Latest from Liverpool Banter...
Today will I hope go down in the history of
Liverpool Football Club as the day when everyone, suddenly and finally came to
their senses. We have as you all know been embroiled in a situation that from
the moment it happened has turned football supporter against football supporter
because of our differing views about the original incident.
It has also caused the media to be vilified for
simply doing what they do and that is of course to report things as they
happen. Yes they have sometimes got
things wrong, yes they have sometimes used the wrong headlines and the wrong
pictures but that is part and parcel of the job and it will happen no matter
what the subject or what the story is.
What you have to remember is that without the media
whether it be online or in the case of the newspapers in their paper editions,
without them we would not get the news as fast as we do. Today was a prime example of how everyone
works together and gets the news that we have been waiting for since October
into the public domain as soon as possible.
Over the last
three days we have I believe all learnt several very important lessons and one
of them was very humbling indeed.
The first and the
most humbling one is what we have learnt about Craig Bellamy in the last couple
of days. Craig as we all know has a bit
of a reputation on and off the football pitch.
A reputation that time after time has got him into unnecessary
trouble. But like everything else,
sometimes it takes these things to happen in your life before you are either
faced with or run into something that will trigger a change for the better.
Craig was going
through a period in his life where he was between football clubs and a friend
suggested that he visit him in a village called Kono in Sierra Leone. Craig did this and was shocked to see the
poverty and the suffering that was in front of him.
As the day began yesterday, Anfield was bathed in Sunshine
and it signalled the beginning of what would turn out to be a day to remember
not only for the football on the pitch but also for the behaviour from both
sets of supporters.
It was of course the first meeting of Liverpool and
Manchester United since the Suarez/Evra Racism situation came to light and with
the world's media watching, all parties concerned did their best to ensure that
the powder keg which was waiting to combust, was dampened before it had a
chance to do so.
Managing Director, Ian Ayre gave an interview during the
previous week stating how important it was for the clubs supporters and players
to be behave. This was followed by Kenny
and Stevie stating the same in their programme notes. Sir Alex also played his part by ensuring
that Manchester United's match going supporters were aware that no abuse would
be tolerated. It was repeated by stadium
announcer George Sephton before the game started.
The storm of course was our game against Bolton at the
Reebok Stadium last Saturday. A game in
which the players indicated that they simply had no interest in doing what they
are paid to do. Their performance as we
all know was diabolical and was a shock to everyone's system, so much so that
many people were calling yet again for Kenny's head.
Kenny of course was as angry as the rest of us and said what
we were all thinking during his post-match press conference. He explained that any player who does not
realise what playing for the club and wearing the red shirt means, would be
shown the door - quite rightly so of course.
What the dressing room must have been like after that game
is anyone's guess but I suspect most of the players went home with their heads
bowed.
And quite frankly it should not be, but having just
witnessed what I can only describe as a horror story, is the impression I got.
Or did they?
Whilst
I was growing up, Racism in America was on the television news most evening's
and although it was happening in this country, I don't recall it being in the
news. I suspect it was one of those
things that the BBC and the ITV felt was best kept from our screens. I
certainly never came up against it in my own life until I married. My late ex-father-in-law was a racist and it
got to the point where I would simply leave the room, when he started insulting
those around him, who had a different colour skin, spoke a different language
or indeed followed a different religion. I was brought up properly and it never
occurred to me to insult a fellow human being.
Many
years have passed since then and with the introduction of world travel,
multicultural societies became the norm.
Everyone was equal, not only in the workplace, but in the sporting world
as well. Or so we thought.
In
October 2011, the sporting world was rocked by not one, but two race related
cases. Luis Suarez was accused of using
a word in a racial manner. That word
also had several meanings, depending on the company you were in. He was of course found guilty in late
December and will now sit out an eight match ban and pay a fine of 40,000.
Whilst
I was growing up, Racism in America was on the television news most evening's
and although it was happening in this country, I don't recall it being in the
news. I suspect it was one of those
things that the BBC and the ITV felt was best kept from our screens. I
certainly never came up against it in my own life until I married. My late ex-father-in-law was a racist and it
got to the point where I would simply leave the room, when he started insulting
those around him, who had a different colour skin, spoke a different language
or indeed followed a different religion. I was brought up properly and it never
occurred to me to insult a fellow human being.
Many
years have passed since then and with the introduction of world travel,
multicultural societies became the norm.
Everyone was equal, not only in the workplace, but in the sporting world
as well. Or so we thought.
In
October 2011, the sporting world was rocked by not one, but two race related
cases. Luis Suarez was accused of using
a word in a racial manner. That word
also had several meanings, depending on the company you were in. He was of course found guilty in late
December and will now sit out an eight match ban and pay a fine of 40,000.
On
the stroke of midnight on Wednesday the media released details of what would be
their lead story in the following morning's newspapers. Luis Suarez, it appeared had finally
apologised for the racist remark that
he 'uttered' towards Patrice Evra.
The
apology itself took the form of a public relations exercise rather than a
heartfelt one, directly aimed at Patrice Evra. Now I have no intention of
adding any further fuel to the fire but the circumstances surrounding the
situation surely should have deemed that it was televised, that way the player
would be witnessed saying the words below The most telling sentence of course
was this particular one.
"I
never, ever used the word in a derogatory way and if it offends anyone then I
want to apologise for that."
Those
two statements of course were from Liverpool Football Club and Luis Suarez. They
were designed to put the racial abuse case surrounding Luis Suarez to bed, but
ultimately I feel that they may have just added more fuel to the fire.
Why
is this you may ask?
The
statement from the club, which was issued an hour before kick-off last night,
was done in that way to show the Football Association, that they too can play
the same game. If you recall on New Year's
Eve, the FA Committee issued its written reasons for the earlier verdict as the
team were preparing for their game against Newcastle United. Whether there was anything in this, we will
never know, so I will let the conspiracy theorists make their own minds up here
- As far as I am I concerned, it was simply the last item to be dealt with by
the close of business, on that particular day.





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