Fair play Rio, but what IS your beef?
man has come out of this Fergie v Ferdinand anti-racism T-shirt bollocks looking too good.
Sir Alex Ferguson seems more bothered that his authority was undermined than any kind of genuine worry about tackling racism.
To be fair, the Manchester United boss was made to look a right tit by Ferdinand’s stance after the Scot had earlier told reporters he had instructed all his players to wear the Kick It Out clobber.
But his scorned schoolteacherstyle interview after the Stoke game was always going to provoke accusations he cares more about a chink in his managerial armour being displayed to the world than any kind of desire to stamp out one of the ills of the game.
Ineffective
Add that to the bizarre decision to criticise Jason Roberts last week for taking a stand against Kick It Out, and it looks like this time Fergie has picked the wrong fight.
As for Ferdinand, not wearing a T-shirt is all well and good. In my book, he has every right not to advertise something he doesn’t believe in.
But what exactly is his point? He hasn’t said, has he? Does he think the campaign itself is ineffective? And if so, has he got any better ideas?
I wouldn’t blame him if he did think it was a load of shite. I watch Premier League football every week and, apart from badges and T-shirts that appear once a season, I couldn’t tell you what Kick It Out does.
They don’t bother their arses to engage with supporter groups, I know that, and that’s a pretty big hole in the plan when much of the racism in football has traditionally stemmed from the stands.
Perhaps Ferdinand’s beef is with the FA itself, or was he specifically spitting the dummy over the handling of the John Terry case? Whatever the reason, it would help if he backed up his action with words – otherwise it’s an empty gesture. GIVEN the media reaction, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Rio was the only player to snub the Kick It Out T-shirts.
For the record, there were plenty more who did exactly the same thing: Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards (Man City), Jason Roberts (Reading), Fabian Delph (Aston Villa), Anton Ferdinand, Nedum Onuoha, Junior Hoilett, Djibril Cisse and Shaun Wright-Phillips (QPR), Steven Pienaar, Victor Anichebe and Sylvain Distin (Everton), Kenwyne Jones and Ryan Shawcross (Stoke) and the entire Swansea and Wigan squads.