http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16262537.stm
The BBC comment above is very balanced and sensible but what a fuss the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra case has caused and will cause! The case is interesting for us here at CrimeTalk. I wonder though how many of those commenting now on websites everywhere see how damaging it would be to the cause of anti-racism if it reduces that issue to mere difference of interpretation of words used in a cross-cultural situation. Moreover, any man [and woman?] who plays sport at any decent level knows full well that abuse of opponents occurs all the time in the course of the game, and that most of that is pure mischief to unsettle the opponent. Now, we might want to stamp it out and dislike it intensely but is this really the way to go about it? What ever happened to subtlety in regulating sport, or the use of cautions in dealing with offenders?
As a lifelong football fan, I despair that the game becomes ruined year on year by some deluded version of 'political correctness'. Soon it will be a non-contact sport with all the players talking to each other like this: 'I say, Luis, after you, please....No, Patrice, after you, sir'. The scoreline will soon be decided on the least number of swear words uttered by each side and the relative authenticity of the players' regional accents, to be decided by a panel of judges from the publishers of Oxford Dictionaries. Match of the Day will focus mainly on the judges and how rude they are, as in Strictly Come Dancing. In fact, FIFA would probably, if paid enough, supplement the World Cup with a dancing competition for the managers to be held simultaneously and it might come down to Ferguson's Glaswegian waltz versus Kenny D's Scottish salsa.
Even as a rabid red of the United kind, I have to say that the Suarez penalty seems way overdone, tough on his team Liverpool, and seems part of the movement over the last 30 years to sanitize the workplace of all humour, all flirting, all web surfing, all sex, all conflicts and all other distractions - which in turn goes hand in hand with an intensification of labour for the same wages, greater exploitation, and a conversion of all forms of public interaction into an anodyne p.r. exercise where bullshit rules and all employees behave like robots or computers.
Bottom line: this decision is an integral part of the conversion of professional football from being 'the people's game' into a middle-class television spectacle suitable for an imaginary and very unreal middle-class family the world over. The next thing will be to ban showing any game after the 9.00 p.m. watershed, because any decent lip-reader can see players saying 'fuck off' and 'fucking hell' all the time. Don't the FA people ever watch Shameless? FFS.
FWIW, my view is that, despite feeling that Cantona, a United legend, got a rough deal for losing his temper with abusive fans several years ago, Suarez should have got no more than a rap over the knuckles, maybe a one-game ban for being a little OTT, and told to watch his language, and then to give a week's wages to an anti-racist charity. Not even Patrice Evra thinks Suarez is a racist, or so I read, and it is clear from his professional history that he is merely a mischief and that is one reason he is such a good player and one you would want in your team.
In any case I worry about a world where people increasingly seem to want to punish others severely merely for what they have inside their heads. On my reading of history, that is always a key step towards an Inquisition, the worst kinds of totalitarianism and the Orwellian nightmare.......and it's happening now "live", as Martin Tyler, would say on Sky Sports.....
Editor's Blog Football, political correctness and the Suarez case
Registration no.328239 
Comments
Posted On
Jan 04, 2012Posted By
Colin SumnerRecently, the Chairman of the Police Federation, Paul McKeever said this: "It is unfortunately true that swearing is pretty commonplace in everyday language and many of us are guilty of using it all too frequently. However, to let this argument get bogged down in the semantics of which particular words were used would be to miss the point. Police officers are experienced enough and competent enough to know the difference between some expletives exchanged in the heat of the moment and genuine abuse." [http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/paul-mckeever/police-swearing_b_1112035.html] That was said after a court upheld an appeal against conviction for swearing at police. There is a difference between a heated exchange and genuine abuse. What happened between Evra and Suarez was in no way a case of abuse and even as a lifelong United fan I have to say that it had all the hallmarks of an exchange in the heat of battle. FFS, this was a Premiership football match not an ethics seminar!
And it really isn't funny that no one but no one has commented on Patrice Evra's honest admission that he called Suarez a 'sonofabitch'....does the FA not care about sexist language? Or is it so far out of its depth that it won't even tackle that one? Or is it just working on lip-service to being PC? Overall, I think the FA is guilty of restricting Suarez's trade because it thinks he committed a linguistic sin - which is truly pathetic and middle-class.
I hope Suarez continues to give to his charity in South Africa and ignores the idiocy of the FA.
And I wish that journalists, who clearly do not understand racism or its roots in imperialism and who cannot distinguish between genuine abuse and heated exchanges, would stop making idiot remarks like "Suarez made reference to Patrice Evra's race" {James Lawton today, The Independent]...black is not a race.... nor is it a nationality....nor in some discourses is it simply a colour.....and could even be a badge of pride in others. Suarez was simply trying to insult Evra back and went ever so slightly OTT....as people do when they fight....Oh, I despair....is it just me or has the world gone mad? Comments please!
Posted On
Jan 04, 2012Posted By
Ian BrownPosted On
Jan 05, 2012Posted By
Mark GeeLike you, I do not wish to see ideas of political correctness kill the game, but I do not wish to see it become a font for normalising social harm.
Posted On
Jan 05, 2012Posted By
Mark GeeThere are various insults players can use on the pitch. There was no need for Suarez to do as he did. The likes of Rueben Hazell, and today, Jason Roberts have written eloquently on this subject.
Whilst you think the punishment excessive, I think not. Suarez's comments were not directed at Evra the footballer. They were directed at Evra, the member of the public.
Posted On
Jan 10, 2012Posted By
Colin SumnerHowever, let's not delude ourselves:
[1] Suarez was not treating Evra as a member of the public - they were both in the course of their employment as footballers - if I'm ever tackled in the street by a guy in shorts and boots, like Suarez tackled Evra, I might think about making an assault charge or having him sectioned! LOL
[2] If their exchange had been taken public to the courts, the penalty for Suarez would have been much lighter, and Evra would have been cautioned about his language. See what Terry gets....
I played a lot of football, my Dad played for Bolton and Wigan, and I quit because of the physical violence on the pitch, none of which had anything to do with race and was much worse than the verbals. Thanks for your comments though, Mark. Now, let's focus on the big issues raised by the much more serious Lawrence case: do read my 'reflections' piece on the 'restricted access' thesis of Wilf Knight, and this....
thisislondon.co.uk/.../...
Posted On
Feb 13, 2012Posted By
Colin SumnerIn my view, ever since the incident that precipitated Suarez's ban, Liverpool had been guilty of not acknowledging the core point that Suarez should not be using racist language on the football field, especially if he is not a racist. Their manager became too defensive and failed to apologize straight away for the player and the club for the core offence - instead he hinted that the accuser was prone to making false allegations.
Why on earth did Suarez refuse the handshake after promising his club that he would? Has the guy got an inner self-destruction drive? It has left him looking to many of us like a young man with an instinct to stir it up...
See Oliver Holt's excellent piece in the Daily Mirror today:
mirrorfootball.co.uk/.../...
Posted On
Feb 19, 2012Posted By
Colin Sumnermirror.co.uk/.../...
RSS feed for comments to this post.