Kick It Out

[Tooj]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2219610/Jason-Roberts-boycott-Kick-It-Out-t-shirt.html?openGraphAuthor=%2Fhome%2Fsearch.html%3Fs%3D%26authornamef%3DSportsmail%2BReporter

 

Reading striker Jason Roberts has said he will not wear a Kick It Out shirt at Anfield on Saturday in protest at what he says is the organisation's lack of action against racism in football in the last year.

 

Kick It Out are planning a week of action in response to several high-profile recent incidents of racism in football, most notably John Terry's abuse of Anton Ferdinand, Luis Suarez's comments to Patrice Evra and the abuse suffered by England Under 21s defender Danny Rose in Serbia on Tuesday.

Roberts, who is also a pundit for BBC Radio 5 Live, is set to be part of the Royals' squad that takes on Liverpool in a Barclays Premier League fixture. Suarez, who was given an eight-game suspension for racially abusing Manchester United's defender Evra, is expected to line up for the hosts.

 

Referring to the incidents involving Terry and Suarez, Roberts told BBC Sport: 'I won't wear one. I find it hard to wear a t-shirt after what happened last year.'

Roberts added: 'I'm totally committed to kicking racism out of football but when there's a movement I feel represents the issue in the way that speaks for me and my colleagues, then I will happily support it.

'I think people feel let down by what used to be called "Let's Kick Racism Out of Football".'

Roberts also said that Terry's apology has come 'a year too late' and the FA punishment was too lenient.

'The four-match ban was, for me, not a heavy enough sanction for what happened,' said Roberts.

'I'm not happy. Certainly they should have given him a longer ban. The sanction is nowhere near harsh enough.'

 

Roberts has been calling for football's authorities to take stronger action over racist incidents, and has also urged players to take matters into their own hands should they be subjected to abuse.

 

Following the shameful scenes in Serbia on Tuesday night, in which Rose was sent off after reacting to racial abuse, Roberts aired his thoughts on Twitter. He said: 'DRose, well done! I propose next time everyone walks STRAIGHT OFF THE PITCH!!! Then we will see how quickly "authorities" take to sort it...'

 

On Thursday Terry finally said sorry for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand and has accepted the four game ban and £220,000 fine from the FA. Accepting the ban it means he will miss two games against Rio Ferdinand's Manchester United and also the Kick It Out week of action which takes place this weekend.

 

But Chelsea have been criticised by Kick It Out for keeping their punishment of Terry secret. The club said they had taken 'further disciplinary action' against the defender after Terry decided to accept the ban and fine.

 

Chelsea said they would be keeping their action 'confidential' due to club policy.

 

Lord Herman Ouseley, chairman of Kick It Out, said that stance could damage Chelsea in the eyes of those people who had been waiting many months to see how the club handled the case.

 

Ouseley said: 'I believe Chelsea need to be open about the action they have taken. A lot of people will be dissatisfied that Chelsea have not been much more up front about the standards they set and the values they have. If they are not prepared to say, it will further damage the trust of those people who still have suspicions about Chelsea's sincerity in dealing with this matter.

 

'I do welcome what they have said, but they need to be saying more and doing more if they are going to win back the confidence of people who have lost trust in them rather than to sit back and be silent.'

 

I thought I'd post this in a separate thread to see if they agree with Roberts and racism isn't being taken as seriously as it should? Of course this issue is now back in the spotlight due to the horrible events that happened in Serbia this week and I think UEFA will once again be far too lenient when it comes to handing out a punishment for this. Terry only receiving a four match ban as well seems a bit of a token gesture from the FA and I do think they need to clamp down harder if people are found guilty of racial abuse.

 

I'm not saying that football and society as a whole has moved on massively in the last couple of decades as it really has. However there is still a minority out there that do believe this form of abuse is acceptable when it is far from it.

 

One thing though that does annoy me on this issue is when you have people like Paul Ince and John Barnes come out and say they are being discriminated against managerial jobs due to their skin colour, I don't think this really helps the situation. Especially as IMO they both don't get managerial jobs as they're both pretty poor managers.

[Pilko]

Agree with Roberts on this one, and fair play if he thinks not enough is done.

 

I watched the Clarke Carlisle documentary on BBC3 a while back too and John Barnes' comments about being sacked from Tranmere because he was black were incredibly irritating and frankly stupid. He won like 3 in 14 games or something and was sacked. Didn't the players refer to him and McAteer as 'Dumb and Dumber' too? He's a piss-poor manager whether he's black, white, yellow or fucking purple.

 

I think it's going to get to the point where someone will actually die of a racially motivated attack, whether it's a player or a fan, before they start to take things seriously.

[NEEJ]

I can't stand Jason Roberts like, he comes across as an utter cunt. It's excruciating watching him talk like an expert on the TV as well.

I think they're going about this all wrong. Attacking our organisations when we seem to be well ahead of most countries in Europe on this subject. It's UEFA who need to grow some balls and take action, unfortunately I can't see this happening anytime soon.

[Beren]

I don't really like Roberts as a pundit (I though he was quite good when he first started out, mind you), however I think he is right.

 

Football's governing bodies all wear velvet gloves when dealing with issues like racism and diving. They promote its eradication from the game with token gestures, when they have the power of enforcement to make a real meaningful stand against them.

[Hughesy]

Lost all respect for Roberts when he said it was ok for a showboating player to be kicked and 'taken out'.  But on this subject - he is right.

[Guest Geordiesned]

By not wearing the T-shirt he's attacking the wrong people IMO. "Kick It Out" is an organisation/charity(?) set up in the North East and has made great strides against racism in football in this country. It is the footballing authorities who talk a good game but never deliver.

[NEEJ]

By not wearing the T-shirt he's attacking the wrong people IMO. "Kick It Out" is an organisation/charity(?) set up in the North East and has made great strides against racism in football in this country. It is the footballing authorities who talk a good game but never deliver.

[summerof69]

If he has a problem then he  should try and work with this paticular organisation.

[macphisto]

Agree with Roberts on this one, and fair play if he thinks not enough is done.

 

I watched the Clarke Carlisle documentary on BBC3 a while back too and John Barnes' comments about being sacked from Tranmere because he was black were incredibly irritating and frankly stupid. He won like 3 in 14 games or something and was sacked. Didn't the players refer to him and McAteer as 'Dumb and Dumber' too? He's a p*ss-poor manager whether he's black, white, yellow or f***ing purple.

 

I think it's going to get to the point where someone will actually die of a racially motivated attack, whether it's a player or a fan, before they start to take things seriously.

 

I thought the Clarke Carlisle was very one sided and had an agenda, why did they not speak to Chris Hughton and Chris Powell at Charlton, two managers who have done well in the game? It would certainly carry more weight if they thought racism existed and had been a success despite some barriers they had to overcome (that's if they think football is racist).

 

It was also a glaring omission that they didn't ask Barnes about Suarez as he was very public in his support for Liverpool and the player.

[ujpest doza]

He's an utter cunt who took great delight in referring to SJP as the SDA when Colin Murray had insisted he would always call it SJP on MOTD2

 

Racism in Football is all but gone in my John Humble.

 

[Guest neesy111]

By not wearing the T-shirt he's attacking the wrong people IMO. "Kick It Out" is an organisation/charity(?) set up in the North East and has made great strides against racism in football in this country. It is the footballing authorities who talk a good game but never deliver.

 

This.

[gbandit]

Racism in Football is all but gone in my John Humble.

Probably one of the worst comments I've ever read on here. What a fucking joke

[Elliottman]

He's an utter c*** who took great delight in referring to SJP as the SDA when Colin Murray had insisted he would always call it SJP on MOTD2

 

Racism in Football is all but gone in my John Humble.

 

  What?

 

Ah fuck, I took that bait didnt I?

[Incognito]

Can see Suarez following suit.

[Guest BooBoo]

He's a knob head.

 

Completely barking up the wrong tree here.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

I am not overly concerned with racism on the pitch, to be frank. I think those calling for blood in the Terry and Suarez incidents are misguiding their anger. The main issues regarding this in the game are organised racist behaviour at club level and football environments that are hostile to diversity. England have done a wonderful job eradicating this sort of thing from their game, especially when compared to the rest of Europe. The faces of coaches and upper-level club management at football clubs in England do accurately reflect the population (overwhelmingly white), but do not compare with a working force of players that is around 30 percent Black, and this will always be an issue with players as it would be with any workforce.

[Guest NobbyOhNobby]

Racism in Football is all but gone in my John Humble.

Probably one of the worst comments I've ever read on here. What a f***ing joke

Agree with gbandit completely. It's better than it was, but let's not kid ourselves that it's almost been eradicated. It's still a problem at SJP in my opinion, you still here loads of casual and deliberate racism at the match and sadly by a whole host of different demographics. I still cringe at the memory of hearing an under 10 screaming at it's chava dad "Here Da, look at the size of that darkie!" as Shola warmed up, and the dad laughed and patted the kid on the head. Couple that with when me and DrVenkman were started on last season for objecting to some racist language at the Stoke game last year - defo still an issue

[Kimbo]

I like David James opinion.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/david-james-antiracism-groups-just-try-to-justify-existence-8207873.html

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Football's governing bodies all wear velvet gloves when dealing with issues like racism and diving. They promote its eradication from the game with token gestures, when they have the power of enforcement to make a real meaningful stand against them.

 

This.

 

By not wearing the T-shirt he's attacking the wrong people IMO. "Kick It Out" is an organisation/charity(?) set up in the North East and has made great strides against racism in football in this country. It is the footballing authorities who talk a good game but never deliver.

 

And this.

 

I think kick it out and show racism the red card have together pretty much helped to almost eradicate racism from English football but sadly it is rearing its ugly head again - although in small areas and by a small minority. Abroad it is getting worse mind as witnessed in the England under-21 match the other night. Disgraceful scenes.

 

Those organisations can only do so much though as they have no real powers other than raising awareness etc. The real powers that be who govern the game and clubs themselves need to do more like banning teams from competitions, fining FA's bigger and players and managers and fan bodies need to start speaking out as well. To a man the Serb players and manager should have condemned those fans chanting racist abuse but nowt ever gets said. Even here in england you just get paid lip service by managers and players etc. and especially the media.

 

Refs can even do more or should have the power to, by abandoning games for example. If heavy snow fell or lots of rain he can call a game off, how about when players are being racially abused? Players themselves should walk off. I'd support that.

 

Sadly racism seems to be creeping back into society too, me and wor lass were sort of subjected to it at the weekend on public transport.

 

Mind the likes of Barnes do themselves no favours when they come out with their claptrap. He can't get a job because he's shown himself to be crap not because he's black. I'm in no doubt black people and other races do get overlooked for jobs because of their skin color, in and outside of football, but I reckon that's on a smaller scale than in previous years. Positive discrimination has worked in that sense.

 

Obviously there will be a higher percentage of white people in managerial and coaching jobs because there are more white people than black people for example, yet those negative numbers could be helped if only more and more black people (and other races) applied for management and coaching jobs which many have admitted they are reluctant to do rightly or wrongly because they believe their race or skin color will go against them. How about trying eh?

 

As for Jason Roberts, what a cuntish thing to do. What the fuck has he ever done to show racisim the red card and to kick it out? And he is actually in a bigger position to influence and to help the cause than those organisations.

 

By the way, it makes me immensely proud to know one of those organisations is from here and that our own club has over the last few decades shown no racial bias in any way when it comes to managers, coaches, players and indeed fans. Only a few years back there was a big drive from the club to attract more Asians to SJP and later on Africans and looking at the makeup of our crowd at SJP these days you see many Asian and Black fans.

[Cajun]

By not wearing the T-shirt he's attacking the wrong people IMO. "Kick It Out" is an organisation/charity(?) set up in the North East and has made great strides against racism in football in this country. It is the footballing authorities who talk a good game but never deliver.

 

Spot on.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

By not wearing the T-shirt he's attacking the wrong people IMO. "Kick It Out" is an organisation/charity(?) set up in the North East and has made great strides against racism in football in this country. It is the footballing authorities who talk a good game but never deliver.

 

Correct

[Superior Acuña]

I think he's right about the FA and UEFA, but I don't know about Let's Kick It Out. I thought they'd done all they can, and they're not part of the FA - play no role in punishments. I'd like to hear what they've done wrong/not done.

 

I think he's right about walking off. In Serbia and Spain those years ago England should've walked off. I'm sure they'd be fined, but that would be a noble battle worth fighting for.

[Mistle17]

He's got the right idea but he's executing it in the wrong way/with the wrong people.

[N.A.G.A.S]

I like David James opinion.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/david-james-antiracism-groups-just-try-to-justify-existence-8207873.html

 

Seconded. He always seems to have sensible opinions.

[Flip]

I am not overly concerned with racism on the pitch, to be frank. I think those calling for blood in the Terry and Suarez incidents are misguiding their anger. The main issues regarding this in the game are organised racist behaviour at club level and football environments that are hostile to diversity. England have done a wonderful job eradicating this sort of thing from their game, especially when compared to the rest of Europe. The faces of coaches and upper-level club management at football clubs in England do accurately reflect the population (overwhelmingly white), but do not compare with a working force of players that is around 30 percent Black, and this will always be an issue with players as it would be with any workforce.

 

Cant believe anyone missed this. I find this spot on.