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Something Not Quite Fair Here.

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anotheoldgit | 08:55 Thu 10th Apr 2014 | News
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2601166/Ex-Premier-League-footballer-guilty-allegation-homophobic-gesture-fans.html

/// Mr Allen said the Brighton and Hove Albion fans were chanting 'you fat b*****d' and 'you're fat and you know you are' at him. ///

This player was expected to accept these types of insults against him, yet he himself was found guilty of being homophobic before the Gay capital's football crowd.

/// Mr Reiz said that hand gestures were made during football matches all the time and that due to Brighton having a large gay community an innocent hand gesture made behind his back had been perceived as being homophobic. ///

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I think soccer needs to grow up.
TTT...again, we have a rare meeting of minds here. We must do this more often !

Why is this sort of thing always being reported about football, and yet so rarely, if ever about rugby. Both sports draw their support from similar social backgrounds but rugby never seems to feature in any negative reports.
TTT, abso- bleed'n- lutely
The player is just that - a football player. His profession is as a sposrtsman, not a comedian. If he wants to 'banter' with fans, he should get a stand-up gig at the weekends.

It's simple - as a crowd, annonymous individuals get to be as rude as trhey like, as a player, he is in the spotlight, and his behaviour is observed and scrutinised.

It goes with being an adult athlete, not a teenager on a night out.

Because he is being insulted for being perceived as overweight - his choice - does not entitle him to belittle sections of the community for their sxuality - no choice.

'Banter with fans' is a luxury denied to players by virtue of their public profile and analysis of their behaviour. Behaving as a mature adult on the field of play means soaking up insults, and keeping your own sense of humour for times off the field and away from the public eye.
yes andy but why is it mainly soccer crowds that exhibit this purile behaviour?
I wish he could buy himself one of these

http://www.8ball.co.uk/im-fat-but-youre-ugly-tshirt
whiskeryron....is it coincidence that you recently posted on a thread from 08 which I had sunscribed to? Lol!! Got a shock when I came back on here after 4 years + saw it ;) x x
fans pay the players' wages in return for being entertained in ways they want, not ways they don't want.

So innocent am I that I didn't know there were homophobic gestures. However, I googled it and it seems "He leaned behind him and pretended to insert something in his bottom," I'm still not too sure what makes this homophobic, but I suppose the good people of Brighton do.
Yes.

Seems fair to me.

Section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act currently means that "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour" might be deemed a criminal offence.

He was quite free to report individuals in the crowd if he wanted. The problem he had is that he was on the pitch, and could be seen by thousands, as opposed to the 'anonymous' section of the crowd.

The FA have done a pretty good job ridding the terraces of racism.

Next stop anti-gay language.

Unfortunately, I don't think fattism is high up on their list.

(Also...he's not fat).
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sp1814

/// Next stop anti-gay language. ///

I was not aware that this was a particular problem, since not a significant amount of soccer players have 'come out'.
Is the old chant: 'Who ate all the pies? who ate all the pies? You fat barsteward, you fat barsteward, you ate all the pies', to become the next victim of political correctness?
sandyRoe

The fact that you've had to reword the 'b' word there would suggest that it already has.
AOG

Re-read your last post and ask yourself how a gay person would feel being surrounded by a crowd shouting anti-gay slurs to players on the pitch.

The fact that there are no out footballers may have something to do with the environment in which they play, which is why driving homophobia out of football will (eventually) be a good thing.
Well said sp !
Most footballers are not too bright and this appears to be the case here.

Miming inserting a *** into his anus is not really what a footballer should be doing. Calling it banter is a feeble excuse. Many children go to matches and such behaviour in front of minors is definately not appropriate.

But I don't see how it was homophobic. It was clearly offensive, but it was no more homophobic than the '***' guesture.
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you're a star, gromit.
maybe the fans were racists. does homophobia trump racism?
I expect he was just indicating what they could do with their insults.

We humans are multifaceted, just because we are one thing it doesn't stop us being another. So one can be a sportsman and at the same time human enough to want to defend oneself against the verbal assault of others.

If the footballing industry wanted to make a matter regarding bringing the game into disrepute or ungentlemanly conduct that's one thing, but what the hell has it to do with magistrates ?

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