being racist supporters then some idiot appears to have provided more ammunition to hit us with.

Oh - and it seems that whatever was yelled at the player it really did seem to upset the lad. I'm sure he's big enough to deal with it, but he shouldn't have to.

[malg]

The ban for Suarez was over the top. The fan who abused the Oldham player last night IF found to be true should be banned for life and face criminal charges. As for us agreeing everything else, I for don't feel the LFC done anything wrong in the defence of Suarez and we should just not role over and get are bellies rubbed. The FA and Evra have caused all this **** not Liverpool.

[Vermilion]

After recent weeks/months we really don't need this. An excellent result for the reds marred by one dickhead. Part of me hopes that the offender isn't a Liverpool supporter at all, but in all probability he is. I've received messages from people via Twitter accusing me of being a racist because I have the audacity to have the Liverbird as my avatar. Everyone is so uptight about this issue and we are wrongly accused of being racist supporters then some idiot appears to have provided more ammunition to hit us with.

The people giving you stick are as idiotic and uninformed as the racists out there, they have an equally biased agenda right now, ignore them.

[Vermilion]

The ban for Suarez was over the top. The fan who abused the Oldham player last night IF found to be true should be banned for life and face criminal charges. As for us agreeing everything else, I for don't feel the LFC done anything wrong in the defence of Suarez and we should just not role over and get are bellies rubbed. The FA and Evra have caused all this **** not Liverpool.

They have turned this into a **** storm, but **** storms like any other, will eventually pass.