Firstly ... any player has the right to chose to support any particular organisation. secondly ... any player has the right to think that the organisation is rubbish. thirdly ... I personally would take Roberts, Rio and who ever else more seriously if they'd done even a tiny bit of research... Kick it out have a budget of around £300,000 per year. Out of that they have to produce all their publicity and campaigning materials including all the shirts and badges sent to the clubs, which are worn by players and managers. They also have to pay for the wages of their 6 members of staff. Everything they they produce, such as the the shirts and badges are FREE. Kick it out do NOT make and can NOT make the FA or the Premier league do anything...these organisations are answerable to the money in football and all their decisions reflect this. The £300,000 budget of kick it out comes from the PFA and FA/Premier League...if those wanting to register a complaint that Kick it Out aren't critical enough of the these organisations then maybe they (robert and rio) should be campaigning within the PFA that EVERY player show they are serious about anti racism and pay some of their £50 -180 k per WEEK wages to Kick it out so it can be truly independent and much better funded. Rio himself not only gets paid a fortune from Man Utd but he also gets huge amounts from various advertising deals including luxury homes in Dubai. Maybe he should have donated this to improve the independence of Kick It Out instead of refusing to wear their shirt. The problem in football is not being caused by kick it out so why they think it is sensible to punish them is a bit beyond me. It would make more sense to me to criticise the lack of funding an anti racist organisation gets from very rich organisations and individuals who claim to be very concerned about racism.
I think Rio and Roberts are right, racism is just being swept under the carpet. Kick it out is a giant PC exercise that will have no impact. General social hate of racism and club 0 tolerance are enough to get it off the stands.. In England anyway. eastern Europe is actually suffering real actual racism on the stands and in society where a player of any other skin colour could be in actual danger. It begins with the young. You cannot change a true racists mind but you can prevent a kid becoming one for sure Wearing a t-shirt is not going to make someone change one of their tightest held beliefs
The kick it out scheme dont have power to enforce any changes and dont claim to. They are simply a group that want to remind and make aware through campaigns and wearing a tshirt is a simple way to remind fans and players that the issue still needs to be addressed. Clearlly the timing is just unfortunate with what has happened recently so its caused rio and roberts to lose all faith in what is being done to stop racism, yet they have gone about it in the wrong way.
You might have a point about the budgets, the FA would be wise to make sure a portion of every fine for racism and homophobia goes to the organisation as going back a couple of years you'd have said that amount of funding was enough but at times where there are racism cases are becoming more common they need more funding. Kick It Out is essentially an arm of the FA though that likes to pretend it's not and they're ineffective when needed. Can you blame the players for not wanting to donate money to it? The money they earn as footballers has no bearing on whether they should or shouldn't. Ignoring the fact that it shouldn't be down to individuals these are players that see the organisation as failing them at quite a basic level. It costs no money to criticise the FA's length of ban for Terry, it costs no money to work with the FA on protecting players who have been victims of racial abuse. They're not even getting the basics right in the eyes of the players that boycotted the shirts so why should have to support the stunt by tha FA and Kick It Out when they're so toothless? I hope their protest is reinforced by action too but whether it was their intention or not I think the boycott was making a fair point without totally sabotaging the day by coming out with all their criticisms of the organisation.
If I thought Rio and Roberts were genuinely concerned about the issue of racism I'd fully support them but to me it's all about pushing individual agendas. Roberts and Rio have never been so vocal about racism before when worst incidents have occurred, it seems strange now that when it involves Terry - they appear to be so vocal. If Rio really cared about the issue of racism he would not have abused Cole in the way that he did. What are they achieving by undermining the Kick it Out campaign? They're problem should be with the FA and not Anti-racism groups. The fact is though they have a right to stick to their principles and beliefs and nobody inc Ferdinand has a right to tell them with otherwise, if Rio really has been fined by Ferguson, if he had any morals or principles,he'd be out of that club by January.
Every one missing the point here, there actions have been wonderful PR with the race topic being discussed in every media outlet Well done lads
I agree with what these guys are trying to highlight. I.e, that racism is still not being taken seriously by the governing bodies. If what they have done was genuinely done to keep the issue in the news, then well done. However, if it's just aimlessly taking a pop at the Kick it out campaign, wrong target, IMO.
I agree with their stance. Although I back everything the Kick It Out scheme tries to do, clearly it's not getting its message through to the governing bodies because they're punishing racism very, very lightly. Roberts, Rio, Anton & co have shown how strong they feel about the subject and as pabird says, everyone is now taking notice of how these players feel, hopefully the FA/ UEFA/ FIFA will act upon this and really prove how much they want to rid football of racism. Giving small bans and pathetic fines is nothing to these players. Sack them for f*ck sake! It's what every other work place would do!
Whilst I agree with the sentiments of Roberts, Ferdinand, etc., perhaps they'd have been better off backing the campaign financially? They've made enough out of the game, so maybe it's time to give something back?
Why should it be down to black players to financially back it though? If they really want to promote an all for one attitude then they should ask all players for financial assistance.
I agree with you, King. Giving the fees from the fines that the likes of Suarez and Terry received to the organisation couldn't hurt, either.
They didn't do "nothing", they signalled their protest at the lack of action by the authorities. If everyone just wore the T shirts, then the public would be entitled to think that progress is being made and everyone supported the way it was going. Ferdinand and Roberts' action has highlighted that more needs to be done and good on them I say. Actually helping to fund a campaign (as others have said) would be better still.
Of course there's not unity against racism. The FA themselves believe that Cole and Chelsea changed his statement to try and avoid Terry getting punished for racial abuse. The shirt protest had nothing to do with seeking to undermine an anti-racism message and everything to do with the organisation who's slogan along with distictive colours were on the shirt. If this is the start and finish of their action then it was all a bit pathetic but I'd be surprised if that was the case.
