Wrong thread mate! By the way, he was the best I ever saw, and I was privileged to see him turn it on against the Saints at the Dell.
Hot Bovril - great words, I really liked them. Mikey - I believe it is important. It would have been really good if John Terry had shaken hands after the game and said "sorry, it was the heat of the moment", but he didn't. If the media hadn't blown it up our of all proportion, then he may well have done it again. I think I understand your frustration that people sometimes make out that racism is everywhere in football, however I can not condone in any way, shape or form, the belittling of how people are trying to raise the profile of any incidents such as the two most recent in our British game - Terry and Suarez. You are partly correct that the stance taken by Liverpool and Suarez (and I think Terry too) after the event were poor behaviour, but this is the issue.. their failure to stand up straight away (no dig aimed at Suarez) as soon as these games were over and say "listen chaps, that was wrong how I used those words and I am really sorry", or "I really didn't mean that to sound as it did" or similar shows me that they have at the very best, an ignorance of what racism is, and at worst an underlining racist attitude. Every young person seeing and reading about these incidents should be being reminded of how wrong it is to be racist. For that reason the media hype, on these occassions is serving a purpose.
I entirely understand what you're saying, but I think your main two points aren't applicable to this situation. There are plenty of people and organizations that were legitimately trying to raise the issues of the Suarez and Terry affairs to make sure that everyone was aware of these situations and that they were dealt with, but that wasn't the motive of the majority of media and personalities involved was not that. I wish it was, I wish I could believe that and it would be lovely if the world was perfect and that everyone was just desperate to make sure these problems were brought to the attention of everyone and resolved as soon as possible, but that just wasn't the case. That wasn't the reason the media published seven different stories a day about it, that wasn't the reason some random people long-forgotten about popped back to have a moan about it and push themselves back into the limelight for a day or two. For that reason I find a lot of the nonsense and stories surrounding the new 'huge issue' that is racism in English football intolerable and tiresome. Again, that doesn't mean that I don't support the people actually involved in trying to resolve these issues and make sure that punishment is enforced and clear statements are made. And sadly I don't think any young people that read about those incidents thought about how wrong it is to be racist. They thought 'Wow Suarez is a ****er', or 'Liverpool are such scum', or 'Terry is a dickhead I hate him and I hate Chelsea.', at the very best it was making racism looks worse by association. I think everyone who saw what happened in Serbia was disgusted and it served as a reminder how good it is that our country isn't like that and that it's important that we continue to strive to keep racism off of our shores and out of football. I don't think the pantomimes of the Terry and Suarez sagas were based in trying to fight racism and the racist implications of these incidents, they were too much about back-page stupidity and rumours and footballing rivalries. It was the media trying to squeeze every penny out of the controversy, it was another excuse for fans to have a go at each other, It was United vs Liverpool, QPR vs Chelsea, it wasn't football vs. racism. That is what has pissed me off about the whole situation, people and news outlets pretending they were flying into battle against the big ugly beast that is Racism, flying the banners of the right and the good, whilst in reality smiling with glee about another story that would sell a few more papers, or get a few more advertising hits.
On your first paragraph Mikey, I'm afraid that is the press and media for you. It doesn't matter if it's football and racism or politics and kiss n tell stories; the media hammer it. I was at a Dinner last night and Alistair Campbell was the speaker. He gave a frightening statistic about the press: In the 70's, the rario of positive to negative stories in the media was 3:1 and today it is 1:18 That's a huge difference.
Exactly, I suppose my problem is more with the media as a whole but this whole racism soap opera has brought all that to the forefront recently despite my best efforts to avoid it all as much as possible. Also what on earth were you doing at a dinner with Alastair Campbell haha? The speaker at my dinner last night was my sister on her adventure of waxing her pregnant friend's... Well I wont go into as much detail as she did, but believe me it was bad enough to make me jealous that it wasn't Alastair Campbell.
So many say we should cut out the racialism and so they should. However the way I see the problem is that so many do not realise they are in fact being Racist. It doesn't seem that you can say anything regarding colour or religion without there being a racist undertone or a bigoted attitude to some people, meant or not. It does not seem to matter whether a remark or discussion is/was intended to insult or not. Just the fact that you said something that could be construed as being hurtful or offensive. As far as others are concerned that it you are a racist, after all you said it. As far as JT is concerned can't stand him.....similarly Suareze Personally, the two incidents were not similar but they were both charged with the same offence..........so I find that hard to accept the punishments. As neither seemed to fit the crime.......
