I know we are sick of talking about it, but.......

It's funny how Sepp Blatter got so much abuse for talking about handshakes etc yet no one bats an eye lid about Gordon Taylor.

GT should be protecting players but he has said nothing in the defence of Luis Suarez.

 

Anyone who says anything in Suarez' defence gets accused of being a racist through association, so Taylor's probably keeping his head down on that one.

 

This is the problem with racism, it is the new peadophilia once accused everyone is guilty.

 

I just read that skysports article and then the comments after it. I am amazed that people can still write things like this -

"However, i do wish that Suarez would acknowledge and admit that he was wrong after being caught red handed on camera."

What!!!! Where do people get these things from? I guess there are lots of fans who don't know and don't care too much about this case but when you get people like the one who made the above comment still putting out mis-information as if it's fact it means this story is a long way from over.

The media have so much to answer for, if this hasn't put Suarez off the PL I don't know what will, at lease it's probably made sure that when he moves it won't be to another club in England!

 

I absolutely agree - so long as ill-informed so-called fans spout this kind of utter bollocks, we're going to be fighting this battle until hell freezes over...

Then again, our club has had practice at fighting public lies...

 

.

 

Suarez maintaining his innocence tells Radio Sport 890 in his homeland.

"I knew what I did and there is a kind of football law that says 'what happens on the pitch, stays on the pitch and that's the end of the story'."

Other players obviously feel differently.

Just to add, I read the following piece about the Suarez case on a Social Affairs website, a website that 'addresses social, economic and cultural issues with an emphasis on the value of personal responsibility' -

"I find it alarming that people are now prepared to go running to the authorities, like children to teacher, over what was, after all, a minor incident that, moreover, was soon over. The very fact that we can run to authorities to ask them to take action over such trivia renders us psychologically fragile and more, not less, liable to insult."

I know most are fed up with talking about Suarez/Evra and I'm not looking to extend that argument. I'm asking more about your opinions on 'what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch'

 

A few comments will briefly discuss that point but in the end this article will become another classic Suarez article. And quite frankly everyone knows everyone elses stance on the issue and no one's mind is going to be changed due to another heated argument. Just hope Suarez hits the ground running this sat and gives de gea and united's back 4 a torrid time

 

Don't agree really, you would be able to say and get away with anything.

 

What he said

 

Personally as I've said all along if Evra was so offended by what was said he should've smashed Suarez teeth down his throat not that violence solves anything obviously

 

Well the accusation(as it was then)stayed on the pitch until 10mins after the game and then went global thanks to Evra's interview with Canal+.

For that alone Evra was iresponsponsible in so much that there was an FA rep at the game and its him the Utd player should have informed.

In todays game it would impossible to confine racist,homophobic,slanderous etc remarks to the pitch imo jb.

 

I know that the laws of the land apply equally to sporting fields as anywhere else, however, heat of the moment comments on a sporting field are done in relation to what else is happening on the field e.g a player tackling you hard, and therefore any comments are in response to this sporting activity and not about the player in general. You wouldn't just go up to the same person off the field and say the things to him that you say when in combat on the pitch. Trash talking is part of any game and I can't think that if I were inviolved at the same level I would run to the authorities with 'Sir, Sir, ref, ref, Miss, Miss - he just said this to me'

I don't think any professional footballer is going to use the game to get abuse out of his system about race hatred/homophobia... he harbours off the field!

 

I ask this question - if any of you were a professional footballer, what comments would cause you to take it to the ref?

I can't think of any myself that would get to me in the situation of heat of the game. I'm with John Barnes on this - if you are comfortable with who you are nobody should be able to get to you on the field. What about the stuff fans sing - I don't see players trying to get them charged

 

Personally when I played I concentrated on the game and would not take offence to the verbal or physical abuse. That's me though, I think if you do take offence to something said on the pitch you have the right to pursue the matter using the correct route. That would be reporting it to the ref and your manager, it is then down to the correct authorities to decide a course of action.

 

If you took it to the extreme I bet most players would have a case against an opponent using foul and abusive language and I'm guessing some could include reference to race/nationality in amongst it as well. So probably every player would serve a ban relating to the use of abusive language at some point - that's just crazy.

The fact is most players get on with it. A proportion are sensitive about race as has been seen with Evra who, Like Henry grew up in the same area of Paris noted for racism. Evra brings that to the pitch with him, Henry doesn't. Barnes didn't, Collymore didn't - and they're just a few I can think of. In all walks of life if you are sensitive to something, you will find it.

I'm not saying racism is ok - it isn't, it stinks. I try and put myself into the circumstances I'm viewing and ask what would I do. Given I never played sport at any high level so it's all academic for me now, I wouldn't let personal abuse on the sporting field get to me on the sporting field. If I was genuinely upset by comments made, I would take it to the abuser after the game and discuss it. If the other person seemed unrepentant, then and only then, I would take it to their manager/my manager and go from there. I think physical violence is being put in the background while all this racial stuff is given headline news as well.

 

To be honest, I don't see why racism is seen as this horrible, nasty form of discrimination. What is the difference between me referring to someone by their skin colour and me calling someone fat, or skinny, or lanky etc.

It's ok to have a laugh and a joke about gingers and it's accepted. But mention someones skin colour and you are labelled for the rest of your life.

At the end of the day, any insulting remarks, based on a persons appearance is wrong but why does skin colour seem to attract more attention?

 

If you have a beef with somebody in work do you run to the manager or do you sort it yourself. Running and telling shows a weak character, it means you don't feel certain enough about yourself to handle difficult situations. It shows a psycholocgical ineptitude that you need others to stand up for you becasue you don't feel able to or maybe even want to yourself. There's also an underlying sense of the accuser wanting to get others in trouble so he somehow looks good or better than the other person.

 

That's what this case has been about from the start.

 

Its a funny thing really. Football, and to a degree all confrontational team sports (Rugby, Cricket, Hockey etc.) will have elements of abusive conversations going on between players, trying to gain a psychological advantage or to emotionally unbalance an opposite number. In this respect, its most unlike any other working environment. Is it really right, under those circumstances, to apply the same standards of behaviour to what are completely different situations?

Before anyone starts, its not a plea for racism to be excused or encouraged on the field of play, rather a wish to have onlookers understand far better what is going on. I want to frame everything, because the common refrain is "If I used that language in my place of work, I'd be sacked." My view on that argument is that while true, its highly likely your place of work does not involve two groups of people in an equal situation going head-to-head.

Much of what is said on the sports field is understood not to be true - Botham and Marsh were classic exponants (Marsh "How's your wife and my kids?"; Botham "The wife's fine, the kids are retarded"), but simply an attempt to gain an advantage. I've also heard the bleating of those who've said that such abusive language is contrary to Rule E3 (1), cited in the case. Obviously it is contrary to the rule, but we have to be honest with ourselves and everyone else - no-one is being held to that rule, with cases such as Evra/Suarez being the exception, rather than the rule.

That we have in the past had a problem with racism in football is not denied, but society has changed beyond all recognition since the low points of the 70's and 80's. The lack of acceptance of casual racism has driven it more-or-less from the terraces, and what was a predominantly white, working class audience, has generally widened; its less male and less white than it once was...

So to get massively het-up over what seems to be in essence (my interpretation only) primarily a cultural faux-pas of understanding and intent, when we are all pretty well aware that little said on the field of play isn't intended to and doesn't resemble reality off the pitch, it is (IMO) a grotesque overreaction.

If Evra was upset, I think it was reasonable to have tried to resolve this between the clubs and between the players before the FA became involved, in a private mediation. Once certain allegations had been made, however, battlelines were drawn and neither side was able to back down without looking guilty of something (and the media kept the feeding frenzy at fever pitch, vile bile-peddlers that they were in the case).

Should things stay on the pitch? - I think most things are. But where actions demonstrate belief, as opposed to just words alone, I can see the merit in taking punitive action.