Racism in football - Liverpool?

Contrast the behaviour of Liverpool and Chelsea in recent weeks in reacting to the allegations of racism against one of their players. While Chelsea did the correct thing in not commenting, and preventing their players from wearing shirts proclaiming Terry's innocence, Liverpool allow their misguided players to take the field with t-shirts in support of Suarez. The club also comes out in support of the player with an official statement which has a worrying underlying tone of victimisation against them in the handling of the matter by the FA.

Any deep-lying fondness I had towards towards Liverpool as a club is quickly being eroded with their current crop of representatives - a board which won't condemn racism; a manager who is becoming as blinkered and biased as Wenger by the day; and a legion of ineffectual superstars who continually fail to live up to their promise.

This club needs to stop living off the flawed heritage of the earthy "bootroom", the perceived social injustices inflicted on its' long-suffering supporters (the boys from the black stuff) and more recently the sympathy evoked as a result of the Hillsborough tragedy.

Get real and face up to your responsibilities - Suarez needs to answer for his actions.


Liverpool statement:

“LFC considers racism in any form to be unacceptable – without compromise. It is our strong held belief, having gone over the facts of the case, that Luis Suarez did not commit any racist act.

Ed - surely their assessment would be a little one-sided?

“It is also our opinion that the accusation by [Evra] was not credible – certainly no more credible than his prior unfounded accusations. It is key to note that Patrice Evra himself in his written statement in this case said ‘I don’t think that Luis Suarez is racist’. The FA in their opening remarks accepted that Luis Suarez was not racist.

Ed - the issue is not whether, or to what degree Suarez is a racist -it is whether he committed a racist act.

“It appears to us that the FA were determined to bring charges against Luis Suarez, even before interviewing him at the beginning of November. Nothing we have heard in the course of the hearing has changed our view that Luis Suarez is innocent of the charges brought against him and we will provide Luis with whatever support he now needs to clear his name.

Ed - the "victim" card.

“We would also like to know when the FA intend to charge Patrice Evra with making abusive remarks to an opponent after he admitted himself in his evidence to insulting Luis Suarez in Spanish in the most objectionable of terms. Luis, to his credit, actually told the FA he had not heard the insult.”

Ed - a valid point maybe, but what relevance to the Suarez case?