When it comes down to it, what happened regarding the John Terry “racism scandal” was not acceptable or should it have been tolerated, in arguably the “greatest league” in this modern age of football, this league has built its great name and reputation on being a non racist league which doesn’t tolerate any discrimination or racism. Its real shame, that one high profile name and incident, had such an impact on our league and should have never been allowed to overshadow the massive strides the game has taken in last twenty years, in regards to racial equality. The damage of this affair is not irreparable, there are however very big questions to answer by the FA and media with their handling of this situation.
It is still a non racist league, in my eyes and many others, we only have to look at the state of the rest of, Europe’s leagues to see that, the actions of one high profile racist incident, doesn’t tarnish us all as racist league. No player should suffer the intolerable abuse the likes of which Danny Rose was subjected to in Serbia. Europe is where the initial problem of racism lies, not in our country, where we have one the most respected league names with regards to racism.
The racism which took place in the England U21 game at Serbia is an example of the real problem of racism in our game not the issue we have in the English game. UEFA need to be prompt decisive action to rest of the football world that this is not tolerated in the modern game. In my view, the most appropriate punishment is for the Serbia national team’s games to be played behind closed doors, which would give the supporters a firm message without damaging opportunities for their players to develop and progress into major tournaments.
It’s how our league and game responds to the John Terry “racism saga”, that matters now, the FA dragged its heels for too long, the media, felt the need to write, materialised stories to sell their rags and in progress, tarnished the “good name and reputation” of one the greatest leagues in football all, for the sake of one racist players actions.
The “Kick it Out,” chairman, Lord Herman Ouseley is hoping to move on after John Terry was found guilty by the FA of racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand; “This is not about recriminations. It’s about how football moves forward from here after it has spent 11 months going through the wringer,” Lord Ouseley told the BBC.”
The actions and punishment taken by the FA was unacceptable. The FA will now learn, their lessons from their handling of the situation and know they handled it wrongly and in turn allowed the hysteria and whole “scandal” to damage the league’s good name and reputation. Hopefully, now the decision by John Terry not to appeal his Football Association charge hopefully brings to a close a difficult period for the domestic game in this country in which, unfortunately, the reputation of our English league’s name has been damaged. The FA,have to now take responsibility and realise they were at wrong with their handling of the situation.
There are some major challenges ahead in our game; the FA will have to find ways of developing more Black and ethnic minority coaches and creating pathways where they can be appointed to senior manager jobs within our clubs and within the national team structure.
English football has made great strides to leave those dark days of racism, behind us. As a culture in this country we should celebrate that progress. In all but a tiny minority of cases, a football pitch is a place of entertainment, not racist abuse and we should move on now and look to the future of our game.
James William