+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
I am reminded of the incident at Reading a few years ago where we were accused of racial and homophobic chanting. Headline news across all media, yet no evidence ever produced. even the SWP at the game didnt know what is what about, so I'd hold off making comment until there's actual evidence.
No racial abuse. They were booing said player because of an incident at Farnborough a couple of seasons when he played for them and a Merthyr fan was nearly killed. There was a fight involving both sets of fans and players from Farnborough got involved. Said player was with two of his mates after the game who attacked Merthyr fans with baseball bats and one of them threw a big piece of paving slab at the head of a Merthyr fan and knocked him clean out.
The player didnt, I believe his mates did along with a couple of Merthyr fans who were involved in the fight. This wasnt your average handbags outside the ground (although the original incident started inside rhe ground), its lucky someone wasnt killed. Spoke to a few people who were there, not football "lads" in the slightest, and they said it was a very scary situation.
The group of supporters who allegedly shouted the abuse are extremely left wing, there is no way they would shout racial abuse.
Apparently someone shouted "you brick chucking tw@t" at the the player and thats whay they think has been misinterpreted.
Things can easily get misconstrued.
I remember going to Gillingham years ago. They had an ex-Jack (name escapes me) playing for them, who also happened to be black.
He had possession of the ball close to the corner flag and the end where the City fans were housed.
The inevitable... "You Jack bastard" was directed at him. The Gillingham fans to our left were livid. No prizes for guessing what they 'thought' we were chanting.
Having just listened to the Hungerford managers interview he's clearly a decent bloke
Two things from this are that firstly he says racial abuse has happened at Merthyr before ? Is that correct ? I havnt heard of a problem there
Secondly if the player was given the bird over a previous incident then wether or not that's acceptable was it racial abuse ?
Terry Phelan the mixed race player from Manchester City said that the worst racial abuse he ever experienced was at Cardiff City in the fa cup tie when he said he was called a black bastard the whole game
Apparently on seeing this interview cardiff fans contacted him to say it was you jack bastard he was being called after his time with Swansea city
Ive not heard of any and hes been asked to qualify those comments by the club. Its not the first time theyve booed the player they were booing him at the away game too.
Whilst its undeniable there are racists in the valleys, as there are everywhere, the core support at Merthyr are a good bunch. There is quite a bit of anti-english chanting at away games so dont know if he means that.
Verbally abusing players , giving them the bird , taunts are wether we like it or not part of the game
Racially abusing someone is understandably at the top of that list but it appears he may well have been subject to less than friendly banter rather than criminal abuse
If that's the case I would imagine this will blow over but it's not good for the reputation of Merthyr as mud sticks
I think that Hungerford manager jumped in with both feet there
This was a prominent story on BBC Wales news last night. I'm not sure what we gain from the reports, and certainly not until they investigate it a little more.
Was there any racist abuse shouted? Seems not. Is it a major story if one person shouts it? I'm not sure. It's a serious issue for the person(s)involved for sure, but national news?
We are hyper fixated on this at the moment. What's the end result? People feel that racism is worse than it is? A club and fans stuck with a reputation? How many will be interested to know that nothing actually happened? How prominent will the reports on what happened be?
I personally think that racist abuse should be dealt with very seriously
However the issue here appears to be that whilst this player got a mouthful it wasn't racially motivated
So I think that if that's the case then appropriate statements .....ie we got it wrong .....should be made
If I was a Merthyr fan I would be pissed off if my club was accused of racist behaviour that didn't happen
Far less is still too much. That goes for any discrimination due to skin colour, sexuality, gender, religion etc. We should never stop calling people out for this until the day arrives where there is no discrimination at all and everyone is free to be who they are. I don't believe there is any fixation on this, more that people aren't afraid to stand up to arseholes who discriminate.
Well i don't know about you but I am white so I have no direct experience of racism
I don't think it's possible to say there is far less racism about these days without backing that up with figures
And of course a lot of racist abuse isn't reported
This situation seems to be an understandable reaction from the manager of a black footballer to what appeared like racist abuse
But it appears that wasn't the case
I would hope this is sorted out but that doesn't mean that the world has gone politically correct and racism shouldn't be dealt with
Surely that goes for any crime though? Burglaries ruin lives. I know my mum and dad were burgled before I was born. They moved cities as a result. She said the fear of having her home violated stayed with her for life. So any crime is one too many.
But that doesn't mean things should be reported as something if they arent. Racist abuse is understandably ranging from upsetting to devastating to victims but if it hasn't happened all we are doing is amplifying the pain, no? It's like reporting a crime that hasn't happened. Theres no benefits to that whatsoever.
There's an interesting article here (there's many others) that list references to racism in four US media outlets since the 1970s, with an explosion in it whilst actual racism by almost any metric reduces.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/media-great-racial-awakening
Racism is awful and intolerable but we don't need the media inflaming it when it hasn't even happened.
How about this?
Has anyone been arrested for calling Welsh People sheep shaggers?
Should they?
https://www.ccmb.co.uk/showthread.ph...e-Canton-Stand
Personally I don't disagree with anything here. My issue is that the BBC jump ahead of itself talk about it as a major story when there is no actual evidence that anything has been said or done. It doesn't help anyone or anything. This hyper fixation on the topic is unhealthy. If racism is bad (and it is) then why are we making a big deal out of something that it seems likely hasn't even happened. If it impacts upon people, then maybe collectively we should stop and wait a bit before making out it's rife everywhere.
This utterly preposterous story about Connor Gallagher today too - allegedly being racist. Most ridiculous story ever but pumped online by people who, it seems increasingly clear to me, have an agenda.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68724701
The result is that he gets a load of abuse.
Mental.
I think the BBC reporting a possible issue of racial abuse is definitely newsworthy
From time to time things unravel and in this case should the alleged incident be found to be nothing to do with the racial origin of the Hungerford player ......and from information posted on here it appears that it wasn't a racist incident then we should hope that the BBC, the Hungerford manager etc accept a mistake was made
If Merthyr town and its fans want to take that further it would be perfectly understandable
But this angle that complaints of racism have gone too far these days blah blah blah are a red herring as if a black player is verbally abused racism is often behind it and it needs to be investigated
Just in the last few months Wednesday fans have been looked into regarding monkey gestures at an opposition player
It's not political correctness gone mad etc , it happens
Some of the racist crap broadcast by a Cardiff City fan on social media .....now banned .......against a Swansea player last season was embarrassing
I'm not saying it's "political correctness gone mad". Racially abusing someone is a serious matter. Im just saying the media currently gives it enormous coverage which, I would say, is out of proportion with what's happened, or in this case has seemingly not happened at all.
And as discussed elsewhere, I'm not convinced putting such stories front and centre every time any allegation is made (with no proof) helps improves race relations at all. If anything, it's probably made a few people of colour think..well, I don't want to go and visit Merthyr any time soon", and that just entrenches segregations which is the opposite to what we all should want.
Just an overreaction in my opinion. The media should wait a few days.