For those of you who have been living in a cave, the basics of the matter are, a black, French, professional footballer, Patrice Evra, has accused another footballer, Luis Suarez, a Uruguayan of mixed ethnicity, of making racial remarks towards him during a game earlier this season. The F.A. have "investigated" found Suarez guilty, banned him for eight games, and fined him £40,000. Now, on the face of it, to somebody unfamiliar with the facts of the case, the whole thing may seem fair, however, a closer examination reveals quite how ludicrous the whole situation is.
Firstly, the only evidence presented to the tribunal as to the guilt of the accused, has come from the mouth of the accuser. No corroborating evidence whatsoever has come to light, that means, the alleged slur was not heard by anybody else, match officials, team mates of either player, fans; nothing was picked up by the microphones or captured by any of the hundreds of TV cameras covering one of the most watched games in the footballing world. This is a little strange, wouldn't you say, given that Evra claimed that the accused used the slur at least ten times during the course of the match, on one occasion in a crowded penalty area at a corner, with eighteen fellow professionals and match officials in very close proximity. Stranger still when you realise that the game was watched live by approximately a billion people round the world, however still nothing was picked up, and after scrutiny of the tape at the hearing, still nothing!
So one man's word against another's, never been much of a basis to convict somebody of a crime, even if the alleged victim is an angel, the vast majority of people would have difficulty pronouncing judgement on such a flimsy basis. The alleged victim in this case is no angel though, in fact he has been in front of an FA panel before, in just such a case, although that time it was against a member of Chelsea ground-staff, not a fellow professional. At the end of that hearing, the FA panel stated that the testimony offered by Evra was "unreliable and exaggerated", making it even stranger that this time around the FA would rely so heavily on his statements.
We are all fully aware that England and by extension English football has a had a sickening history of racism, the police investigation against John Terry and the horrendous chants of the Chelsea fans, "Anton Ferdinand you know what you are", only go to further reinforce this point. However, it is my contention that given this shameful history of racism, coupled with the FA's desire to get one over Sepp Blatter (FIFA President) for perceived corruption over their failed World Cup bids and his own careless remarks, "racism should be settled with a handshake", the Football Association are themselves guilty of failing to try understand cultural differences, failing to investigate the matter adequately, jumping to the wrong conclusion and handing out a punitive sentence purely for their own political reasons.
Why cultural differences? The accused volunteered to the tribunal and the investigators when asked, that he had said to Evra on one occasion, "porque negrito". In English, negrito does not have one, direct translation, in fact it can mean any number of things, it may look close to the word negro, however, it is not that word. The word negrito can mean, black, but only black, not n***** or any other pejoritive term for somebody of dark skin, just a descriptive-black. More importantly to note however, is that the word negrito is much more commonly used in the accused's dialect as a slang word for friend, irrespective of colour, like mate, pal, buddy, mucker. How many times have you sworn at a driver who's cut you off by saying something like, up yours mate? Easily done isn't it? Now, imagine that driver came from a society where the word mate was regarded as racially intolerant. Through no fault of your own, you'd be in a lot of trouble from which you might find it very hard to escape. But officer, I only called him mate. Yes sir, that's the problem! You see what I'm getting at.
As I mentioned earlier on, the accused is of mixed race, he has a black grandfather. He has starred in FIFA videos before the 2010 World Cup promoting the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic points of football, he plays for Uruguay, which has a proud history of fielding black players, long before other South American countries began to do so, and he has captained Ajax Amsterdam, probably the most multi-cultural, multi-ethnic club side in the world. Suarez, while he's been accused of several things during his career, some fairly, some unfairly, he has never ever been accused of something of this nature. If you look around the world of football since the verdict was passed, you will see that outwith England, Suarez is held in very high esteem right the way across it, and messages of support and disbelief have come from far and wide. It seems to me, very clear, that this would not happen, if the accused had ever shown racist tendencies.
In a blatent exercise in "double-speak" both the FA and Patrice Evra made written statements saying that they do not believe Suarez is a racist. Explain that to me please, given that Evra accused him of making racist comments "at least 10 times", and that the FA panel found the accused guilty and handed out an eight game ban. Naturally what people will take away from this is that the accused is a racist, it is already happening, Paul Mcgrath says that Liverpool's show of support for the accused on Wednesday Night (the whole squad and Manager wore Suarez T-shirts during the warm up) is condoning racism. Well how could it be if by the FA's and Evra's own admissions, Suarez is not a racist? Of course it isn't condoning racism, it is showing support for a colleague and a friend who is having his name, his family's name and his character dragged through the mud, on the basis of one man's dubious testimony and a linguistic misunderstanding. Jason Roberts (BBC pundit) says he was offended by the show of support and that "some things are bigger than football", well Jason, you are right some things are bigger than football, ie. having your name and reputation soiled forever with no real evidence at all. That is pretty big!
Gordon Taylor (PFA head) has said this week, "of course referring to someone's skin colour is offensive, it's self evident". It is my contention that it is only offensive to refer to somebody's skin colour if it's done in a racist sense, ie. the person saying it believes in the superiority of one race over another, and means it as an insult in this way. For example Rohan Ricketts (professional footballer) tweeted in response to hearing Alan Hansen (BBC pundit) use the word "coloured", "is this guy taking the f****** piss?..... We are black Alan. Clearly then, the use of black, or white for that matter, is acceptable as a descriptive adjective in this sense. It seems to me that the only thing "self evident" is the inherent racism in the statement made by Mr. Taylor, and this is in fact the problem within the FA, football, and England as a whole, while talking tough and writing rules, has England really done much to fundamentally change attitudes? Tackling racism can not just be done with rules and laws, racism comes from inside, it breeds through fear and segregation, and can only be tackled through integration from an early age, a broad education that informs about the differences and similarities between races and cultures, and a willingness to embrace and accept the diversity which exists on earth.
I have seen and heard many times this week, that this case, and judgement show how far England and English football has come in tackling racism. To me it shows the exact opposite, how little progress has actually been made by the English and the English FA in understanding the cultures and attitudes of others who have come to live and work in the U.K.. How so? The FA have not chosen to check Suarez background in this matter, they have not spoken to his former managers, team mates, opponents, members of his national side, linguistic experts, or anyone else who may have been able to shed some light on his character and the true meaning of his comment. They have not tried to investigate the cultural and linguistic obstacles and differences that the accused may have faced, in short, they have in effect said: Never mind where you're from, never mind what it means in your culture or language, you are in England now, so you do it our way! Not a very multi-cultural attitude is it? Instead, the FA and most of the media have been quick to listen to the testimony of an unreliable witness, quick to dismiss the perfectly reasonable explanation of the accused, and with no other evidence available, have condemned a professional footballer publicly and left him blowing in the wind.
They have done so for two main reasons, and in no particular order, firstly, to get back at Blatter for their failed World Cup bids, the FIFA bribery scandal and Blatter's remarks surrounding racism. Secondly, because of the history of racism in English football, the FA have acted through fear of being seen to condone racist activity. They have heard the word "negrito", and ignoring the subtleties and nuances of what it actually means or how it was intended, in spite of the fact that there is no real direct translation, have decided on the meaning themselves. In this case, the overwhelming lack of credible evidence against the accused, and the confusion surrounding translation has counted for absolutely nothing, as for purely political reasons, they want to be seen to be tough on racism, and Suarez is their scapegoat. I feel this is an issue for all professional footballers, they should not allow one of their own to be besmirched in such a way without seeing the evidence and knowing the facts, and they should not allow the FA to open the doors for any unscrupulous footballer to play the race card whenever they feel like it. The one thing that has been proven, beyond any doubt, in this case, is that this can happen to anyone, because the sign above the door at FA headquarters reads: NO EVIDENCE REQUIRED.
Beany with the Gold Chain
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