NO player at NCFC earns even close to £50,000 - even Holt is only on around £20K. How about if we all reacted to being 'cut up' whilst driving - there would be a lot more car accidents!!! Happens all the time with some players, your fan should just accept it and not react the way he did!1
There is also such a thing as a reasonable response. If there is incitement which there wasn't really, as I have said many times - players of away teams celebrate in front of home fans ALL THE TIME - Bassong was just celebrating the goal, THAT'S ALL. The racist abuse also happened an hour after the goal, that's a long time. Racist abuse is also not a reasonable response to a player celebrating a goal. To an extent having a go at the player is alright but not when racist remarks come into it
This thread has made me so angry, so angry I wasn't going to comment, but I can't help myself! Norwich fans are called six fingered inbreds every single day of the week, just like Welsh people are called sheep shaggers every single day of the week. We all know that neither of those things are true, as we are (most of us anyway) adults. What black people have to endure on a daily basis is a personal attack against the colour of their skin, THE ****ING COLOUR OF THEIR SKIN! Its not banter, its not funny, its not acceptable and there certainly is NO excuse. As has been pointed out, the racist abuse happened AFTER our fourth goal, NOT after Bassong had scored. In any case, Bassong scored at the Swansea end, and he quite rightly wanted to celebrate scoring. I look forward to seeing your fans abuse your players the next time they celebrate in front of opposition fans! Some of the comments on here make me feel like I've gone back 30 years. Fair play to the Swansea fans that think there is no excuse for what happened and fair play to Swansea City for dealing with it quickly. Clearly your club felt there is no excuse.
The guys a dick and a lifetime ban is the least he deserves. I heard this just after the game finished as spoke to someone who was sitting nearby. He was sitting in the lower section of the east stand (towards the North stand) and made a monkey gesture towards Bassong, the club quickly identified him and pulled him out of the crowd which is the only good news.
good post carra and in a perfect world your right.....trouble for me what this fking stupid jack **** has said or done is very fking small compared 2 that of a crusade against muslims driven by the same pc brigade thatv tell us how 2 fking behave all the time.......yeah the same fking people who have wasted all our countries monies on war and are now telling me i`ll have 2 go hungry because our country is on its arse broke> its just a ride,as the late great bill hicks said>>>>its just a ride
There's celebrating and there's incitement. Bassong and Holt were guilty of incitement yesterday. If you wind up a crowd you will get unsavoury responses - that is human nature. A person making racist comments/gestures will get punished but those who caused the incitement will walk away. Perhaps they need to go on a course to inform them of their responsibilities.
I would argue that a little dance is not inciting anyone unless they want to find an excuse to be incited and make a fuss about nothing. Why - because it's a football match as has been that way for decades. Did either player stick one or two fingers up at the Swansea fans? No Did either player point and laugh at any Swansea fans? No You don't have to like the actions of a player and unless he is setting out his stall to provoke an individual then why get wound up by it. Is it that hard to just not do anything and not respond? Why people lose self control the minute they walk through a football grounds turnstile is beyond me.
The guy is obviously a complete twat and deserves all he gets. No room for that sort of behavior anywhere. He cant be the brightest though with all the cameras around you'd think he would know he wouldn't get away with it. Well done to the club for their swift action on the matter.
So celebrating a goal by dancing is incitement. I think maybe its time for players to just walk back to their own half after scoring. Of course that would stop all the racist abuse.
If that's incitement it would be like I went round my neighbours for tea and in conversation I say my girlfriend is beautiful, resulting in my neighbour punching me in the nose. This is incitement. But even this wouldn't justify racial abuse. What Bassong did was entirely innocent in celebrating a goal. Teams have celebrated in front of my stand over the past 7 years but I don't abuse them! Also the racial abuse happened after the fourth goal, an hour after Bassong's goal. The celebrations for the fourth goal were fairly small.
It was more than a little dance Thai - it seemed to go on for ages and there were quite a few fans in the area who didn't like it. This by the way is not where the alleged incident took place. Holt was gagging for a response from the home fans. Even when he walked back 20 yards after his goal he turned around to eyeball our end. You don't have to stick two fingers up - he is always too subtle for that. And he ALWAYS does it.
There are one or two comments on here wjich make it sound like he ran, Adebayor-style, the entire length of the pitch simply to antagonise the home fans. (Man Citeh vs Arsenal 2 ish years ago?) It was more or less a spontaneous celebration at the end where the goal was scored, the fact that it happened to be in front of a stand full of home fans was pure coincidence. Plus, if you think what a difficult place the Liberty is to go and get a result, coupled to the fact you'd dismantled the Gooners the previous week, then NCFC excitement levels were running particularly high. (Mine were going through the roof, and I was only watching a live stream ) Here's to more of the same open, attacking, goal-laden football when we meet again in April
People are missing the point here. Racism should not be accepted in any form. If it is unacceptable to make remarks/gestures to black people and Muslims then it is also unacceptable to make remarks to Welsh, Scottish, people from Norwich etc etc. Anyone who thinks its just banter and regional racism is fine live in the dark ages. This kick out racism campaign is a Fcuking joke. I've been to many places and encountered it. How would you like it Norwich fans if I walked past you, you had for example your young daughter/son with you and I said "Show us your 6 fingers and go and shag your daughter" ? As far as I'm concerned that's unacceptable and I didn't even like typing that even as an example. The bottom line is that professional footballers have a responsibility not to wind opposition fans up and if this fan has made a racist gesture he should be banned for life and jailed.
I agree Dilli but over the years the mind-set of the average football fan believes that in the name of banter it is perfectly acceptable, and that is why football forums can be equally as bad as some just cannot talk about football and are looking to seek attention in other ways. Players respond to the fans, both for and against under different circumstances but I don't believe the players are solely responsible, the fans need to be responsible also and I also believe until that day arrives (which I am guessing never will) it's going to keep happening.
Holt does it regardless. He loves it and looks for it. I am not going to waste my day discussing this because I have better things to do and we are never going to agree. But I will finish by saying there are two sides to every story, and this story was totally avoidable, but has reached the national media and overshadowed a cracking game of football.
The reason this has overshadowed a fantastic game of football, as other incidents over the last couple of years have the premier league, is that there are still some people who think they can excuse racism. This thread is evidence of that. There is no excuse. People should not try and justify it. Only when people see that will it no longer overshadow games. I don't hold it against Swansea though, it's clear this is just one bad apple. There are other clubs where it is clearly much more widespread though, and they will definitely say words to the effect of "well, he started it". The worst argument in history.
