Group E: Italy, Ghana, USA, Czech Republic

[Craig]

No it was something I read when he was in charge of West Brom and I think Leicester.

 

[luckyeddie]

No it was something I read when he was in charge of West Brom and I think Leicester.

Yes, it was a throwaway.

Ron Atkinson did come out with a fairly convincing case on the face of it - he did introduce a number of black players to the game, but that is no excuse.

Sometimes words do speak louder than actions.

 

[Craig]

And he attended the funeral os a black player who died, and he was one of the few white guys to turn up.

But I agree it is not acceptable and not on, and that was disappionts me about the actions in La Liga.

 

[TT Boy]

So how are you supposed to erdicate the problem by handing out soft and token fines?

Your not.

 

[Craig]

So we are supposed to leavie it and let it become a problem?

Leave it and it will.

 

[luckyeddie]

So we are supposed to leavie it and let it become a problem?

Leave it and it will.

I think what TT is saying is that it's not just football's problem - it is inherent within certain elements of society (In England, partly amongst the Daily Mail / Daily Express reading fraternity, partly amongst the great tribal unwashed who look upon any encounter with anyone as worthy of confrontation).

As far as the situation within football is concerned, it used to be dreadful in England - it's only 30-odd years ago that we had the first black player pulling on the national shirt, and only a dozen years or so since Roy McFarland felt that he had to substitute Derby's black players in a playoff match at Millwall following a seemingly racially-motivated pitch invasion.

Incidentally, a decade later, a Millwall apologist named Gary Miles penned a sanitised version of the night's events for the club's website, trying to claim that the incidents that were widely publicised at the time did not happen in the way they were supposed to, suggesting that there were about 40 trouble-makers and the rest of the crowd were well-behaved.

DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT.

Millwall took effective action to rid themselves of the pariah that had accompanied them over the years by ostracising the fascist tendency, and in this they are to be applauded. They are no longer a club who attract a large number of supporters from organisations such as the NF, but Miles's rubbish does them no justice whatsoever in trying to paint a whiter than white (pun intended) picture of their history.

They were scum then by association, they are no longer scum now.