The Sadly Ironic Month of October

Here in the United Kingdom, October is Black History Month, it is also when Kick it Out’s ‘One Game, One Community’ campaign runs. The campaign sponsors Sky’s coverage and is supported by Ford, its also supported by Football players who train wearing the campaign T-shirts.

So how sadly ironic that during this month there have been two complaints of racist slurs in England and another in Spain, which begs the question: Is this campaign working?

Let me set the record straight, anything racist said by John Terry, Luis Suarez and Cesc Fabregas (who will all be mentioned) is NOT condoned. I am warning you now in case you get the wrong idea later on.

Last night (or early Tuesday morning) I started tweeting, saying that I didn’t feel John Terry was an overt racist for his alleged comments on Sunday towards QPR and England defender Anton Ferdinand, looking more into it, I can see I may have been incorrect in my arguments. I still stand by that Terry is not as racist as lets say a member of the KKK, BNP or EDL may be deemed as being, but still calling Ferdinand a “f***ing black c**t” is a racial offense and for Terry to deny this despite video evidence (taken from the Guardian online). Terry, who I tweeted “doesn't make him next in line to lead BNP.” through his racist comments, isn’t an overt racist as he shares a pitch every week with other black players such as: England team-mate Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Nicholas Anelka, Jose Boswingwa, Florent Malouda, Ramires etc. and Terry who has been known to exhibit a lot of power as captain of Chelsea would surely refuse to take to the pitch with them.

However, this is not the first time Terry has made such comments, in a match with Tottenham he was said to have called Spurs and England defender Ledley King a “lippy black monkey” and also racially abused Samuel Eto’o in the past as well.

Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t believe Terry says these things because he’s a racist (or at least I hope not because he’s a diverse nation’s captain) I believe he says these things for a reaction and because he’s stupid. The match he’s in is followed by hundreds of camera’s, he’s bound to get caught. I don’t feel he’s a racist, I think he’s just ignorant and stupid, and if he’s found guilty by the MET police who have started an investigation, then he should be punished to the full extent with him being stripped of England and Chelsea captaincies for good and I’d even ban him from the England team now.

As for Luis Suarez, I’m going to skip over that one because I don’t have enough facts to say anything on this one, what I will link is a quote from the Daily Mail article saying Black players should take it on the chin and move on. (Quote taken from Arsenal blogger ‘LadyArse’ on Twitter, I recommend you follow).

Lastly, our old friend Cesc Fabregas in sunny Spain has been found to have said “puto Negro de mierda" which means "fucking black shit" (Quote taken from ‘FourFourTom’ on Twitter, I again recommend you follow) towards former Tottenham old boy Freddy Kanoute. Which actually caused Kanoute to lash out at Fabregas. What is arguably worse about this one, was the fact Fabregas is clearly shown saying it and then got on Twitter to have a self-righteous dig at Kanoute calling him a liar and a coward. What angers me almost more is to think that Fabregas was once heralded so much and now is on the defensive so much after saying something stupid. Again, the term was racist and I don’t believe Fabregas is a racist, much like I don’t feel Sergio Busquets is a racist (he’s just a cheat). However, these outdated terms are offensive and have to be stamped out. Also when you way up the history of Spanish players and fans (referencing the ‘monkey’ chants in a friendly between Spain and England in 2004 and Sergio Busquets’ repeated name calling towards Marcelo in a Barcelona/Real Madrid clash last season) you have to question Fabregas’ motive.

Overall, all this is a massive let down to a month that should be held up as one where players rally together to stop anyone saying these despicable words and phrases, rather than more of it. Although, maybe this is behaviour that goes on all the time and because of it being this month more of it is being reported by players because more action will be taken this month than any other. I don’t feel any of these players are calling for slave-labour to be brought back or hoping these players are evicted from the country like some racial groups do, however, these are all racist attacks and must be investigated, especially those of John Terry and Cesc Fabregas as it got that much of a reaction.