12/21/24
November 21, 2004
England could have walked: FIFA President Sepp Blatter says he would have supported England had they opted to leave the pitch in last week's friendly against Spain, where several black players were subjected to racist chants from the terraces. Does this set a dangerous precedent? Who decides if the abuse is serious enough to warrant a walk-out? Heck, who decides if the abuse is racist? And what happens when the crowd realise they can stop a match whenever a result is going the wrong way just by chanting unpleasant slogans?
And what happens when the crowd realise they can stop a match whenever a result is going the wrong way just by chanting unpleasant slogans? Make the "walk" into a home-team forfeit. Now that oughta raise some pulses!
posted by lil_brown_bat at 05:41 PM on November 21, 2004
Well, what good is a forfeit in a friendly like Wednesday's match? Isn't the main purpose of them to give the national sides a chance to play together and achieve/maintain some amount of cohesion when they'd otherwise have problems during matches that count towards some trophy?
posted by billsaysthis at 06:06 PM on November 21, 2004
Well, what good is a forfeit in a friendly like Wednesday's match? Okay, then, I guess they oughta just take 'em out back behind the barn and beat the shit out of them. 'Zat better?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:46 PM on November 21, 2004
lbb, way to use your inner logic!
posted by billsaysthis at 09:35 PM on November 21, 2004
lbb, way to use your inner logic! That's decidedly external logic, billsaysthis. Look, you posed a hypothetical asking about the result of some projected, possibly-in-the-future mass behavior: "And what happens when the crowd realise etc." Who knows what happens? What does logic have to do with crowd actions, anyway? If you want to talk about something that's inherently speculative, you have to roll with the speculation, ya know?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:09 AM on November 22, 2004
"I nearly walked" says Rio Well then, Rio, in that case, you NEARLY had something to tell the newspaper about. I reckon a huge opportunity to create some awareness and to make some impact was missed in that match. They should have walked. Beckham, as captain, should have pulled them off. It wasn't a tournament - it was a glorified practice match, which, to be honest, wasn't going terribly well from England's point of view anyway! To not walk and then say "I nearly did" as though that's something you should be commended for irritates me. To say you nearly did infers to me that the behaviour of the Spanish fans was somehow within some boundary that you've set - like there is a level of monkey noise that you will tolerate. In terms of the issue - I find it pathetic that the Spanish fans resorted to hurling racist abuse at the black players on the England team - especially given the fact that there was almost endless scope to slag off the abysmal standard of the football being played by the entire team at the time. I do agree with the view that Blatter's comments were ill-advised - but then, I could qualify almost every post I've ever put on here with that remark.
posted by JJ at 09:19 AM on November 22, 2004
How did the "walk-off" idea get started anyway? It seems that everyone was expecting racist abuse before the match - the whole thing had been stoked up by the press after Aragones' comments and the scenes at the U21 game - yet there was only talk of walking off after the match. Maybe England should have said beforehand that they'd walk if there was abuse. As JJ said, to play the match and then say "Oh we nearly walked" afterwards seems very silly and pointless. Also, on a slightly related point: did anyone see this last night? Dwight Yorke confronted a fan last night after the guy made a monkey gesture at him. I watched the match on Sky last night, and although I didn't notice the incident, as Yorke was coming on as a sub he was being mercilessly booed by Blackburn fans and I just knew there would be a story in today's paper about him being racially abused. When the tabloids stir up stuff like this, it just gives stupid people ideas. While most normal people listen to monkey chanting and think "that's disgraceful" you just know there will be some halfwits sitting there thinking "hah, that's funny." Sad but true.
posted by afx237vi at 09:57 AM on November 22, 2004
That "I nearly walked" is a Sun headline isn't it? In the article itself Rio says he never even noticed the abuse until he'd been subbed. How this equates to "nearly" walking is beyond me.
posted by squealy at 12:25 PM on November 22, 2004
lbb, sorry for not being as clear as I intended. Your response goes over the top and ignores the main thrust of my comment.
posted by billsaysthis at 02:37 PM on November 22, 2004
You said thrust...
posted by StarFucker at 03:11 PM on November 22, 2004
Blatter's an idiot, but he's right this time. They shoulda walked off Artest-style. Otherwise he's utterly utterly wrong as usual.