monkey-brains
Unbelievably, this whole Spanish race scandal keeps going from awful to worse. I mean, when Wright-Philips first came on, it sounded like there was a small but very vocal minority making monkey noises when he was on the ball (and by the by, one thing I forgot to note last time was how heroically he performed under conditions that no player should ever endure - I thought he was our best player for the time he was on, and if anything it seemed to make him want the ball even more). But then it became apparent that the noises were frequently coming from a much wider portion of the ground - there's an obvious difference between this and a handful of people caught on the pitch mics.
Even at this stage I was stunned, as thankfully we're just not used to this sort of thing and, perhaps naively, I assumed that racism was limited to a fairly insignificant number in western Europe. My first thought in fact (because Shaun was clearly taking it in his stride) was for the presumably huge majority of Spanish fans who must be mortified at the bad name they were being given. And I wasn't at all keen on the idea of points-docking etc, because I can't see the fairness or effectiveness of such measures to deal with a minority - surely much better to let their federation take a strong line to root it out domestically, as ours did with remarkable success with the yobs.
But reports of people in the ground seem to confirm the impression that it was a disturbingly large proportion of the crowd responsible - several thousand is a conservative estimate, and 10,000 plus seems more likely, including whole families for fuck's sake. The Spanish federation did at least issue a 'categorical condemnation' of the abuse, but couldn't resist adding, 'by a small group of fans', presumably while jamming their eyes shut and shoving their fingers in their ears. And even that was instantly undermined by the press officer adding, 'You [the English] should ask yourselves what you have done to contribute towards all this.' This truly beggars belief. I'm quite sure that the abuse was greatly increased out of a wish to mock the English and our reaction to Aragones' negro de mierda comment, but so what?? That doesn't mean it was the wrong reaction, and what, do they want us to apologise for helping to bring mass latent racism into the open?
And worse *still* - even the Spanish media has almost uniformly failed to take anything approaching a stern line. A single newspaper managed a critical response, and this was only a concession that Aragones has 'damaged the image of Spanish football' - the others treated the whole thing as a joke.
In a day I've gone from thinking that imposing points deductions or the like would be way over the top to thinking that that doesn't go far enough. Comments appreciated from anyone, but particularly those with a less damning spin to put on all this, because much as I want to, I can't see one.
Even at this stage I was stunned, as thankfully we're just not used to this sort of thing and, perhaps naively, I assumed that racism was limited to a fairly insignificant number in western Europe. My first thought in fact (because Shaun was clearly taking it in his stride) was for the presumably huge majority of Spanish fans who must be mortified at the bad name they were being given. And I wasn't at all keen on the idea of points-docking etc, because I can't see the fairness or effectiveness of such measures to deal with a minority - surely much better to let their federation take a strong line to root it out domestically, as ours did with remarkable success with the yobs.
But reports of people in the ground seem to confirm the impression that it was a disturbingly large proportion of the crowd responsible - several thousand is a conservative estimate, and 10,000 plus seems more likely, including whole families for fuck's sake. The Spanish federation did at least issue a 'categorical condemnation' of the abuse, but couldn't resist adding, 'by a small group of fans', presumably while jamming their eyes shut and shoving their fingers in their ears. And even that was instantly undermined by the press officer adding, 'You [the English] should ask yourselves what you have done to contribute towards all this.' This truly beggars belief. I'm quite sure that the abuse was greatly increased out of a wish to mock the English and our reaction to Aragones' negro de mierda comment, but so what?? That doesn't mean it was the wrong reaction, and what, do they want us to apologise for helping to bring mass latent racism into the open?
And worse *still* - even the Spanish media has almost uniformly failed to take anything approaching a stern line. A single newspaper managed a critical response, and this was only a concession that Aragones has 'damaged the image of Spanish football' - the others treated the whole thing as a joke.
In a day I've gone from thinking that imposing points deductions or the like would be way over the top to thinking that that doesn't go far enough. Comments appreciated from anyone, but particularly those with a less damning spin to put on all this, because much as I want to, I can't see one.