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'Sol Abuse Has Nothing To Do With Colour Of His Skin' - Danny Kelly on the Daily Mail scandal

http://www.football365.com/You_Say_We_say/Danny_Kelly_Column/story_11052.shtml

There are times when I wish that I didn't support Spurs.

Usually it's because of the team's perennial messing about in the mid-table mire and the owners' habit of appointing managers who either know nothing about the club (Gross), or who know plenty, and still despise it (Graham). But today I wish I didn't support Spurs so that what I am about to say would carry even more conviction and not be tainted with shadow of imagined partisanship.
 
I am in such a lather because I believe that this week we (Spurs fans, and, by extension, all football fans) have been the victims of one of the most disgraceful and distasteful pieces of "journalism" (and I hang my head in shame for my own occupation when I dignify the rubbish I'm referring to with that title) ever printed in a mainstream newspaper.
 
For those of you who missed it, I am referring to the objectionable piece written by Ian Wooldridge (multi-award winning sports columnist) in the Daily Mail on Tuesday.

In it he attacked Tottenham's fans for their attitude to Sol Campbell. Fair enough; he is entitled to his opinion about the ongoing unhappiness about the centre-half's decision to defect to rivals Arsenal in the summer (and indeed I shall come on to the atmosphere surrounding Sol's return to White Hart Lane this Saturday in due course). What was not acceptable, however, was his description of sections of the Spurs crowd, and, in particular, the motives he went on to ascribe to those who are upset with Campbell.
 
After sucking up to the posher folk who follow Spurs ("Spurs draws much of their patronage from some of the most well-heeled suburbs of the capital") he described some others who make their fortnightly pilgrimage to the Lane in less flattering terms: "They also attract the hate-filled, bored, indolent, ignorant, moronic, low life dregs of our society…"

That'll be me then.

Now it is well-known that Wooldridge holds no brief for football, preferring instead the more manly savagery of rugby union and the fighter-pilot-on-wheels glamour he sees in Formula One's tedious parade. But that is no excuse for unveiling his outdated, bigoted and factually incorrect bias against the kinds of plebs he clearly perceives football fans to be.
 
Yet even that reactionary tirade was as nothing compared to what came next.

Moving on from his attack on football fans in general, to the particular case of Sol Campbell, the old fool (for reasons of either muddle-headedness, or something altogether more evil) went on to imply that the anger directed toward Campbell had something to do with the colour of his skin.

To be precise, he wrote: "Apart from being a wealthy and successful footballer, Mr Campbell is also black."
 
Yes, Ian, that is true. It is as true as the following: the colour of Sol's skin has absolutely nothing to do with the vilification directed toward him. Absolutely nothing.

What is even more galling is that in a sport which has had its problems with racism, the Campbell carry-on has been marked by its singular lack of any such thing. I, deluded idiot that I am, have joined in with the general weeping and gnashing of teeth over the whole sorry business, but have never heard the colour of Campbell’s skin being mentioned, never mind made an issue of.

Sulzeer, I have heard it said, is a liar. He is a traitor. He is a weasel and he is a greedy bastard. But nobody has mentioned the fact that any of these things are because of, or have been made worse by, the fact that he is black.

If the protests planned against Campbell (most of which are silly and, I know, are giving the rest of the football community a good laugh at the expense of agonised Spurs fans; so be it!) had gone down that road, I, for one, would have condemned them.
 
Let's be straight about this; there used to be racism at White Hart Lane. It was in the late Seventies and it was stamped out by an initiative between the club and the fans called Spurs Against The Nazis. It was pointed out to the morons that there was something profoundly stupid in making Nazi salutes at a club traditionally aligned with North London's Jewish community and barracking opposition players when our own team contained black players (Crooks, Hughton) and a genius (Ardiles) who happened to be South American.

Spurs Against The Nazis worked and while you will always get the odd idiot, the organised racial abuse of players has not been heard at White Hart Lane for the best part of 20 years. The country's most obviously Jewish club has even gone on to idolise an Arab player, Nayim.
 
What is even more stupefying about Wooldridge's hateful lies is the fact that he’s so far wide of the mark, so completely wrong. Spurs' current team is getting fabulous support from the crowd, more than I've heard at the ground for a decade. Yet it contains a right old assortment of colours and races.

The squad contains 13 nationalities. The goalkeeper is a Scot, two of the players are Latin, three others Irish (from both sides of the border). Two of them are (heaven forfend!) German. Dean Richards, Les Ferdinand, Alton Thelwell and Yannick Kanaman were, last time I looked, black. And so, Ian, is the man who has replaced Sol Campbell, both in the team and as the darling of the Spurs crowd; Ledley King.
 
I do not know why so respected a journalist should write such disgusting bile. I can only presume that it in some way reflects his own insecurities about race in modern Britain. The effect of his hideous words has been, unfortunately, to bring race into an issue where it previously, and rightly, had no place.

It would not, of course, be the first time that an article in the Daily Mail has sought to do this, but Ian Wooldridge should know better.
 
He is due to respond to the storm his hatefulness has caused on Friday. No doubt he will make out that people who have criticised his views are weak-kneed liberals. It is a description I will happily accept; better that than a closet racist.
 
In ending Tuesday’s disgusting piece, Wooldridge said: "There are laws against incitement to civil unrest and racial discrimination and if Saturday's match provokes the strife anticipated by the National Criminal Intelligence Service, we must hope they are heavily invoked."

That is absolutely correct, and the very first door they should be knocking on could, I'm afraid, be that of Ian Wooldridge.