Global, Monday Miscellany, Poland/Ukraine 2012, Tottenham
The Monday Miscellany
Mike Martin reflects on the atrocious abuse afforded to Sol Campbell by Tottenham supporters, observes the demise of Poland's grand Euro 2012 plans and ogles at Barcelona's brilliant demolition of Atletico Madrid.
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- Sol Campbell was shocked at the abuse he received
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- Poland may lose the rights to hosting Euro 2012 - to Uefa's relief
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- Rising star Sergi Busquets has been in top form for Barcelona
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.
Tags: Andres Iniesta, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Edwin Van Der Sar, Euro 2012, Hull City, Lionel Messi, Poland, Portsmouth, Sergi Busquets, Sol Campbell, Tottenham Hotspur, Uefa
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In reference to the sol point, or it could mean hang yourself like judas did after his betrayal. Doesnt that seem more likely based on the tone of the chant…..
“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.”
Or alternatively a reference to Judas being unable to live with himself after his betrayal and HANGING HIMSELF FROM A TREE!! Get better researchers please.
I don’t agree with what went on at Fratton Park and I don’t want to get involved with such bile but at least make sure you aren’t propogating this racial slur that the media seem keen to latch on to. It’s not racism.
“He’s big, he’s black, he takes it up the c**** / Sol Campbell / Sol Campbell.”
The notion that there is no racism involved is easily disproved.
The racist interpretation is clearly not as stated. Those who know the bible will understand that judas hung himself so hence the reference if there is such one to be made, maybe it just rhymes would be a better explenation in reality spurs have a number of players from diffrent ethnic origins so why would they be racist ? equally other fans who make hissing noises and references to Belsen etc when spurs are playing dont seem to be reffered to here which are common place including at West Ham when one Harry Redknapp was in charge which he never seemed to mention? Homophobic yes which does not excuse the chant rightly but racist definately no this is the media again blowing up this issue for the sake of having a dig at spurs which is the common thread here
With reference to the second song you indicate its stating fact in two points he is big and he is black where is the racism in that ? The last part is debateable as nobody knows that for fact so again its not a chant that should be sung but again not racist
your journalism is laughable. Not satisfied with being shown to do little to no research, you come out with something like the above that I can’t recall hearing EVER in my visits to see Spurs play. Like I said before I have no liking for the bile being thrown Sol’s way, it’s time for the Spurs fans to let it go and there is no justification for the abuse thrown his way but “journalists” like yourself only serve to spout unsubstantiated tripe and keep the melting pot stirring. You should be ashamed, but while the rent cheques keep floating in I don’t doubt we won’t see any kind of responsible conscientious reporting or comment from idiots like yourself Mike Martin.
Here’s another ‘favourite’:
“He’s big, he’s black, he takes it up the c**** / Sol Campbell / Sol Campbell.”
The notion that there is no racism involved is easily disproved.
I disagree. He is big and he is black. Does stating the bleeding obvious constitute racism now? What if black fans sang it as well. Are they racist? Or are you assuming all Spurs fans are white? Have you ever been to Tottenham?
Why have you censored the word “crack”? It’s not rude.
Also, I’ve never heard that song in 15 years as a season ticket holder.
The reference to hanging from a tree is clearly a reference to suicide, as signposted in line 2 by lunacy, and line 4 by Judas, as well as the context in which it arose which was Campbell’s apparent mental breakdown.
Why you don’t you just fuck off?
Or you could climb down off your high horse and accept that, while utterly distasteful, it is NOT racist.
Spurs fans refer to Sol as “Judas” (which is even quoted in the chant). Judas, according to the Gospel of Matthew, unable to live with himself and wracked with guilt, HUNG HIMSELF. The fact that in tripping over yourself to accuse Spurs fans of all and sundry you’d even think to compare black people to monkeys suggests more about your own mind than anything else. And the fact the you forcibly limit the interpretation to two racist possibilities without any further research shows you are desperate to stick the boot in, and have the approximate journalistic integrity of a pencil sharpener.
If, as you try to generalise, Spurs fans were racist degenerates, can you please illuminate us upon why the major chant against Sol Campbell “You can stick Sol Campbell up your arse…” professes love for another black player “…coz we’ve got Ledley at the back”?
Then again, I suppose that doesn’t gel well enough with your ill-researched rant.
Also, while you’re on the subject of vile football fans, why is this a hot potato issue, and yet Arsenal fans’ vitriolic and homophobic abuse of Ashley Cole not mentioned??
mike get ur facts right this is not racial refers to judas fact. racist abuse look at when we go to arse west spam chelski referances to foreskin jews nazi salutes. dont see any mention of that u pleb get your facts right then write the artical u mug. typical crap trying to cause a problem that aint there. referance to gay is out of order, do not condone but racist we are not.
— it wasn’t on mass the singing, some of us think silence is a more powerful means of expressing our hatred of Campbell, I don’t call all journalist scum. And I have just read through your article again and can see no reference to the Gas Chamber hissing noises that came from the Portsmouth Fans, obviously not racist in yours or Redknapps books!
Mr Martin. I notice you fail to mention that black ex-tottenham player Jermain Defoe was applauded from the field by Tottenham fans in the same game.
The hatred and abuse shown towards Sol Campbell is deeply unpleasant but is not racially motivated. The abuse is caused by his actions and would be the same were he white.
As a tottenham Supporter (”vile” apparently), I do not like your tone sonny jim.
So if you are to be believed I will toddle off and write some hate filled tripe, then sing it from the terraces, with 36000 other vile spurs supporters.
Children Too.
Mike
The sad thing about the Internet, is that it gives idiots like you the opportunity to air their misguided vitriol in public.
I’m a Spurs fan, so you have seemingly made me guilty by association. Personally, I do not agree with that song. The lyrics are dreadful at best and no decent human being should be subject to this.
Remembering what Sol did actually do to Spurs, there was a lot of hurt which is now both too strong and secondly, boringly old. It’s done. Move on.
The fact that you claim that one of the lines in the song is racist is more sensationalistic on your part than factually correct. As a regular to WHL, I can confirm that whilst we must rid ourselves of this awful song, racism is not an issue in our club.
The issue of Sol haing from the proverbial tree is all about the game that he went AWOL and there were concerns about his state of mind. Nothing more. No KKK influence.
Be interested to learn what saintly team you support Mike…??
Mike
Another point I wished to make - you make no mention of the amount of times we have to listen to West Ham and Chelsea fans hissing. Imitating the sounds of the gas chambers that killed so many thousands of innocent Jews in the holocaust. Is that acceptable ?
“Here’s another ‘favourite’:
“He’s big, he’s black, he takes it up the c**** / Sol Campbell / Sol Campbell.”
The notion that there is no racism involved is easily disproved.”
Its bizarre the only time this song has had an airing was another bloke called Mike who posted it somewhere else
No Spurs fan has ever heard this song
And the “lynching” is to do with Judas
Its pitfiul how so many people, interstingly not from ethnic minorities are crawling on thsi rather vile “racism bandwagon”
Something really should be done about people trivilasing a real issue because its fashionable and they want to be contreversial
The only thing vile here is Mike Martin
Yet another ignorant piece of “journalism”about Spurs fans. Where the fuck do you equate the “hanging from a tree” line to the KKK or “the tired old comparison of black people to monkeys swinging from the branches in Africa?” It’s a reference to the fact that having walked out a match with depression he may hang himself (something that you should think about doing and do us all a favour). You fail to mention that after singing where you can stick Sol Campbell, it leads into We’ve got Ledley At The Back or the reception given to Jermaine Defoe. Two black players incase you hadn’t noticed who are adored by Spurs fans
even though Defoe no longer wears our colours. He left with dignity unlike Campbell who really is to blame for all the abuse he recieves and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Spurs fans have been on the recieving end of racist abuse for the last 30 years from the likes of West Ham, Arsenal and Chelsea supporters with songs such as Spurs Are Their Way to Auswitch accompanied by hissing to imitate the sound of the gas chambers. Don’t seem to recall the outraged media wanting to ban fans who were glorifying the deaths of millions of innocent people across Europe during the 2nd World War by the Nazis. It’s your ignorant and ill informed reporting that gives creedance to racism, not a group of passionate football fans chanting songs towards someone who betrayed them.
If Spurs are so ‘racist’ how come in the same breath they praise Ledley King. How come during the minutes silence for David Rocastle not a pin falling could be heard. Racism is a bi- product of ignorance, Campbell knew exactly what he was doing, and being the coward he is used lies, deceit and the cover of the close season to carry out the biggest act of betrayal any football fan could imagine. I have never read a single article anywhere when a reporter has asked him about that, nor any asking as whether he’d do it again in hindsight. Yes the chants are unsavourery, but thats the point of them isn’t it?.
It will never be as bad as the act he committed on Spurs, he buggered us, buggered the club and best of all buggered the press, because you all fell for the lies as well!
Oh my god, I’ve read a lot of debate about this chant over the past week and not ONE person has made the link between line 3 and monkeys hanging from trees! I think the fact that you have made this link says more about YOUR issues with race than anyone else’s.
To be honest, there is a small chance that SOME of the people who sing it DO think it’s a reference to lynching and sing it nonetheless. But I honestly think most people get the reference to Judas (or to suicide at least). Either way, line 4 is by far the most hideous line of the whole thing, and racist or not the chant as a whole makes me ashamed to be a Spurs fan.
Mr Martin. As a Spurs fan of 30 plus years standing I take huge exception to your ill informed, ill researched and ill advised article. I have no time for the people who sing the aforementioned chant, neither do I have time for idiots like you who bandy the word ‘racist’ around with no thought to it’s meaning or context. Other posters have already pointed out the obvious - that the third line is referring to Judas and not the other blatantly ridiculous suggestions that you have come up with. Further more, ask the Portsmouth fans about the constant hissing noise coming from their section of the ground - not, sadly pantomime like disapproval but an imitation of the noise of a GAS CHAMBER, then come and talk about racial abuse. As for the other chant cited in your article, I have NEVER heard it sung in all the hundreds of games I have attended over the years. Spurs fans on the whole are a decent bunch, a healthy cross section of men and women and people of all races and colours attend our games and we do not appreciate being demonised by the likes of you.
The author of this article is a pathetic no-mark. He knows full well that the chant is not racist. The reference to hanging is either
1. ref Judas hanging himself or
2. Because Campbell was suffering from depression and “likely” to commit suicide.
This (especially 2) does not justify it but stop trying to play the race card when this is absolute crap.
There are loads of black tottenham fans, and the biggest idol at WHL is Ledley King, so why the hell would the fans sing a racist song, you complete moron.
It is pathetic idiots like you that create racial tensions by continually trying to create situations that don’t exist.
You are so very wrong about us ‘Yids’. You’re an institutionally racist middle class white non football supporting journalist who would never dream of feeling genuine passion or fury for fear it might show you up. Be gone.
Mike Martin, come on down, you are the next contestant on “I’m a clueless journalist, with nothing better to do that jump on the “kick Spurs whilst they’re down” bandwagon. I hope to god you are not paid to write this crap.
Campbell needs to look in the mirror and ask himself why he is so hated. It is not
1. Because he is black. It has nothing to do with colour, spurs fans are from every creed and worship Ledley, Aron et AL, so forget that shite.
2. Because he left the club. Defoe got a standing ovation from the fans at Fratton park
3. Because he joined Arsenal. Pat Jennings did as well and he is still worshipped at WHL
4. Because he is Gay - who cares
It is because he is a spineless, deceitful, self righteous, self pitying, psuedo intellectual, mercenary,gutless, pitiful excuse for a human being.
Even if the second song that this prat mentions is sung, it isn’t racist. Abusive to campbell as an individual yes but not racist.
If a song was sung:
“He’s big, he’s white, he’s absolutely shite”
would all white people be jumping up and down saying that it was racist?
Grow up you twat.
You are either an ill-informed idiot or are intentionally trying to skew facts in order to have a dig at Spurs fans and brand them as racists. The ‘hanging from a tree’ line is a reference to Judas, as anybody with any passing knowledge of the biblical tale should be able to identify. It also has a further meaning based on Sol’s alleged mental frailties, i.e. that he might kill himself, and once again, just as Judas did (Campbell has been called Judas ever since he left Spurs).
I am not for one moment defending the song, it is at once offensive to Homosexuals and those with mental illness. I am a Spurs fan who was disgusted by Campbells flagrant and unparalled betrayal of the club and fans which made him. He will never be forgiven by Spurs fans, and rightly so. He will always receive stick and abuse from Spurs fans, and fair enough - he even fortold this himself when he once said ‘I would never leave for Arsenal - the fans would never forgive me.’ But I would never join in with this song - because it is over the top and offensive. Not unique to Spurs fans though - we are in fact a regular target for truly vile and openly anti-semitic chants from various other clubs followings.
Anyhow if you have any plan on being a journalist of any worth or integrity it’s best to at least check your facts or just use some common sense. Crying out racist when there is no justification whatsoever is not only an unfair and inaccurate slur, it also does nothing to help root out actual racism at football grounds.
Contrast the treatment that another ex-player, Defoe, received from Spurs fans at Portsmouth - the fans chanted his name and even cheered his goal against us. Defoe is, by the way, black. If there was any racism directed at Sol, do you really think these two reactions would sit side by side so easily?
Lastly, the second song, which you describe as a ‘favourite’, I have never heard before in my life. Which leads me to believe that you are making up your own racist songs about Campbell now.
The abuse given to judas is nothing compared to the abuse Spurs have had to put up with for years, it may be homophobic, but homophobia never cost any lives, unlike the gassing of Jews and the bombings which we have to put up with on a regular basis. On the same weekend Bolton fans at O.T. were doing their impression of the plane crash in 1958 which cost many lives, nothing printed about that, I have no love for mu but do not like that. ‘ARRY can have no complaints, why didn’t he complain about the pompy fans when they abused him after he went to the saints, it is all one-sided and anti-spurs. martin get a life and a brain (usable) if possible and stop using the racist card every time, it is people like you who cause racism in this country. I am white and married to a coloured woman for many happy years so I know what I am talking about. COYS
Every club has chants! Get over it! Most clubs supporters sing an offensive song to upset some PC group or another! The songs will stop when Judas retires (they may last a little longer though!)
Pay me loads and I will take any abuse you want to throw at me, especially if I behaved like Judas did! A legend called Pat Jennings made the move and was treated like a god every time he appeared for the scum against us. Its not moving that created the friction, it was the way he did it, and Judas knows that, but thought he could handle it! Maybe you are not so sure now Judas! You can try to spin the story how you want too, but the song is not racist!! COYS
quote ‘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.’ unquote, the hanging from a tree refers to the way in which judas committed suicide, and you act as if you’re intelligent, don’t turn it into a racist issue you moron.
If I own a pub and let the National Front have meetings there, it associates me with racist behaviour and I shouldn’t expect sympathy were I to get labelled a racist myself. To pretend that people will not see the tree line as being racist is to bury your heads in the sand.
FURTHER POST SCRIPT: FIFA will ‘continue to closely monitor’ the Poland situation and the Euro 2012 co-hosting remains conditional on the Polish FA’s adherence to… wait for it… a ‘roadmap’ towards an acceptable relationship between government and football federation.
The chanting against Sol Campbell is purely in protest at the way in which he and his agent acted in manipulating his transfer from Spurs. To claim a racist angle, or that it is based on homophobia, or even solely the club he went to, is disgraceful journalism. Protesting against what somebody has done as far as I’m aware is not illegal. I have long been critical of some chants in football which are sung without consideration to a family environment, however describing the chants against Sol Campbell as the most vile and disgusting in the premiership era is just plain rubbish. The dig at the end of the piece shows this is a result of anti spurs feeling rather than professional journalism
Only by idiots like you Mr Martin, as for journalism I thought it involved intellegence, wit, humour and just a little bit of research? so that counts you out as being one. Moron perhaps would be better suited to your purile atteMpts at the profession
complete idiot article, similar to all the other idiot articles out there. campbell did what no footabller should do, and did it in the worst fashion possible.
he deserves all the abuse he gets from the crowd, and long may it continue until the man stands up and realises what he has done.
Seems you are backtracking somewhat from your intial statement - ‘Line three is open to two possible interpretations, both of which are racist.’ when you now offer - ‘Let us suppose that whoever first composed this song was referring to Judas hanging himself, which is quite likely, and not being racist.’ So you now accept that the song is not a racist song at all, but now you are in a corner you say that it may be interpreted as racist. Well you have, in a purely opportunistic piece of irresponsible journalism. But given the song makes no reference whatsoever to the KKK, lynchings, or Africa and monkeys (erm wtf?? for making that ‘interpretation’ btw..), and instead makes direct reference to the tale of Judas and to mental illness and suicide, surely there is little room for your more fanciful and far-fetched ‘interpretation’.
I think you owe Spurs fans an apology, I for one feel offended by your ill-founded branding of us as racist. It’s simply not true and you do yourself no favours with trying to defend your sloppy, mis-firing and offensive piece.
As many have pointed out, if you have a problem with the song, as many Spurs fans themselves do, why not at least focus on the homophobic element, instead of inventing a racist one for sheer opportunist sensationalism. And if you have a problem with racism in football grounds why not do a piece condemning the blatant anti-semtism which Spurs fans are routinely subjected to at many grounds around the country. Or better yet, give up on journalism althogether, there are 30 or so responses here from ordinary people which are far more reasoned, intelligent and informed than your offering.
I’m a tottenham fan and I find the Campbell abuse disgusting, but I also find many many people and attitudes in football disgusting and vile. I think it’s a shame a lot of people are singling out Spurs fans for one vile chant when there are thousands of similarly despicable chants sung by other supporters (without spurs fans comparitvely good record).
Mr Martin,
what are your views on the anti semitic chanting and hissing sounds meant to imitate the gas chambers thrown at us Spurs fans for so many years by chelsea, west ham and arsenal……should they have their grounds closed…please respond.
“Let us suppose that whoever first composed this song was referring to Judas hanging himself, which is quite likely, and not being racist. They should have had the sense to realize that it can be interpreted as a racist line (in more than one way) and not written it. They should have had the wordliness to realize that some racist fans, which most clubs have (Chelsea’s record on this is by no means clean) would have picked it up thinking it a reference to ‘monkeys’. Did they think everyone would sing it because they appreciated the biblical reference? Did they not twig that some would sing the last line because they (wrongly) think HIV is a disease of blacks and gays? Do the fans who sing not appreciate the danger of inflaming racial tension by singing the song, regardless of the author’s original intention?
If I own a pub and let the National Front have meetings there, it associates me with racist behaviour and I shouldn’t expect sympathy were I to get labelled a racist myself. To pretend that people will not see the tree line as being racist is to bury your heads in the sand.”
Your half-assed and completely inadequate backtracking will not cover it Mike. That comment may make you feel like you have covered your arse but the sensationalist headline and article will live longer while barely anyone is likely to see your comment. You branded Spurs fans liberally as racists and should be held accountable. A decent person would reevaluate even if misinformed, hold his hands up and do the right thing. I won’t hold my breath.
Re Ossie: Very well, I apologize for saying that a line which I, and others, have interpreted as being racist can be interpreted as being racist.
Re A Lot Of Others: When Spurs play Arsenal, I usually want Spurs to win - until the Campbell chants begin - but that is beside the point. Who the club is is irrelevant, I often write about bad behaviour in football stadia and do not care whether it is Tottenham fans, Croatia fans, Roma fans or even other Chelsea or Stockport fans (not that Stockport are a particularly aggressive lot).
Re Glenn Hutton: Firstly, I respect you for using your real name and not hiding behind a funny pseudonym, so hello and I hope you’re well. However, saying ‘get over it’ and ‘everybody does it’ is a cop out. Not every club sings songs about HIV or saying they would rejoice in an ex-player’s suicide.
I also note you refuse to comment on the Anti-semitic tripe that the spurs fans have to contend with week in and week out, including by those same Pompey fans in the very same game. Now who is burying his head in the sand?
No what I mean is you are happy to gloss over the abuse thrown at Spurs fans in the very same game simply to take a swipe at Spurs while they are down. There is a word for that; cowardice. You are happy to paint a very innocent picture of Harry and Portsmouth fans being shocked and disgusted at the treatment one of their players received and are happy to jump on the bandwagon to get a few measly hits. You could have painted an accurate picture of the whole situation but instead you presented ill-informed, one sided rubbish. That is what I mean.
“Very well, I apologize for saying that a line which I, and others, have interpreted as being racist can be interpreted as being racist.”
Are these others you refer to the rest of your politically correct twat mates, determined to see racism and homophobia in every statement? You should write for the Guardian pal. You would either have to be incredibly thick, anti spurs or be (mis) guided by a politically correct agenda to even conceive that this is racist