Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The racism scandal in football

A judge in the Court of Appeal had stated that a policeman in London should not be offended by being aggressively sworn at by a criminal. This should not be construed as 'resisting arrest'.

I wonder how the judge would feel if the same criminal addressed him in court? No doubt the accused would be held in 'contempt of court'. Suppose such a person were to let off a stream of invective in an old person's home populated by old ladies born in the 1920s? My mother would be offended and so would I.

One of the current cases being considered by the Football Association concerns the English Football captain, John Terry, who it is alleged, abused the Queen's Park Rangers' defender, Anton Ferdinand, by the words, "F---ing black c---". Excuse me if I do not spell it out. Anton Ferdinand is a member of a large footballing family which includes Rio, a former England captain and well known twitterer, and Les, a previous England centre forward who is now a coach at Totenham Hotspur. He is also an evangelical Christian who has led prayer groups at his former clubs. Who would not be offended by being described by such an epithet?

John Terry is a yob who cuckolded former full back, Wayne Bridge, (a rather intelligent Southampton lad, who happened to play as a schoolboy against my son), and who withdrew from the International game because of the incident. Terry's elder brother, recently had an affair with another footballer's girlfriend, leading to the footballer committing suicide.

There are plenty of decent minded footballers around. I hope we have seen the last of Terry and his kin. Cappello, the England manager, has a reputation as a strictly moral boss who stands no nonsense. Let us hope he does not let us down.

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