Research on supporters and coaches suggest that not enough is being done to tackle discrimination across the gameStill the virus spreads, and with the speed and malignancy of a pandemic. To Brentford, where a fan was arrested on Saturday for allegedly racially abusing Derby’s Duane Holmes. And Nottingham, where Northampton players were subjected to appalling racist language near their hotel. On Twitter, meanwhile, a warmed petri dish in which the vilest views fester and multiply, Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha is called a “diving monkey” and the Wigan winger Nathan Byrne receives a message so offensive it is reported to the police.And with each incident the clamour and question intensifies: is football doing enough? No, it’s not. Because for all the...
Recent reactions to racism are perhaps leading football somewhere new – isn’t it about time the game listened to the advice of its young black players?You get up from your desk at work to go for a cup of coffee. On your way down the corridor the accounts payable team leap to their feet, fists banging the glass partition, and shout violent abuse about your wife and extended family. You walk past with a steely gaze, jaw clenched.Later you will be praised for this “professional” response by one of your senior managers, who adds that sadly there’s nothing they can do about accounts payable as this is a problem in society generally. Related: Danny Rose ‘can’t wait to see the...
As John Terry knows, acquittal in a court of law on the basis of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ does not mean the FA will not take action on the balance of probabilitiesIt is coming up for seven years now since John Terry found himself in the dock of Westminster magistrates court on charges of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand and, though I could never say sitting through that week-long trial was a particularly fulfilling experience, there is one memory that offers some light relief amid all the other numbing details.It goes back to the penultimate day, when Terry was being taken through some of the evidence related to his exchange of words with Ferdinand, then of QPR, and having to repeat...
Praise for Raheem Sterling for his displays and his standing up to racial abuse is welcome but as a person he hasn’t really changed. Early perceptions of him were wrongOnce again there has been lots of media focus on Raheem Sterling this week, though after scoring a hat-trick against the Czech Republic and another goal in Montenegro, assisting two others and standing up once again to racist abuse, the most recent articles have been entirely positive. I think this is brilliant and totally deserved but while the media are busy praising his skills it is the journalists who have performed a 180-degree turn.Everybody is taking this opportunity to praise Sterling but I think it’s an opportunity to learn from the...
As Herman Ouseley announces his impending retirement from Kick It Out after 25 years, a game that can gift Richard Scudamore £5m can surely fund the campaign properlyIt is probably a measure of the man – and the fact he would never draw attention to this himself – that I must confess that, until the last week, I did not realise Herman Ouseley had never received a penny in wages during all the years he has been at the forefront of football’s anti‑racism campaigning.He announced on Tuesday that he will be retiring from Kick It Out at the end of the season, when he will be 74, and it probably sums up the modern‑day sport that he will be lucky...