Sunday, October 7th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month
By Tony Attwood
I’ve only been given a formal reprimand once during my working life. Obviously I have been aided by the fact for much of my life I have either owned the company I worked for, or worked as a writer (where the publisher can just say “no thanks”) or a musician (wherein rock bands tend not to use the delicate processes of employment law).
When I got my warning I was Senior Lecturer in Music, and my superiors didn’t like what I had said about the quality of our degrees at an examiners’ meeting.
So I have no experience of someone bringing a gun to work and shooting a trainee within the company, but on the basis of normal humanity it seems something of a worse offence than talking out of turn in a university meeting. But you’ll recall the story – in February 2011 Cole accidentally shot Tom Cowan from just 5ft away with a .22 rifle (the most powerful weapon you can have in the UK without a licence) at the club’s training ground.
Chelsea said: ‘We have fully investigated the incident and we are taking appropriate action. We will not be commenting further as it is an internal matter.’
It seemed to me at the time that this was not enough – either by Chelsea or by the FA. But then, I suppose such organisations work in a different way either from the crazy world of rock n roll or the morally bankrupt world of football.
As for John Terry, well I’ve never been done for sneaking someone into a private area like a training ground for a fee. When the band rehearsed (I use the word lightly) people milled around. As an academic we welcomed visitors to our hallowed grounds. So when in 2009, John Terry was investigated by Chelsea and the FA for supposedly taking money from a reporter for a private tour of Chelsea’s training ground, all we got (despite the footage that seemed clearly to show this happening) all we got was a Chelsea statement that it was “confident that at no time did Terry ask for or accept money in relation to visits to the training ground.” Had this been true we might have expected a legal case against the paper and its undercover reporters. There was not one.
Meanwhile Cole on his tweet was just behaving as he always does – with total disregard for anyone else, including the country he plays for. But then in continuing to select him, and in continuing to work within Fifa, the FA hold us all in contempt.
John Terry on YouTube says “You fucking black cunt … fucking knobhead” to Anton Ferdinand, and he then claimed he was repeating what Ferdinand said to him. As if. Even the Westminster Chief Magistrate said Terry’s defence was “unlikely”. But in court, given that we are thankfully still a democracy, the burden of proof is much much higher, and if there is any doubt, you can get away with it. And yes I would sooner Terry get away with it in court than our democratic legal system be reduced any further.
If I had said “You fucking black cunt … fucking knobhead” I would have been thrown out of any job I had – and even though the world of rock music can be appallingly racist I think even the bands would have kicked me out.
So we move on to Chelsea. What is the world like in the head of Roman Abramovich? Is it a world where since winning is everything you want to carry on with people like this? And yes I know Arsenal stayed with Tony Adams when he was locked up for drink driving, but somehow it doesn’t seem the same, given that thankfully no one was hurt with that offence, with Cole’s driving offence, and with the same matter that has just arisen at Arsenal. What Adams did was awful, but it was away from football and he served the sentence he was given.
I know we are tribal – we all support our clubs to the bitter end – but isn’t there an end before that, an end which says, “if my club supports that man, my support changes”?
Would I still be happy with Mr Wenger and Arsenal if Terry played for us? There’s no way you can judge what sort of moral standards I have, so you would just have to take my word for it and say no. I would want Arsenal to win – but not with Terry. I genuinely don’t know if I would not go, go and boo Terry, or what I would do, but at the very least I would feel a deep moral uncertainty about my club at this point. Not least because Arsenal, in keeping him, would themselves have abandoned all their stands against racism. I think I really would hand my membership back.
But then I would also expect the sponsors to leave. Samsung is for me an absolute “no” for the rest of my life. OK that won’t hurt them – but what else can I do? Samsung support Chelsea and its inherent racism. At least that is an easy decision for me to make. Never buy Samsung again.
Chelsea were deeply involved in the Terry defence in court. Cole supported him. So did the Chelsea club secretary. The FA commission said there was a “very real concern” over the secretary’s evidence. So the FA is now on the edge of saying Chelsea lied to it. As well as remembering the Cole said “Hahahahaa, well done, #fa. I lied did I, #BUNCHOFTWATS”.
Apologies after events like that don’t really mean much.
This is football, Chelsea and the FA at work – as proven by the mess the FA makes of every single incident it is given to look at. It is a bit like Hodgson considering giving the captaincy of England to Cole – as he did say in an interview before the FA told everyone there that they should not repeat that (come on guys this was a press meeting) because at this difficult time “it might reflect badly on the manager and the FA”.
The Guardian had an interesting comment on all this. It said: “As one writer noted on Saturday: ‘Most footballers get through the day without uttering a racist remark’.”
In my company everyone gets through the day without ever uttering a racist remark. If they did not, they would not be in my employ.
But we all know what will happen. It will all just vanish won’t it. It will be forgotten when England come out for their next match against the Azores or whoever they are playing. Chelsea will be given the treatment by non-Chelsea supporters, and their supporters will continue to support Chelsea.
It kind of makes me feel rather ill.
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