John Terry: How racist is racism? (Saw)

“Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again?” Know the film? If not go and watch Batman Begins, then the Dark Knight and the go straight to the cinema to see the Dark Knight Rises. You’re welcome. The reason for the quote? Over the past football season we have seen 2 high profile cases of racial accusations being dealt with badly. It has brought to light for many that racism has not been extracted from football and still exists in the minds of some at least. Perspective See dissected Rio Ferdinand’s “choc-ice” tweet and how the entire situation could have been dealt with. Here I will examine the lessons to be learned from the past 12 months and what they mean. It has been stated that racism still exists in football as highlighted by the Luis Suarez and the John Terry case but this just isn’t so. What it really means is that idiots still exist in football and this seems to have been overlooked. Were they racist comments? Maybe. But are they racists and is this full blown racism? Probably not. This is not excusing their relative comments in any way, but what it means is that extrapolating the issue to a problem within an entire industry is an extreme reaction. Luis Suarez will almost definitely not reoffend. An 8 match ban was due punishment and an example to others that racism will not be tolerated. The implications of several matches out are huge for a player, and a second occurrence could spell the end of their contract. Similarly Kenny Dalglish can pretty much put his sacking to the laughable handling of the entire situation and I don’t think anyone envies the media scrutiny that John Terry has been under. The John Terry court case is now a prime example of how that situation should not be dealt with, and should prevent any further cases being brought before a legal court rather than an FA hearing. Bringing back the Rio Ferdinand extension, the upside to the public display of idiocy is that it should remind other players that Twitter is public and now, it seems, scrutinised by the police for offences. Some clubs have already put their players through social media training to learn what and what not to display to their fans in order to maintain the credibility of the careers and their clubs. What he thought was an innocuous tweet may land Ferdinand in a heap of trouble and as such a well known and respected player, his fall will act as a warning to younger players to watch their fingers. And whatever the outcome for John Terry, he will surely have learned to watch what he says even on the pitch. This is NOT as many people claim, a slap in the face of free speech, it is a hazard light to recklessness. Hopefully the lessons to be learned are that whether on a pitch in front of tens of thousands of fans and Televsion cameras or online where you can see how many people can read your every comment, …well isn’t it obvious.


(Please comment below on either post, all opinions welcome unless they are abusive)