Steven Baxter

Patrolling the murkier waters of the mainstream media

John Terry's not guilty, but football's still in trouble

Everyone has to stop racism from blighting our showpiece sport.

By Steven Baxter Published 13 July 2012 11:58

John Terry at Westminster Magistrates court in London. Photograph: Getty Images

Football's coming back. The adverts for the new Premier League season will be hitting our screens soon, promising the usual drama, more amazing goals and plenty of action. What they won't mention is the ugly face of the game - the claims of racism which have tainted the family-friendly image of the self-proclaimed 'best league in the world'.

After several months during which ill feeling festered on both sides, the Anton Ferdinand-John Terry case has finally concluded with Terry being found not guilty of the charges. With the case coming so soon after the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra incident, which saw the Liverpool player banned for eight matches, we have to ask the question whether this represents a crisis in the elite game or just two unfortunate, isolated incidents.

Terry's words were caught on camera and seemed to be decipherable to most amateur lipreaders - although the sound of what he said was not recorded. His defence, which was upheld, was that he was using them sarcastically, claiming that Ferdinand had wrongly accused him of racial abuse.

Both players admitted laying into each other with swearing and trash talk - not doing a great service for the sponsors and brands who attach themselves so keenly to the English Premier League, or being terrific role models for the millions of young fans who look up to their favourite stars as players (if not necessarily as people).

The incident had wider implications too. Ferdinand's brother, the former England captain Rio, found himself booed when he played against Chelsea - and there were later suggestions that the bad blood between the two was behind England's decision not to take both players to the tournament in Ukraine and Poland. Terry was found not guilty of the offence for which he was charged, so let that be an end to the matter. It shows that England's decision to keep him in the Euro 2012 squad, presuming innocence, was probably the right one.

The not guilty verdict for the former England captain will leave many - players, sponsors and those with a vested interest in seeing the game making a healthy profit - breathing a sigh of relief that the top flight wasn't tainted by this trial. Perhaps they can think that racism on the pitch can be relegated to a misunderstanding, or a vendetta. But that doesn't mean that racism is never, was never, and will never be a problem.

The Terry-Ferdinand spat came soon after the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra affair, which poisoned what was already arguably the fiercest rivalry in the Premier League: between Liverpool and Manchester United.

The United skipper accused Suarez of making a racist remark; the Uruguayan defended himself and said it was a cultural misunderstanding of the term "negrito"; his clubmates wore T-shirts in support ahead of a match; but Suarez was found guilty. When the two sides met again in the league, at Old Trafford, Evra wildly celebrated United's at the final whistle right in front of Suarez. Again, it was hard for anyone to find the moral high ground.

Gone are the days in England when the major focus of racism in football was off the pitch, where disgraceful racist chanting, banana-throwing and abuse were a sad reality for many black players. But while that kind of behaviour has mainly been eradicated from the terraces, it's now the players who face closer scrutiny.

It's probably the case that trash-talking has spilled over into hate speech for many years, but the issue has come to a head now, and the authorities must be seen to take a stand. When there are 40 or more cameras trained on the action at top-flight games, the top players' every cough and spit is likely to be broadcast. There is no use in pretending it hasn't happened, or hoping that the problem will go away.

Some will argue that victims of racism should just - to use that horrible phrase - "man up" and get on with it rather than complaining. Some will say that psyching out an opponent is part and parcel of the game, like sledging in cricket - and there may be some merit in that. But it has to be made clear that certain lines cannot be crossed, and certain types of abuse are completely unacceptable - not on a park, not on a pitch, not in a stadium in front of 70,000 paying punters.

Don't blame the victims for coming forward. Don't blame the cameras for zooming in on the players' faces. And don't hide behind fandom and club loyalty to protect "your" players when they behave appallingly - if you do, you are just as guilty as they are. Everyone has to work together to stop racism from blighting our showpiece sport, and it starts with the fans. If some will continue to believe that 'their' players have done nothing wrong, and line up to defend those who have done indefensible things, we will get nowhere.

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16 comments

Thu, 2012-10-18 08:52 — Bosch Servisi (not verified)

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Tue, 2012-07-17 19:32 — hugh markey (not verified)

Look, when the England team and the Premier League are all black and that's not far off a few oaths won't have any significance for the High Court.
The fact that there are a few 'statutory' whites in the top teams will become obvious. Just look at American football and basketball teams. And the Olympics for God's Sake.

Runner up( but they wouldn't give us a medal)

Tue, 2012-07-17 07:59 — JAR JAR (not verified)

The level of stupidity in this comments section is almost exactly equal to the level of stupidity found in the average football crowd.

YOU'RE NOT TROLLING, YOU'RE NOT TROLLING, YOU'RE NOT TROLLING ANY MORE!

Sun, 2012-07-15 23:29 — Enoch Fan (not verified)

Any way, here's a joke for Mehdi Hasan to cheer him up, since he is depreddad about people using their right to free speech.

Ahmed goes into a halal butcher in Bradford and says: "I want to buy a live goat, please."

Certainly, Ahmed, says the butcher. "sex or food?"

"Sex" Says Ahmed.

"Do you mind if it's a billy goat?" Says the butcher.

Ahmed punches him and says "Are you calling me a queer?"

Mon, 2012-07-16 21:35 — john bull (not verified)

Ha ha very funny. Still, better goats than under age white girls I suppose.

Sun, 2012-07-15 23:27 — Enoch Fan (not verified)

But Ferdinand is black, and he is a cunt.

Sun, 2012-07-15 14:16 — Reform Section 5 (not verified)

The problem is the Macpherson report said that any words spoken can be subjectively viewed as ‘hate speech’ by anyone and prosecuted as a criminal offence.

In other words both Terry and Anton could have reported each other to the Police for ‘hate speech’, but understandably neither did so.

Instead an anonymous off duty police officer made the official complaint against Terry, but not Anton and did not appear as a witness. Was this ‘off duty’ Officer acting under orders?

This partisan enforcement of so called ‘hate speech’ reveals a political agenda* that undermines free speech and community relations and is something we associate with Marxist police states.

The antidote to this ‘racist anti-racism’ is the Reform of Section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act, by de-criminalising insulting words in the interests of liberal democracy.

*The CPS prosecution coincided with the trial of Norris and Dobson and was used to create a ‘race hate’ controversy designed to intimidate the jury into convicting the pair despite the absence of evidence.

Sun, 2012-07-15 10:43 — bob hope (not verified)

just a non story that ended up costing the england and spurs managers their jobs.
All from a few words said in an emotionally charged atmosphere.

Sat, 2012-07-14 23:29 — Herbert (not verified)

You'll never hear any swearing in the news room, particularly the New Statesman news room. No sirree! And you won't find many black people working in one either. No, we're not racist. It's just that we don't get many black people applying. No sirree!

Sat, 2012-07-14 05:10 — Tony montana (not verified)

Unfortunatly black people cannot use there col0ur to win an argument anymore white people have never been able to cry racism

Sat, 2012-07-14 04:55 — Nertr (not verified)

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Fri, 2012-07-13 19:43 — Matthew Blott (not verified)

So what you're saying is a white player can call a black player a cunt but not a black cunt?

Fri, 2012-07-13 18:53 — New stap j walltesman (not verified)

Yet again, this has proven that Premier footballers DO and CAN get away with a
anything?
This ruling is a Racists charter?, all a Racist has to say now is, "i never called you a Bl**k C**t", " it was used in the context of i never said it", every Racist term in the book has now been legitimised under the guise of "Context"!!!, very sad.
This has been a very good day for all 'RACISTS'

Tue, 2012-07-17 08:02 — JAR JAR (not verified)

It's ok, apparently racism can be perfectly resolved by having the person making the racist comments shake hands with the person they verbally attacked. (if everyone had shaked hands after racist slurs/lynching(!?) during the 50s+ then there would be no racism today, apparently)

The football pitch is a different reality to ours, which is probably why people pay to watch millionaires play football within it.

Fri, 2012-07-13 17:45 — Bish (not verified)

Spot on. The problem, of course, is where to draw the line. Football is (for now) for better or worse, an aggressive sport, and its participants are always likely to give each other some verbal abuse. Ferdinand's assertion, in the first day of the trial, that being called a cunt is okay seems to highlight the biggest problem - racism is typically less an issue of what's said than how it's said, the intentions behind it. Terry's claim that he was making a 'sarcastic exclamation' has been upheld, and along with Ferdinand's testimony, it should follow that a player who only ever calls black players 'cunt' is okay. Clearly, there's something wrong there.

There's no question that the sport needs to address racism (and indeed, all hate speech), but working out how best to deal with it is going to be difficult, especially as - as this case has shown - the legal system's stance on the matter is made up of a series of hastily cobbled together rules with many grey areas, and very little black and white (ho ho - excuse me).