Player Education

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20229332

The Society of Black Lawyers has an interesting 10 point plan to combat racism in football. I am particularly interested in point 7 as follows:

"clubs to invest in the personal education of all players, including university or college education"

I couldn't agree more with this point. I couldn't possibly imagine dropping out of school at 16/17 to become a professional footballer and earning the amount of money that a lot of the young players do! The pressure for the younger players in particular must be difficult to deal with, and throwing a lot of money into the equation almost certainly doesn't help.

So how would education help? I think it would go a long way to combat racism - which is the reason it is wanted by the SBL - but surely it would help to improve players all round game? Wouldn't a degree/college/other education in Sports Science help players to know how to look after their own bodies? It may help players to deal with the psychological pressures of the modern game. It might even remove some of the idiotic challenges we have seen made over the last year or so! (Think M'Bia/Barton for two good examples).

I may be wrong, but then again, Barcelona place an emphasis on educating players in their academy, not just on the footballing side of things. I hope there are plans for this with our new training ground.

Thoughts?

 

I just read through this on the BBC site before I came on here.
I believe somebody needs to put a stop to this as what the F.A decides they should go along with.
Terry may of got of lightly but thats life.
If we have a separate black group then the racial tensions will get worse rather than better.
Do these people really want equality or preferable treatment.

 

A former team mate of mine a few years back was chucked out of the academy team at non league Hayes( Sir les's old club) because he wouldn't go to college while with them. They used to have it as compulsory because so many players don't make it into the professional game. They wanted them to have something to fall back on. Don't know if they still do it, but it's an excellent idea in theory and practice. And it wasn't just turn up and do nothing, the club monitored their progress to make sure they were working hard. That's the information I got back then. In my opinion it's a no brainer, I don't see how it can do anything but good. It may also make them more grounded, and less distant from their fans and the outside world....

 

Nothing wrong with positive discrimination if there's a problem to resolve.

 

Yes there is, it doesnt solve a problem and just puts up more barriers.

I know for a fact the club has address the eduction issue, its something Ive wanted for a long time as most of the people weve had come through the academy are complete tools. German and Baidoo stand out there.

 

No such thing as positive discrimination, in my opinion. It's all dividing and negative. And you will never rid the world of racism, it comes in many forms and no race or colour or country is untarnished by it. Every race has racists among them. The best we can do is attempt to control it and keep it to a minimum. Having said that, just because we will never eliminate it fully, doesn't mean we all shouldn't keep trying. Kids growing up will imitate their parents and grown ups around them, so if we are going to combat it, it's our actions and words that will lead the way.....

 

The education idea is good, players should also be forced to put all earnings over, say £2k a week into a trust fund available to them at age 30, or when they retire, trustees to sanction spending/ investments until then. Time, money and ignorance are their problems.

I'm ok with positive discrimination - if everything else is equal why not appoint the black/ female/ gay candidate? There can be no argument that they have been discriminated against for most of history. But my (American) company has forgotten the " everything else equal " part, stupidly set itself quotas so it can win awards, and is now appointing 'diversity candidates' to positions where there are clearly stronger, more experienced people, who get pissed off and leave the company.

Theory fine, practice very tricky indeed. On the upside, I will soon be able to play the 'ageist' card - if I can rouse myself out of my armchair.....

 

Those people will never give a job to a black person now because they will automatically assume they have inferior qualifications. A perfect example of how it doesnt work and sets up more barriers by divided people by colour, Id really hate to see the UK become like the US were everything is split between race.

 

Maybe I'm being slow but surely EVERYONE - footballers included - knows that racism is wrong already. Why do people need to be educated that it is wrong. If all the publicity surrounding racist incidents inside and outside football hasn't made this clear then I simply don't believe that sending individuals to "college" would either. Being lectured at is more likely to turn these individuals off changing

The fundamental problem is surely the lack of a consistent approach to dealing with incidents, particularly as regards the length of time involved. eg Chelsea "fan" punished immediately....player months after the incident

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear but I was suggesting that education could have a much much wider benefit for players/clubs than just from the racism angle.

 

Agree totally. I heard that nitwit on talksport yesterday and he sounds like a fanatic. He's trying to cause trouble.

Sir Alex Ferguson is right. If you split the Union you are weakening the structure and are in fact creating divisions instead of dissolving them.

 

You should use the best person for the job whether they are "Black/female/gay" /white/green/short/tall/Ginger etc non-discrimination positive or negative is the aim surley ?

 

So the dont go out and buy a car too powerful for them or think they are a rap star.

They need to learn to behave, know that hangers on dont really like them and learn what to do with their money.

 

Of course you should. People advocating discrimination (positive or otherwise) you'll often find are radical extremists and probably hold prejudices themselves.

That guy who's head of the black lawyers association is a case in point. He's very intelligent as you'd expect and can spin arguments brilliantly; again as you'd expect from a Lawyer. But you can sense the bitterness in his tone. He has a vendetta and wants to settle old scores. Individuals and organisations like that ferment separation between people and do more harm than good.

 

This whole thing would leave us in a situation that if a club employed a black manager and they turned out to be a clueless **** like MH, you would still be frightened to sack them because you would have all the black mob accusing the club of sacking him because he is black.
I would advise all clubs to never employ a black manager or assistant if they go ahead with this.

 

Its already happened, Ince has accused clubs of not hiring him because he is black. Everyone knows thats not the case, hes a useless manager and a complete ****er as well.

 

The SBL are now threatening to report spurs fans to the police for the chant "yid army". They are well out of line on this.

What next, banning welsh fans for the chant "sheep, sheep, sheep shaggers"?

 

they are going to ban all hammers fans for calling themselves irons

 

No there wouldn't be with you, any discrimination is wrong.

 

He wants football's organising bodies along with coaches and managers to be made up of 20% black people minimum! The latest figures show that of the population of England and Wales only 2.8% are black. So how can this be achieved without huge discrimination against white or Asian people?