The Monday Miscellany

As you might expect, the airwaves this week have been full of debate on the abuse by Tottenham Hotspur ‘fans’ of Sol Campbell at Fratton Park eight days ago.

Condemnation has been widespread but not universal; those who seem prepared to acquiesce and not kick up a fuss seem to fall into one of two categories. The first, we can discount, as they are the bitter and twisted Tottenham fans who believe that something Campbell did more than seven years and two transfers ago justifies abuse that would lead to arrest were it to take place on the open street. Most clubs have a hardcore of ‘supporters’ who become so obsessed with the tribalist nature of club football that they simply stop caring about what is morally acceptable. The only thing to do with them is police them; catch them at it and ban them for life from attending football matches.

The second category are more troubling, those who believe it is just ‘part of the game’ that men – for it is mostly men, with some notable exceptions – will regard being in a football ground as permission to behave in the most idiotic of ways. What to be done with people who simply don’t believe there is anything wrong with abusing people if you are paying their wages? Does that mean, as a license fee payer, I am allowed to phone 6-0-6 and call Alan Green an Irish such-and-such or Spoony a black this-or-that?

It should not matter, of course, how Sol Campbell left Spurs for Arsenal or how much money he is paid and by whom. The chants at Fratton Park on 28 September were among the most vile, disgusting and potentially inflammatory that have been heard at an English ground in the Premier League era, to the extent that almost all the British media have not reproduced them.

Some Spurs fans were keen to phone up Five Live during the week, especially on Friday during Simon Mayo’s ‘Sports Panel’ hour and Five Live Sport’s evening debate to assert that the chant in question was not racist but was homophobic. As though that makes it any better.

Not wanting to delve into the murky world of barely-regulated and factually unreliable internet forums, it was only by googling a column by the affable Guardian writer Simon Hattenstone that I could discover exactly how the offending chant goes. The piece – written in early 2006 shortly after Arsenal had lost 3-2 at Highbury to West Ham United, with Sol Campbell substituted at half time having been at fault for a West Ham goal and then suffering an alleged ‘break-down’ during the interval – told of a Spurs-supporting colleague of Hattenstone’s, who we were assured was anything but prudish (he is described as the ‘Robin Hood of headbutts’), so appalled at the anti-Campbell chant he would only share it if he could write it down in an e-mail. The offending song, to the tune of “Lord of the Dance”, goes something like this:

“Sol, Sol, wherever you may be / You’re on the verge of lunacy / We don’t give a f*** if you’re hanging from a tree / You Judas c*** with HIV.”

Line three is open to two possible interpretations, both of which are racist. Either it’s a reference to black lynchings in the Deep South during the Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror, or it is the tired old comparison of black people to monkeys swinging from the branches in Africa. Either way, any protestation that the chant is not racist is absurd.

It is difficult to blame Hampshire Police for not wanting to wade in among several thousand Spurs fans to make arrests but Tottenham Hotspur FC are not above criticism themselves. Why has there been no public statement on this issue, which has been allowed to ferment for seven and a bit seasons? What was required was an appearance on Sky Sports News last Monday, statement read by Ledley King, Juande Ramos on his left hand, Daniel Levy on his right, condemning the continued racial and homophobic abuse of Campbell? There assertion that people found to be involved in the chanting would be banned from White Hart Lane is better but several years too late.

When Croatian fans racially abused Emile Heskey in last month’s World Cup qualifier there were calls in England for them to be thrown out of the tournament. FIFA didn’t and the Premier League won’t throw Spurs out of the division; at this rate, they don’t need to, as the team are doing it themselves.

Graham Taylor’s words of wisdom

Hurrah for Graham Taylor, briefly employed as a co-commentator by Five for the UEFA Cup match between Wisla Kraków and Tottenham on Thursday for putting to bed one of the more stupid lines that football people often come out with, namely the one about teams making their own luck. “If you did, it wouldn’t be luck.” Amen.

Poland riding the last chance saloon

Poland, you may recall, were co-hosting Euro 2012 a few months ago, then more recently weren’t, but last week UEFA announced that they were. Definitely. Without question, so could we please all stop speculating and let them get on with organizing the tournament? Final. Full stop. No doubt about it.

Fresh doubts have now emerged, however, as FIFA have threatened to expel Poland from next week’s World Cup qualifying matches against the Czech Republic and Slovakia in response to government interference in the Polish FA, something which the world governing body have always frowned upon. Were that to happen then UEFA, they assure us, would begin ‘serious discussions about the future of Euro 2012 immediately’.

It is hard not to have some sympathy with the Polish government, who have been trying to take action against corruption which has become an increasingly worrying part of footballing life in the country; action which the Polish FA have continually failed to take. But their slow progress on the problems of infrastructure has left UEFA desperate for any excuse to reverse their increasingly regrettable decision to gamble on Poland and Ukraine as co-hosts for a tournament now less than four years away.

Brilliant Busquets heads Barça renaissance

To use a cliché, will the real Barcelona please stand up? Is it the one who required a refereeing error deep into injury time to beat ten-man city rivals Espanyol 2-1 a week ago and then laboured to a late victory in Donetsk in the midweek UEFA Champions League match or the one that led Atlético Madrid 5-1 after 28 minutes on Saturday night in La Liga?

They eventually won 6-1 but it could have been 12-1 as Lionel Messi showed just why he is the best player in the world by scoring a clever free-kick before jinking through the Atlético defence more times than anybody could be bothered to count. Majestic, too, was Andrés Iniesta, their attacking midfielder who hit the woodwork twice and passed Atlético into submission, to the extent that the away side effectively gave up after half and lost their discipline; it is miraculous that they finished the game with eleven men as Barcelona had some fun. They they brought Bojan and Henry on.

The revelation, though, has been holding midfielder Sergi Busquets, yet another outstanding alumnus of the Barcelona academy, whose assurance and maturity not only kept Yaya Touré out of the side yet again but allowed Messi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Xavi and Eto’o the freedom and confidence to wreak havoc in front of him. Marcos Senna and Xabi Alonso had better hold on to their Spanish squad places tightly.

The ex-retired club

The latest player to ‘do a Larsson’ is Manchester Utd goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who hasn’t even waited until the eve of a major summer tournament to come out of international retirement, as Maarten Stelekenburg, the only other Dutch goalkeeper who is any good, is injured. Van der Sar joins a long list of star players to come back from international retirement; Pelé (for the 1970 World Cup), Gheorghe Hagi (Euro 2000), Henrik Larsson (Euro 2004), Pavel Nedved, Claude Makélélé, Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Luís Figo (2006 World Cup), then Larsson again along with Ruud van Nistelrooy before Euro 2008, and now van der Sar and, ahem… Steve Finnan.

There is a somewhat smaller list who have turned their back on international football on the eve of a major tournament. Andy Goram infamously withdrew from the Scotland squad for France ‘98 and two midfielders, the Dutchman Clarence Seedorf and the Russian Igor Denisov, asked not to be included in their nations’ respective squads for Euro 2008.

Hull beat Spurs: it’s a simple equation

Tottenham Hotspur 0 Hull City 1, where’s the surprise? Well organized, adventurous teams who are on form usually beat those who are imbalanced, lack confidence and have forwards who can’t hit the broad side of a barn.