WEXFORD ACE NOT ‘Part of me felt sorry for him’
LEE CHIN REFLECTS ON DEALING WITH RACIST INCIDENT
can’t do anything else.
“If people around Waterford want to make up rumours, that’s fine. I’ve accepted that a long time ago.
Issue
“If I was beaten 10 or 12 points in my League games and I was getting hammered, I’d have an issue but I don’t have that.
“The first three games of the League, we were missing nine so-called starters that will be there or thereabouts.
“The last game or so, we started to get them back but they weren’t match fit.
“We haven’t been far away and we’ve blooded over 30 players in the League. I’m happy with that.
“Can I stop the rumours? No I can’t.
“You know what, let them off.
“If we win on April 21 or May 4, do you think those rumours will count for much?
“That’s the way I look at it. If we lose, they’ll nail me no matter what the story is.
“I don’t really mind; I can’t do anything about it.”
LEE Chin has opened up about the racist abuse he suffered in a charity match between Wexford and Tipperary at Carrick-on-Suir 12 months ago.
Chin’s team-mates were enraged and confronted the man, with referee John Keenan blowing the game up early.
The man, in his 50s, was subsequently banned for 48 weeks by the GAA.
Chin didn’t speak out at the time as he didn’t want to make the situation worse for the man.
“I was quite conscious of him,” he said.“I genuinely was. Even my family were.
“We would be that way inclined at home and we were conscious of his feelings and how things can end up for him.
“I remember the phone call I had with him and he was very sorrowful and he couldn’t apologise any more.
“We had good conversations and I left the phone call wishing him well and letting him know that I had no hard feelings towards him. Things like that I hope were helpful towards him.”
Chin says he is fully aware of the seriousness of the situation.
“It’s not that I tend to stay away from it because it creates too much fuss,”he explained.
“It’s not that at all but at the time it just wasn’t right.
“But that happened unfortunately then, and I received an apology from the man himself and we’ve exchanged phone calls since to talk about it.
“Look, there was a part of me at the time that felt sorry for him.
“He has a family of his own and what happened was unfortunate.
“But sometimes things are said in the heat of the moment and they’re not intentionally meant with any great malice.
“I had sympathy for him and his family at the time and still do but I think he’s very sorry for what happened on the day.
“We did have conversations since and things are smooth and I hope he’s doing well.
“There probably was a time I was going to talk about it but there’s probably never a right or wrong time either.
“Last year I just kind of let it flow over me because I wanted to let it slide for the minute.
“Obviously with the fact that what he said, he was getting heat from it too.
“I just didn’t think it would have helped with me coming out and having a go everywhere.”
Chin believes little has changed in society since he went public over a decade ago about racist abuse he suffered in a club game.
“All I can say in my own experience is not a whole lot has changed from when I was younger to now.
State
“But I’d like to state that it has never happened to me during a senior inter-county game at all, or any form of inter-county status level. It’s never happened.
“Obviously, we know a number of years ago it happened to me in a club game back home and at various different times.
“But if you’re asking the question, are we in a different place? For what I experience at times, no.
“Obviously, it’s not something you think about daily but when it happens, it’s disappointing to hear.
“But it’s not something that I can control.
“Obviously, speaking about it does help and there’s probably a lot of other people out there that experience it a lot more than I do and then there’s probably people out there that don’t experience it at all.
“You kind of have to try and be there for the people that maybe are experiencing it and maybe don’t know what to do.”
Chin says he is happy to support anyone who suffers racist abuse.
“I’d be open to anybody if they were in a place in their life where they felt they needed that support,” he says.
“I’d absolutely be there for them if they wanted to chat or talk about it.
“I’m not sure if I’ve experienced it all, but I’ve experienced some level of it to some degree.
“When I was younger I would have been in that frame of mind at times where I was seeking support myself but as
I’ve gotten older in my life, I’ve dealt with it a lot better.
“My reactions to it are a lot better. How I suffer from it are much better.
“But some people just might not be at that stage of their life yet and they might not be able to deal with it like I can at the mom ent.
“I’d be there as an element of support if anyone ever needed it of course.”