Time to rid the game of these ignorant people

It is with a heavy heart that I write this piece as I truly hoped that the bad old days in England were a thing of the past.

There has been much trouble around Europe with racist chanting and actions in Spain, Poland and other countries, but we in England have looked smugly on thinking that we had eradicated this type of ignorant and abhorrent behaviour from the game in our country.

Small minority

Sadly it seems a small minority of Tottenham fans on Sunday have shown that we still have this type of behaviour in our football grounds. I wasn’t at the game, but as players and managers have spoken out about it and the police are conducting an investigation, I can only assume that it must have happened.

Now I fully appreciate that Tottenham fans are subjected to weekly racist abuse from fans of other clubs due to the Jewish connections at the club. This is equally bad and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Sol Campbell, the Portsmouth captain, is probably the least liked footballer at Tottenham. Ever since he made the move from their club to their bitter rivals Arsenal back in 2001, he has been the target of the worst that the Tottenham fans can offer.

I understand them being disappointed at the time, even angry, but it was seven years ago now. I fully understand why such a move would have deeply hurt Tottenham fans but I’m sure everyone could have moved on.

Racist and homophobic

On Sunday during Tottenham’s 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth it is alleged that a group of Tottenham fans, by no means all of them, chanted apparently racist and definitely homophobic abuse at Campbell throughout the game. There have been many rumours over the years around Campbell’s sexuality and the Tottenham fans decided to abuse him for that.

The local Police are going to investigate the racial and homophobic abuse directed at Campbell after initially saying that the scale of the incident made it impossible. There was no way the police could have acted at the time as the numbers involved would have made that impossible.

Ban them for life

Hopefully the police will identify the culprits, charge them and ban them from football grounds for life. Decent people, of which 99% of football fans are, and 99% of Tottenham fans are, do not want these idiots anywhere near the game.

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was disgusted by what happened;

“That’s got no place in football what went on Sunday. It’s got no place in life, it’s a disgrace. People chant filth, it’s nothing to do with football. Some of the stuff that goes on is completely out of order. We’re talking about awful abuse, some of this stuff is racist – it’s everything. It’s wrong and has no place in football. How do you do that in front of your kids? What kind of a nutter must you be? What kind of human being must you be when you take your little kids to football and shout filth? It can’t be right. Of course he is upset about it and we are all disappointed about what’s happened to him but he’ll be fine. He’ll move on and get on with his football. He’s been terrific for us.”

I echo Redknapp’s sentiments entirely as I’m sure nearly everybody with at least half a brain would. Campbell’s team-mate Peter Crouch also spoke out about the abuse. He pointed out that all players expect to receive some abuse, that is part and parcel of the game, but this type of thing is totally unacceptable;

“There is probably not a player in the Premier League who has not had some stick but there is a difference between banter and abuse. What happened to Sol really crossed the line. But he showed against Tottenham on Sunday he can react with a fantastic performance. It has had no effect on his game and it won’t affect it in the future.”

Part of the fun of going to football is the passion and emotion that it brings out in the fan. We have all shouted abuse at players in the past and I probably will again, but that abuse is almost always about their footballing ability. It is expected and acceptable. Going beyond that type of banter and abusing someone for their sexuality or colour of their skin is beyond reprehensible.

Decent football people

There is a desire amongst ordinary decent football people to disassociate the game from this type of behaviour. The problem is that often the people displaying this type of ignorance are the loudest, nastiest and most frightening looking people. Decent people would like to stand up to them but are often intimidated into doing nothing.

In these circumstances, the majority have to put their trust in the police and the Courts and hope that the law can deal with the idiots in the way we all want and keep them away from the grounds.