It's not the players who fan flames of hatred

Martin Samuel

The Times
Tuesday February 10, 2003
 

WHAT should the Football Association do about the behaviour of the Manchester United players at Goodison Park? Simple, really: nothing. Keep the powder dry for the real battles that need to be won. Have the compliance unit give recent transfers the once over, if required. Circle the wagons ready for Rio Ferdinand’s appeal and don’t budge an inch. But, for heaven’s sake, leave a team to celebrate the winning goal in one of the most enthralling matches of the season in its own rowdy, raucous, dramatic way.

Take away the passion of that instant and you remove the soul of the game itself. To all bar a few miseries in blue shirts, United did little wrong on Saturday. Study the pictures and judge for yourself. Who is that making the obscene sign? Whose faces are contorted by hatred and resentment? Who is frightening small children with a lack of self-control? Not the players. Television pictures show Roy Keane clenching a fist — but if he didn’t throw it, what is the problem?

Is it not possible that among the 50 affronted Everton fans vying for the attention of Merseyside Police after the game, there were some whose reaction to Ruud van Nistelrooy’s goal sparked confrontation in the first place? The club will now seek to collect these eyewitness accounts; what are the odds that not one will recollect instances of provocation, foul language or misbehaviour among the fans? Shorter than a Wayne Rooney goal for England. If the FA indulges this worthless sideshow, it will only encourage the worst kind of hypocrisy from fans, clubs and police. The crowd want it all ways these days. They are moved to curse like navvies during the game, then feign outrage as if possessed by Mary Whitehouse when a player so much as sneers in their direction by way of response. Since the weekend, Everton — usually a club with much to admire — has fathered and embraced this nonsense at huge cost to their image, which now appears childishly embittered.

There is clearly a residue of bad feeling from the disagreement over United’s Premiership coronation at Goodison Park last season; except, back then, Everton had a point and were clumsily and insensitively belittled by the Premier League. This is different. To attempt to overshadow one of the great games of the season with petty whinges about goal celebrations does football a disservice. To the neutral, Everton’s prime grievance seems to be that United stuck it up them yet again. They were not hurt by the insults; they were hurt because they weren’t quite good enough.

As for the police, their involvement is easily resisted if the FA rejects the responsibility of proving a case against United. Too often, the Soho Square disciplinary department is the dumping ground for proceedings that law enforcement agencies know would be laughed out of any real court. This complacency should be challenged. If Merseyside Police believes it can prove that the first inappropriate reaction to the seventh goal of the game came from the United players and not the home fans, let them show that. It is not the responsibility of the FA to prosecute every half-baked legal action or small-minded grudge.

A pity that police in Liverpool weren’t as quick to spot nine houses full of Chinese cockle-pickers living seven to a room; 19 wouldn’t have died in Morecambe Bay. To do that, however, requires real detective instinct, something far removed from the process of writing down a few rude words that Gary Neville may have uttered in the heat of battle.

Even if Neville did utter a few rude words, so what? United had gone from 3-0 up to 3-3 in 26 minutes and locals had expressed their thoughts on this capitulation freely and with feeling. Arsenal were away to Wolverhampton Wanderers and unlikely to return with fewer than three points so, as Sir Alex Ferguson would say, this was squeaky-bum time. With a minute remaining, Van Nistelrooy scored; what were the United players to do? Say it with flowers?

The charge is that inappropriate celebrations took place in front of the family enclosure. To judge from the photographs, there are some awfully big lads on Merseyside. And what were those angry, twisted mouths shouting at the men in red? Are we to believe the little tinkers were using language of the kindergarten? It was against Everton that Robbie Fowler, then a Liverpool player, having been falsely derided as a drug addict, knelt down and pretended to snort the touchline after he had scored. “Think of the children” was the cry of the morally righteous that day, too, as if only player misbehaviour can make a football ground an adult environment. Supporters’ groups remain in denial over where the majority of obscenities can be heard.

When Matthew Simmons, the Crystal Palace lout, goaded Eric Cantona into an insane rage at Selhurst Park, he said the next day that the taunt that had provoked a feet-first lunge into the stands was: “Off you go, Cantona, it’s an early shower for you.” Cantona’s version had Simmons exclaiming: “Fuck off back to France, you motherfucker.” Considering Simmons had charged down several rows of seats to make his point, which sounds more likely?

This is the heart of the matter. Freeze the frame on any goal celebration these days and if there are opposing fans in the background they will be bad losers — a sea of snarls and screams, grotesques gesturing and hurling abuse, unable to accept the better team or the worthy opponent. The resentment is appalling, which is why sporting appreciations such as that afforded Ronaldo, of Real Madrid, by United fans last season come as a shock. Dwindling space in the away end has made for hostile, unwelcoming environments. Most times, players are conditioned to control themselves in the face of anger unleashed, but if the circumstances are right — and they were at Goodison Park — such conflict has to boil over.

Ian Walker, the Leicester City goalkeeper, is a personable chap, but having conceded three goals in ten minutes against Aston Villa — watched by the England head coach — the appearance of a large, abusive fan shouting in his face became an outlet for his frustrations. Is that so hard to understand? Why should a footballer have to tolerate abusive provocation that would be unacceptable in any workplace? Is it any wonder there was an eruption of temper? When Jamie Carragher threw a coin into the crowd at Highbury, the Liverpool defender did so because the object struck him first, and when he turned round all he could see was fizzing phizogs.

Any one of them could have been the thrower, so he threw to hit anyone. Carragher was rightly punished, as was Alan Smith when he chucked a plastic bottle back into the Elland Road crowd — but there was annoyance, not malevolence, in his actions. Smith demonstrated a world-weary irritation that, in supposedly enlightened times, someone should believe that the purchase of a match ticket gave them the right to behave in a socially irresponsible way.

Considering the role played by Merseyside Police on Saturday, players have the right to ask: where are the forces of law and order when they are under attack? Where was the copper to tackle the fan before he reached Walker? Where was the protector of Peter Enckelman, the Aston Villa goalkeeper, in the derby game against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s last season? Stewards restrained a fan heading for Cristiano Ronaldo at Goodison Park but, since fences were taken down, players are increasingly under attack.

For the FA then to call United to account would further alienate a club and a group that already believe themselves besieged. If such a move was justified, this would not matter, but it is clear that there was no crime committed at Goodison other than that of being a fine, successful team. If Everton could say the same, perhaps their fans would be more gracious in defeat.

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