BURNLEY’S BIGOTED FAN BASE SHAME
REFEREE Andre Marriner, right, and players take a knee before the English Premier League match between Manchester City and Burnley in Manchester, on Monday night. Right-wing hooligans flew a ‘White Lives Matter Burnley’ banner over the Etihad Stadium while the players were honouring the Black Lives Matter movement. | EPA
FOR ALL the work Burnley have done to promote diversity, the enduring nature of the challenge they face was visible when stewards at Tottenham observed a 13-year-old fan of the Lancashire club abusing Son Heung-min in December.
The adults accompanying the boy, who did not seem to include his parents, were contrite when Spurs sent in child protection officers to deal with the situation. The boy was given educational orientation sessions with the Kick it Out organisation. But to find bigotry in someone so young was grim.
At least there is hope of altering the warped perspectives of a teenager.
The far right hooligans who sent a “White Lives Matter Burnley” message on a banner attached to a plane flying over the Etihad Stadium were basking in their own notoriety, as football reacted with disgust this week.
“I’d like to apologise... to absolutely f***ing nodbody (sic),” wrote one of them, Jake Hepple, in a private Facebook post.
The mother of Mark Hamer, a multiple convicted football hooligan also involved in raising £600 (R13 000) to fund the plane, was furious with the trouble he had caused the family.
She did not come to the door when Sportsmail knocked but made her feelings clear in the hallway as Hamer’s father batted away most questions.
The company which was happy to fly the message on Monday – just as the players took a knee – were less accommodating when it came to explaining itself.
The Stockport-based Air Ads representative, “Bob”, did not respond to requests for comment, beyond saying he had not been the pilot.
WhatsApp messages between the perpetrators revealed they had hoped to provoke Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling into walking off.
Burnley said they and Lancashire police had been aware something might
BURNLEY captain Ben Mee, centre, and teammates walk off the pitch after losing 5-0 to Manchester City. Mee said he was ashamed and embarrassed by the Monday banner flyover before kick-off. | EPA
happen, though there was no suggestion of illegal activity so they were powerless to intervene.
“I’m ashamed and embarrassed,” said Burnley captain Ben Mee, who added that the incident “definitely had a massive impact on us” as Burnley went on to a 5-0 defeat.
Not for the first time in the past two weeks, anti-Black Lives Matter bigotry had been carried out by hooligans who claimed an attachment to football.
Hamer was a ringleader of 12 members of Burnley’s so-called Suicide Squad jailed for attacking Blackburn Rovers fans nine years ago. Hepple, an English Defence League member, proudly parades an image of himself
with founder Tommy Robinson on his Facebook page.
No one in Burnley could deny that Monday’s stunt, coming at a time when sport attempts to create a lasting change, was a heavy blow.
The town laboured with a race problem for years, with the 2001 race riots in the UK followed by 2004 council elections which saw the British National Party win three seats and briefly threatened to earn an entitlement to sit on school governing bodies.
“The town isn’t racist any more. We’re away from that,” insisted council leader Charlie Briggs on Tuesday, and substantial work has been done to build racial harmony and tolerance.
Burnley manager Sean Dyche made it one of his first missions to take the players to the local Ghausia mosque, though was reluctant to promote the visit because he did not want it to appear tokenistic or for appearances.
The organiser of that visit, Afrasiab Anwar, chairs the Burnley FC Inclusion Advisory Group, and said the club had been integral to attempts to bring the town’s communities together.
“It’s not just a tick-box exercise,” he said. “The first conversations we had with Sean were about how we could be more inclusive and things have gone from there. We’ve come a long way.”
An interfaith football tournament and the club’s partnership with two mosques have formed part of the effort, with children from those mosques invited into the club.
Converting that work into a more diverse fan base has proved tough, in an age with the support of a club passing down through the generations now less prevalent.
“That’s not happening yet and it will take time,” says Anwar. “But we recognise that and what we need to do. It will just take time.”
Home Office data published in December showed that more race-related incidents were reported at Burnley than at any other Premier League club in the previous two seasons.
There had been 15 incidents, while none had been reported at other clubs.
But Burnley insisted they had actively encouraged supporters to report incidents and the data does not identify whether home or visiting fans had made the reports.
In this town, as in any other, intolerance is not hard to find. Racial segregation persists in some areas. You do not find black or Asian faces in the streets around Hamer’s home.
But eight of the 10 people we approach expressed dismay at the banner, before Burnley chairperson Mike Garlick said on Tuesday night that the club would “root out these racists”.
Garlick said: “Let’s be clear: the plane didn’t fly in our name. But we have to talk about it. We cannot and will not sweep it under the carpet.”
the perpetrators, which had captivated the town, though. Mee said he was “ashamed and embarrassed” by what happened and the club warned those responsible could be banned for life.
“That filled me with such pride,” said Anwar. “That’s real leadership.”
“People won’t tolerate it,” said Ted Davies, another local walking near Turf Moor. “There are consequences for this now. We won’t let these people grind our good name into the dust.” | Daily Mail