Last month, writing in the Independent, I suggested setting up a self-help group for ex-spin-doctors called Spinaholics Anonymous. It seemed to me that Alastair Campbell was having problems giving it all up. In an attempt to do so, like me, he turned to writing about football. The problem is that he is not really an expert on the game; he just pretends to be.
The easiest column to write in football is to accuse Millwall supporters of being racist, especially if your own team has just lost to them. This is what happened to Burnley on 28 February, and one of their black players, Mo Camara, was subject to abuse from the Millwall crowd. This abuse, however, was to do with Camara having committed an outrageous foul on a Millwall player a few weeks earlier. Equally, Chelsea fans give dog's abuse to Arsenal's Ashley Cole when he plays at Stamford Bridge - not because he's black but because they think he's a cheat.
The last time I went to Millwall, Jermain Defoe was playing for Bournemouth, on loan from West Ham; he got stick every time he touched the ball. A commentator as ignorant as Campbell wrote that this was racist abuse, ignoring the fact that Millwall hate West Ham and that any of their players, no matter what colour their skin, would get the same treatment.
At least this time Campbell didn't get away with his slur on the Millwall faithful because their chairman, Theo Paphitis, who has campaigned harder against racism in football than anyone, hit back. He told us Campbell has a remarkable appetite for corporate hospitality and had once even demanded a helicopter to take
him to a Burnley game! I bet Campbell won't
show his face down the New Den again.
