Race

Insideworldfootball

The resignation of Paul Elliott from the FA and other bodies because he used the “n” word in a private text sent to another black player and a business colleague, is both sad and revealing. It is sad because Elliott had, probably still has, the capacity to go from having played the game at the highest level into becoming an excellent football administrator. It is revealing because it shows how attitudes to race, and particularly use of certain racial words, have been transformed in recent years.

Although Elliott did not like being described as an “insider” in many ways he was. This was exemplified by the fact that he advised David Cameron when he held his round table conference on racism in football in Downing Street last February. And in a country like the UK where, unlike many other countries, particularly on the continent, the ex footballer prefers to move from the players lounge to the television studio Elliott was prepared to sit many hours on committees and do his bit for the game.

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Insideworldfootball.com

Those who forget the past, said the great American savant George Santayana, are condemned to repeat it. Football in 2013 runs the same risk. This is because many of the administrators who run the game seem to have forgotten the past. Or perhaps they never cared for the past despite their many references to it in public utterances.

This explains why 2013 will be for the world’s favourite game a question of dealing with issues many thought had long been settled.

Take race.

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With racism in football on the rise again, chairman of the Kick It Out campaign is ready to quit over game’s collective failure to show moral strength

Evening Standard

It is only as we finish speaking and Herman Ouseley puts on his overcoat to brave the icy winds swirling round Marble Arch that he drops his bombshell.

The chairman of Kick It Out, football’s anti-racist pressure group, is planning to quit. “I may not be around. It could be a matter of days. It is as close as that.”

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FIFA president explains change in his views and why other areas of society also need to look at the issue

Exactly a year ago, Sepp Blatter was fighting calls for him to resign. It was not the first time FIFA’s president had been under pressure to stand down and certainly not the first time he had talked himself into trouble.

But while some of his previous thoughts were dismissed as bizarre ramblings — such as suggesting women play in tighter shorts — his comments on racism sparked outrage.

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Insideworldfootball

The debate on racism in football has now descended into absurd levels. On one hand, we are having accusations that the Football Association (FA) is institutionally racist. On the other hand, there are those who argue, and this includes some very powerful figures in the game, that Chelsea should never have made a complaint against Mark Clattenburg.

Both positions are absurd. Let us first deal with the Chelsea situation. As is very clear from what Bruce Buck, the Chelsea chairman, has told me after the Manchester United game, the club faced a very straightforward situation. This was that two of their players, John Obi Mikel and Ramires, were alleging that Clattenburg had called Mikel a monkey. Indeed, Mikel had tried to get into the referee’s room to confront him after the game and was prevented from doing so by Roberto Di Matteo, the Chelsea manager and his assistant, Eddie Newton.

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