Shop a Racist

The guy looks like a complete idiot, what a tool. Embarrassing.

That said with 40,000+ fans every week even in this day and age there will always be one plank and I’m sure this stuff goes on and you could get a picture similar to this fairly easily, interesting in the light of the Terry case and now Clattenburg incident the media have chosen to make this particular example of racism a story in its self.

I think this story originates in the Mail which love a story like this to balance out their own agenda which is anything but tolerant. Stories like this give them a bit of leeway to run with their own idiotic articles with racist tones while taking the moral high-ground.

Omelette, far be it from me to accuse any club after the history that mine had...........but Chelsea were a very noteable club notorious for racism in the 70s that was followed on by the Headhunters etc in the 80's and early 90s, those days are well gone

I am more than happy to accept that Chelsea fans in this day and age are no better OR worse than fans from every other club in Britain, although I will say getting an affordable pint in the pubs surrouding SB is not easy

It is slightly unfair as it wasn’t so much the psyche of a Chelsea fan that was racist during the 70’s it was organisations such as the NF using clubs as recruiting grounds for members and they infiltrated Chelsea, they were more like a disease and Chelsea were the host. That is not to say all the existing Chelsea fans were innocent, far from it I’m sure but when a group is targeted as a focal point for a destructive group with an agenda with the kind of violent tenancies which may seem attractive to attractive to a mob mentality during that time.

Bluedroog, very good point I can remember in the 70s walking to games and being handed NF pamphlets etc I and many of my fellow fans did not have the knowledge we have today and might have got involved whereas today you wouldn't (and shouldn't)

Not going to deny Chelsea's past, but got to say it was rife everywhere. I remember being on holiday visiting family in Portsmouth as a Kid. Went to a game got given what just looked like a comic but was a NF comic made for kids. Inside the the Pompey fans were chanting the N word at a player but because they didn't want to insult their own players made sure they chanted one red white before hand.
So glad it's now the odd idiot that can easily be picked out and banned

& Pompey used to have a few black players back in the day...I used to watch them as a kid from 75 to 79

can't fathom it can you..

I think it is far less of an issue today as football has become such a global, slick and expensive business but in the 70’s it was a different animal all together. It was the working man’s game, very cheap to get in and the crowd was very different. This was during a time when the economy was in a mess, many young men were out of work and lacked any purpose in their lives. You’ve working a dead end manual labour job or living off the dole and then once a week you get the chance of escapism, you are with your mates, you’re fuelled up on beer and actually for these young guys the mod mentality that comes with football and violence is a chance for empowerment. In day to day life they are the lowest of the low, no prospects and little respect then suddenly with the backing of 10,000s in that mod mentality they have a voice, they probably aren’t education or articulate enough to know what they want to say but that doesn’t really matter, what matters in they are heard and they belong!

Now this is exactly what the NF exploits, this feeling defective youth, no voice, no representation, no belonging. You have the perfect breeding ground for recruitment, the correct demographic are there, they are already pumped up and in a tribe mentality the NF just give it a political angle. They would be very clever the way they’d intertwine supporting your club and their political beliefs and the agenda that goes with that, when there is a group doing that it would be very easy to get caught up in it all, if you hear it for long enough you may well start believing it.

In the inner sanctum the youngsters who may well come from broken homes with no father figure or role models will suddenly have people to look up to, getting in to violence and being backed up by a ‘family’ will only go to reinforce these kinds of loyalties and so it can become an incredibly difficult thing to eradicate once it infiltrates.

Some people think I’m ridiculous when I say this but I actually think there is little difference (in many cases) with young British Asian males that get attracted to extremist terror groups in Afghanistan. I think many young Asian men in this country feel a lack of belonging and identity and these groups give them a massive voice, they become part of something and really feel like people will take note of them while they are getting an arm around the shoulder, a focus and something to stand for.

remember Clyde Best playing for West Ham....back in the day
The only black player in the football league almost at that time

"Daddy, you're on telly."
"See you in 12mths kids"

He certainly looks like he's enjoying himself. Perhaps he's doing the 'funky gibbon'. Or he could have cramp after carrying too many rolled-up carpets.