wacko

For what it's worth the UK mentality is very extreme when it comes to what is acceptable and what is racist, particularly when it comes to South Asian and darker. Brits happily say things about Slavs that would be considered very racist if said about Indians/Africans. Obviously, other cultures see things differently. I can accept your position, but only if you absolutely commit to memorise and slavishly obey the morals and mores of any country you visit and be held responsible for every faux pas. Suarez went waaaay too far, but what you're saying is just ignorant.

I wouldn't touch this topic with a bargepole on RAWK. Nor politics. Holy hell, politics on RAWK. There are a lot of very intelligent posters on there, but there are just some threads it's better to stay clear of.

Sounds like a fairly open-and-shut case from what I've read. RAWK has added "Luis Suarez is not a racist" to everybody's custom title

Bit nippy Jeeves. Heave a couple more peasants on the fire! http://blogs.travelweekly.co.uk/blogs/celebsonholiday/owen_michael.jpg

I see the gloves have come off … Gazza & Lindisfarne - Fog on the Tyne (HQ Audio)

I sniggered. That is excellent. *something witty about crosses*

He said himself that he doesn't think Suarez is a racist, so I'm not so sure he'd object to other people expressing the same opinion. I can imagine he might object to the manner of it …

That's the other side of the coin: beyond what the words Suarez used may mean, there's the question of what's racist, which is *very* dependent on culture. What would be perceived in hyper-sensitive Britain as racist would not be in other cultures less sensitive to racism. And then there's the differing sensitivity to perceived racism against different races: in the UK, people are very sensitive to racism against blacks but not against, say, Albanians because there are a lot of blacks but few Albanians. A few weeks ago, an extremely liberal, pro-immigrant German lass who spends all her time helping kids from immigrant families, who would never dream of saying anything anti-Turkish, told me that "laying an Obama in the White House" is slang for having a shit (there are very few black people in Germany, and most racism is directed against Turks, Arabs and East Europeans). ------------------- With regards to the FA's ruling: it's a complete cop-out. They've found him guilty of indecent/abusive behaviour and punished him for racism. An 8 match ban is ridiculous for what they've found him guilty of. FFS, Rooney got a 2-game ban for running up to the TV camera and shouting "fuck off" into it. They should have either given him a punishment typical of the violation they found him guilty of or had the balls to label him a racist along with clearly you've-been-found-guilty-of-racism ban they handed him. Whilst I agree with the first half of your post that's not necessarily the point. It may well be inoffensive in his culture but there are ramifications beyond that - he's been in Europe for some time by now and as such must realise that it's extremely offensive to refer to people in such a manner. He's not a complete idiot, surely he knew what he was doing and as such theoretically it could still be construed as racist? I'm just theorising mind, don't know the ins and outs of the case. Plus it's funny as fuck he's been banned for 8 games. Or maybe not. It seems bizarre that this could have been the first time he'd said such things in four years. Also, seeing as there were no other witnesses, why did Suarez freely admit he'd said "negrito"? If he had believed it was racist, surely he'd have just denied it. More likely, he wasn't aware of how hypersensitive the UK is to perceived racism. Hmmmm. Perhaps. It seems like a cheap (attempted) get out of jail card, playing stupid, to be honest. My guess is that there was no racist intent used but that he was trying to wind Evra up as much as he possibly could and pushed it a bit too far (possibly down to a lack of understanding around the connotations of that word in England and France) and now it's come back to bite him on the arse. That's pretty much how I see it. If he'd thought what he had said was racist, he'd surely have denied saying it.

That's the other side of the coin: beyond what the words Suarez used may mean, there's the question of what's racist, which is *very* dependent on culture. What would be perceived in hyper-sensitive Britain as racist would not be in other cultures less sensitive to racism. And then there's the differing sensitivity to perceived racism against different races: in the UK, people are very sensitive to racism against blacks but not against, say, Albanians because there are a lot of blacks but few Albanians. A few weeks ago, an extremely liberal, pro-immigrant German lass who spends all her time helping kids from immigrant families, who would never dream of saying anything anti-Turkish, told me that "laying an Obama in the White House" is slang for having a shit (there are very few black people in Germany, and most racism is directed against Turks, Arabs and East Europeans). ------------------- With regards to the FA's ruling: it's a complete cop-out. They've found him guilty of indecent/abusive behaviour and punished him for racism. An 8 match ban is ridiculous for what they've found him guilty of. FFS, Rooney got a 2-game ban for running up to the TV camera and shouting "fuck off" into it. They should have either given him a punishment typical of the violation they found him guilty of or had the balls to label him a racist along with clearly you've-been-found-guilty-of-racism ban they handed him. Whilst I agree with the first half of your post that's not necessarily the point. It may well be inoffensive in his culture but there are ramifications beyond that - he's been in Europe for some time by now and as such must realise that it's extremely offensive to refer to people in such a manner. He's not a complete idiot, surely he knew what he was doing and as such theoretically it could still be construed as racist? I'm just theorising mind, don't know the ins and outs of the case. Plus it's funny as fuck he's been banned for 8 games. Or maybe not. It seems bizarre that this could have been the first time he'd said such things in four years. Also, seeing as there were no other witnesses, why did Suarez freely admit he'd said "negrito"? If he had believed it was racist, surely he'd have just denied it. More likely, he wasn't aware of how hypersensitive the UK is to perceived racism.

He's far from whiter than white but yeah, I love the bastard. He dives no more than any other player, just because Mr Ferguson says it doesn't make it true. Bingo. "Don't care how much of a cunt you are, you're good at football so you can behave however you like, I'll still love you" Fucking sickening man, give your head a shake. Sure, it's rationalised as "he's a right cunt on the pitch, but he's our cunt". Why are you making such a big deal out of it? Every club's fans do it. And so few of them can take that step back, see what they're doing and transfer that to other fans. Yeah, Suarez is a cunt. And we'll stick up for him because he's our cunt. And most NUFC fans would do exactly the same if he played for youse because you'd fucking love him, too. Even though he's a cunt.

I'm reading through the rules right now, and that's about right. He was found guilty of using insulting (E3(1)) and additionally racist (E3(2)) language. There's a different section for discrimination (E4). So yeah. I was wrong: they have done him for racism, just not discrimination.

Racists are people, too.

I'm not trying to argue that it's some kind of defence, just objecting to the representation of LFC's statement as being "Luis knows some black people". By a long way not the same as "Luis is 1/4 black".

Practically, no. But it's just more evidence that the FA has no balls whatsoever. Sad for English football, that is.

Not sure if you don't read or are trolling. I didn't say that he knows black people, I said that his grandfather was black. That's what the LFC statement says: Fuck me, some of you guys are great at selective reading. And my only complaint is that he was punished for racism but only found guilty of a lesser offense. The FA should have had the balls to find him guilty of what they're punishing him for, or lacking said balls, given him a punishment appropriate to the offense they could bring themselves to do him for.

Basically says Suarez knows black people so can't be a rasict c*nt Err, and it states that his grandfather was black. Big difference between knowing a few black people and being the grandson of one … Yes and no. It's written exactly like BBC news articles: carefully constructed so Johnny Foreigner can understand it easily. From that point of view, it's actually rather well done. From the point of view of a native speaker of English, it sounds like it's aimed at divvies.

That's the other side of the coin: beyond what the words Suarez used may mean, there's the question of what's racist, which is *very* dependent on culture. What would be perceived in hyper-sensitive Britain as racist would not be in other cultures less sensitive to racism. And then there's the differing sensitivity to perceived racism against different races: in the UK, people are very sensitive to racism against blacks but not against, say, Albanians because there are a lot of blacks but few Albanians. A few weeks ago, an extremely liberal, pro-immigrant German lass who spends all her time helping kids from immigrant families, who would never dream of saying anything anti-Turkish, told me that "laying an Obama in the White House" is slang for having a shit (there are very few black people in Germany, and most racism is directed against Turks, Arabs and East Europeans). ------------------- With regards to the FA's ruling: it's a complete cop-out. They've found him guilty of indecent/abusive behaviour and punished him for racism. An 8 match ban is ridiculous for what they've found him guilty of. FFS, Rooney got a 2-game ban for running up to the TV camera and shouting "fuck off" into it. They should have either given him a punishment typical of the violation they found him guilty of or had the balls to label him a racist along with clearly you've-been-found-guilty-of-racism ban they handed him.

Not yet. No reason to expect there'll be a decision today (they said not before today). I'm watching the RAWK thread, which I presume will be unlocked (too many "any news yet?" posts) and updated as soon as something is known.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5601/trainspotting1024.jpg

Damn your eyes, Gimp!

It's the FA's fault for thinking 4th place in the EPL should trump defending champion. Nobody but the EPL thinks that, and UEFA immediately altered the rules to make clear that the title holder qualifies first.

They didn't change them for us: they changed them for any subsequent CL victors that got screwed over by their FA.

Suarez might have the cunt dial turned up to 11 when he's on the pitch, but there's not yet evidence that he's the kind of walking disaster that is El Hadji Diouff. That man was bad news for everyone.

Well, he is being watched like a hawk, isn't he? After the World Cup, we all thought he was a cheating cunt before he even came to England.