Reds must stand tall and end a sorry tale
THE SIGHT of Jamie Carragher squirming this week, as he sought to justify Liverpool’s actions during the Patrice Evra race row was painful.
The body language of the former Reds’ defender showed how uncomfortable he was defending Luis Suarez – or making any case for the Liverpool squad of the time kitting themselves in a T-shirt supporting the Uruguayan, after Suarez had been found guilty in December 2011.
Suarez was judged by the FA to have racially abused Manchester United defender Evra, and he was banned for eight matches and fined £40,000.
Carragher’s words last week, such as “we were wrong”, “we made a mistake” and, finally, “apologies” to Evra, were long overdue.
Eight years overdue, in fact.
And they were probably only elicited even now because the pair were facing each other across the desk in a television studio.
Should it be Carragher’s responsibility to say sorry on behalf of Liverpool FC?
No, but it was a welcome gesture. He was, after all, vice-captain at the time.
And to hear him question whether he had fallen short at the time of the moral courage to have said, ‘I’m not wearing that,’ was an interesting insight into the problem and the man himself.
It was Evra’s old team-mate Rio Ferdinand who then called for Liverpool to act upon Carragher’s lead, and make the gesture of a formal apology.
It is a good idea.
Liverpool were in the wrong.
After a lengthy hearing, an independent body had found Suarez guilty. The Reds’ team then wore, en masse, T-shirts in support of their team-mate.
Solidarity with a man found guilty of racism? What part of that is right?
None of it. It wasn’t right then and the passing of time hasn’t altered that.
So, what would the club apologise for, exactly? Those T- shirts, presumably. But how can you issue a press release over the wearing of those garments?
You can’t – not really.
But Liverpool’s chief executive Peter Moore could seek out Evra, apologise on behalf of the club, saying they made an error of judgement, and offer a sizable donation to a charity of the player’s choice.
A press release be issued on that basis. Moral justice would be served and the club could move on.
As a symbolic gesture, it would have a huge impact. And that’s important. Firstly, because as fellow
columnist Stan Collymore so eloquently pointed out last week, racism isn’t going away.
Race- hate crimes are on the increase.
In the past couple of weeks there have been issues during England’s match in Bulgaria and then, much closer to home, at the f i xture involving Haringey Borough and Yeovil.
Secondly, it is important because Liverpool clearly champion a zero-tolerance approach towards racism, as was demonstrated this week.
An offensive Reds banner was hung from the stands at t he Champions League tie against Genk. If you missed it, it was ‘ Whatsapp Guy’ – an image of a naked bloke that’s done the rounds on social media – but with Divock Origi’s head super-imposed.
I think it was supposed to be funny. But no laughing matter if you are trying to tackle racist stereotypes.