Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

An Utter Disgrace

By Chris   Butler  ::  12/02/2012   165 Comments (»Last) I accept the problems of racism amongst fans is something that is very hard to counteract as football clubs don?t know who is going to turn up to their games and what their opinions may be.

Everton have worked very hard to try and clean up their act, employing black coaches, making efforts to make sure every ethnic group feels welcome at GP. Everton have set up a scheme where fans can report incidents of racist behaviour to club employees who will then pass on evidence to the police and the courts. This in my eyes is a very good way of combating racism in GP.

Unfortunately this wasn?t always the case as many will know John Barnes received some merciless racist abuse when he played against us. The then Liverpool manager Kenny Daglish supported Barnes and was quick to tell the media that racism wasn?t a problem within Liverpool FC as many reporters speculated. He even devotes parts of his autobiography to talk about the abuse John Barnes suffered... fast-forward to 2011: Daglish rallies round in support of a racist.

He makes excuses for a player who has brought nothing but disrepute to the game since arriving in England a year ago. Any reasonable minded person would admit his behaviour was unacceptable and would punish the player internally, instead Daglish supports him, essentially justifying racism in football.

The fact nobody told Suarez calling Glen Johnson Negro isn?t regarded as being racist in the UK just shows how deeply ingrained racism is at Liverpool FC. Clubs cannot control their behaviour of their fans as I?ve previously stated but they can try and encourage proper fans, to discourage the more idiotic elements of their support to behave.

I wondered how the elderly Jamaican and African immigrants felt listening to a black man being abused for reporting racism. They?ll have probably felt that all the abuse they suffered when they arrived when coming to this country is still acceptable in the sport their grandchildren love.

Since when has it become acceptable to abuse the victims of racial abuse? Liverpool fans have also racially abused an Oldham player and 1 fan was caught making monkey gestures to Evra. Despite all this behaviour Liverpool only got a slap on the wrist, in any other profession an employee would be sacked for racially abusing a member of the public why is Football any different?

Everton worked closely with the police to prosecute a fan who racially abused Saha on Twitter and Everton FC banned Dave Sibson for 3 years after abusing Saha.

Surely it?s time for the FA and other football clubs to stand up and say this is unacceptable. It?s no wonder that many black fans are scared to attend games due to the fear of being the victim of racist abuse.

Even Neil Lennon, an Irish Catholic, has told elements of the Celtic support to stop singing sectarian songs, why have Liverpool made no attempt at trying to discourage racist elements amongst their support?

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