Is he aware that Kick it Out have a budget of around £400,000 annually, as well as seven full time staff?

I'm not sure what he is trying to achieve by taking this stance.

He's doing it for the wrong reasons IMO. Personal gain

I don't know what he wants. Personally I think David James spoke a lot of sense the other day. There are a lot of people with a lot to gain from making out the problem is worse than it is, in this country at any rate. I think it does more harm than good. Sometimes I'm amazed at the reaction to things like the Terry case. Over a year later, a court case, he's lost his England place, might lose the Chelsea captaincy, had a bad and fine, is about the most hated man in the country and people still aren't happy and want more. When you look what he actually did I'd say that's plenty.


This will do Roberts media career no harm.

Not sure I understand what the budget has to do with anything. They seem to get their name out a hell of a lot for the money if that's the case.

I'm not exactly sure what he's trying to achieve either although am in favour of him exercising his personal choice whatever that is. If he's being really Machiavellian you could say he's got more people talking about racism in football than before.

So you think he's doing this to get his name in the papers Chameleon? You can't argue about the timing as we're coming off the back of the John Terry saga and incidents in Serbia. I can see how some people are a bit frustrated.

Roberts probably isn't even playing

The Kick it out Campaign is funded by the FA and PFA.

funded by the FA

So Terry has paid for these t-shirts

You could say it's done his media career no harm although he seems to have had nothing but grief so far. He seems an intelligent bloke but maybe he is just after getting his name in the paper, I don't know.

I read the article again and don't see him mention the Terry case but more that the organisation isn't independent and by implication (mine) is tied to follow a party line. He mentions the name change also from Let's Kick Racism Out Of Football to just Kick It Out, maybe this is an issue, it does seem odd to have watered down the name.

I don’t think it has anything to do with Terry or Suarez. He feels there is hypocrisy with the FA and he’s probably right. I mean the FA harp on about kicking racism out of football but are there any black people on the FA board on in senior positions? I don’t know if there are but I’m guessing no. What are the FA doing to get more black managers into the game? Not a lot.

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I hate the term "racially abused" called a name is better. Using a someone's race in a insult is the insult you can use. But it's still just calling someone a name.

It's wrong and should be punished but people are never happy and can't move on. Terry could be hung drawn and quartered and people would want him cut in to a few more bits. It's disproportionate.

But I can't see how anyone living in this country can think we don't take racism seriously. It all we ever talk about.
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Yeah, that's the problem. Its only ever talked about but when it comes to the crunch, what are the FA doing about it? Do they dock clubs points if some of their supporters racial abuse a player e.g. Millwall, Liverpool? No but yet they want Serbia thrown out of European football. They want to see more black people in senior football positions. Do they have any black people in senior positions in the FA? No They want FIFA to have zero toleance to racism. Do the FA? No. A small ban and a pathetic fine.

The kick it out campaign is morally bankrupt. How can a sending off followed by a frivolous appeal get the same ban as John Terry, who racially abused a fellow professional.
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Are you aware that the Kick it Out Campaign is not run by the FA? The Kick it out campaigners are not FA staff, and thus have no say in what punishments the FA hand out

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It's funded by the FA though according to the above. So the FA don't run it they just pay everyone's wages, the point is they're not independent so may to some extent have their hands tied, no?

Sutton, to be fair your comments on whether something is racial abuse or being "called a name" are irrelevant. There's a huge variety of ways someone could be abused. I hardly think the majority of commentary on football involves race; if anything there's a ton of emblems posted about race but no actual substance behind them. Credit to Roberts for saying so.

Terry was abused

Not enough is being done about racism in football at all. From the players, the terraces, and even in allowing known fascists to manage football teams in our country. The FA haven't come out and said enough about Serbia, the bans for Terry and Suarez were pathetic, the fines even more so, and racism on the terrace is still heard at every game and goes unpunished. Kick it Out, as good as some of the work they've done in the past has been, are meant to be the flagship organisation responsible for putting an end to racism. Whether because of their budget or not, they aren't doing enough. It doesn't cost much to organise player protests, to campaign for longer bans bigger fines etc, or do come up with ideas, which at the minute seem minimal. I think Roberts is right. I see it not as him taking a direct dig at Kick it Out, but as him doing something to emphasise that not enough is being done. It will have more impact than a few players putting a t-shirt on for a weekend.

And Fergie can get bent.

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I think he's got every right not to weat the t-shirt if he feels the organisation aren't doing their jobs properly. He might be wrong and they might be in a very difficult situation but he can't be forced to wear the t-shirt. I'm not sure how Kick-it-out are to blame for the Terry and Suarez sagas though. The FA must take some blame of course and they would be involved with Kick-it-out.

I don't think Roberts thinks they are to blame. There's an organisation set up to fight racism but it's funded by the governing body. He possibly thinks they're not doing the job properly, he may feel that the existence of this organisation is getting in the way of another independent group that may do the job better.

I imagine he'd rather not wear the t-shirt than wear something that shows support for it.

even in allowing known fascists to manage football teams in our country.
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You can't stop people from having job because of his political views.

His free choice i suppose but what i struggle to understand is why calling someone a so called racist term is deemed worse than calling someone short ,fat,ginger or whatever the so called term may be .