Those racists don’t just deserve a ban, they also deserve to be locked up
MAURICIO POCHETTINO was once seen having lunch with Sir Alex Ferguson in Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair.
The other day, he was seen in the Locanda Locatelli restaurant in central London and among his fellow diners were David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane.
Maybe he got the lowdown on life at the Bernabeu from the Real Madrid alumni or maybe he just has a few quid and likes very nice food in very nice restaurants.
A man has to eat, after all. ONE of the world’s finest footballers, an unassuming guy, prepares to take a corner against your team. He is within earshot of you. Do you …
turn to your mate or neighbour and remark on how slight the player looks in the flesh?
turn to your mate or neighbour and suggest the player is not having his best game and you really hope it stays that way?
turn to your mate or neighbour and jokingly bemoan the fact your side does not have a player of his class?
call him a “f ***** g Muslim c***” and tell him to “f*** off ”?
In the case of one character at the London Stadium on Monday, the answer, apparently, is d).
West Ham, with admirable swiftness and determination, have promised to track down the culprit who aimed the vile remarks at Mohamed Salah and take the strongest possible action.
Good.
When they find him, a lifetime ban from attending football matches should be a given.
But, first, they will probably have to wait for the police to complete an investigation. They could be waiting some time.
It is now two months since Raheem Sterling was verbally abused during Manchester City’s match at Stamford Bridge.
Four people have been suspended from attending games by Chelsea, but any further action is dependent on the completion of a Met investigation into the incident. Now, they are a very busy, very overstretched lot, the Met Police.
And that is understatement.
But, with video evidence, with fans in the surrounding areas easily identifiable, how long should this type of exercise take?
Yes, they are a busy lot, the police all over the land. But the longer the inquiries into a serious these types of incidents go on, the softer the focus becomes on driving them out of the game and out of society.
There are probably many out there whose memory of the Sterling incident was only rekindled by the social-media exposure of the abuse of Salah.
Also, this season, we have had the banana skin thrown towards Pierre-emerick
HE might be long lost to the red ball game but, occasionally, as they flounder in the Caribbean, the fact that arguably the best captain in world cricket plays for England can be a bit of a head-scratcher.
He just might have made a decent Test captain, Eoin Morgan. Aubameyang, claims of homophobic slurs against Sol Campbell in Macclesfield’s game at Cheltenham and strong suggestions of racist chanting at the Millwall-everton FA Cup tie.
When Kick It Out said there had been a rise of 22 per cent in reports of racial abuse at grounds between 2016/17 and 2017/18, there was no reason to doubt the figures.
When the next set of such figures are published, you would not bet against another increase.
At least the Sports Minister, Mims Davies, appears to recognise the severity of the problem.
She wants an urgent summit with football leaders and campaign groups to discuss the growing problems. Good.
But maybe she can use her political influence to ensure the strongest weapon against the bigots, racists, anti-semites and homophobes – and that strongest weapon is the full force of the law – is used to its maximum effect.
Because those who scream discriminatory and racial hatred inside football grounds don’t just deserve a ban from their seat.
They deserve locking up.
EVEN for those of us desperate to uphold the traditions of the F Cup, the use of replays at any stage of the competitio is becoming indefensible. West Brom’s average crowd for a home Championship match is around 24,000. There were 8,645 people there for the fourth-round replay defeat to Brighton.
That, sadly, says it all.