Is Soccer Institutionally Racist?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31514168
Another embarassment!

[Bazile]

PankySmooch

//From the reactions on Talksport radio this morning I thought they'd thrown the bloke under the train. //

Well they hadn't - so that's all right then .

Heavens forbid that some one in a democratic country should be prevented from going about their lawful business by some football 'supporters '

[agchristie]

Mikey ///Large groups of semi-educated, badly brought up, boozed-up louts///

But not among the Swansea City fans of course! :-)

[PankySmooch]

No I'm not saying it's all right, I'm saying people over react, it wouldn't surprise me if the black fella only saw this as a bunch of football yobs and not a race issue.

And Mikey you couldn't be more wrong, why comment on something you know nothing about?

[sp1814]

PankySmooch

You wrote:

"it wouldn't surprise me if the black fella only saw this as a bunch of football yobs and not a race issue."

I think he may have cottoned on to it being a race issue, as they were chanting, "We're racists and we don't care".

That, to me, would have been a massive clue.

[PankySmooch]

That's if he understood what they were chanting in the first place.

I wouldn't know any French football chants

[-Talbot-]

I would have struggled without the subtitles.

[Elina]

So upset by this. We've not come very far have we.

[sp1814]

PankySmooch

You're right that some people overact to these stories.

I would suggest that others under-react.

[sp1814]

Elina

I think that most of us have come a long way. Note the balance of reactions to this thread. I find it actually quite encouraging, and I would wager that the vast, vast, vast majority of Chelsea fans would cringe at the actions of these men.

The football fans I know certainly wouldn't act like this, drunk or sober. These men are essentially cowards. Put them individually into a club in the middle of Brixton and let's see how loudly they chant.

[Elina]

SP ... I didn't read the replys on the thread, I just realized it was about the clip I'd seen earlier on the news. Yes, they're basically a bunch of yobs.

[jourdain2]

Elina's about right, but it's the effect that football has on youngsters which is so awful and self-perpetuating. I gave up on football in the early '70's when I saw the hypnotic effect it had on young boys in school. To be fair, I was neutral about it before and had even been to a few matches with my dad and once with a friend.

Now everyone thinks I'm a bit mad. I loathe and despise football and everything to do with it. I would like to ban professional football for a year and calm the whole situation down. The tribalism is no longer friendly rivalry and the sport attracts the very worst sort of person. My sons-in-law very carefully avoid any mention of the subject. I now have to detach my granddaughter...

[mikey4444]

PankySmooch....just what it is that that I am so wrong about exactly ?

And why are you so right exactly ?

[-Talbot-]

I would like to ban professional football for a year and calm the whole situation down. The tribalism is no longer friendly rivalry and the sport attracts the very worst sort of person.



That is just daft, jourdain.

[ummmm]

You're wrong about assuming football hooligans are all uneducated, drunken, yobs, Mikey.

Even educated people like a good tear up now and then...

[Hypognosis]

@TTT

"Soccer" is far too wide an entity to assess as institutionally racist, without being unfair to the parts of it which are not.

If you'd singled out the trainload of cringe-worthy Chelsea fans, then you'd barely have to waste your breath asking the question.

[mikey4444]

I don't think you are mad jourdain...just misguided. Football isn't the problem...the problem is racism in Britain today. We might not all go around using the P and the C and N words, as was common a few years ago, but racism is still deeply buried in our society.

Look at the growing popularity of the Far Right in Britain today. The likes of the EDL, BNP and Britain First shows that racism never went away....it just reappeared wearing slightly different clothes. A recent TV documentary about the EDL showed that a hard core of its supporters were ex and/or current football hooligans.

So none of us should be in any way surprised about the antics of the minority of stupid idiots in Paris yesterday.

[mikey4444]

Ummm...I am not suggesting that all football hooligans and/or racists are all uneducated. But better education would help keep these idiots at a minimum.

[ummmm]

We have better education but there will always be parents that pass on their discriminations to their children. Racism, homophobia...it's all passed on.