The judge may well have been an idiot. But can't see what being white has to do with it or indeed that it has any relevance at all, unless you're making certain racial assumptions...

What on earth is a 'British' soccer field ? The authors of the piece above seem to have invented something that didn't previously exist..i.e 'British' soccer. I'm confused as to what the entirely separate and independent Scottish Football Association and the Irish Football Association have got to do with the English game?

What a load of nonsense. Modern journalism? Pah! This is neither a valid presentation or a delivery of facts about a story. You are merely re-intepreting the British, tabloid, press. Theodore, maybe you should do-a-bit-more research before you deliver such an inprecise and flawed account in the future.

@ Tom Welsh. It's extremely obtuse to say that Terry was punished for using the only word that was "true". Anyone familiar with English knows that an accurate epithet coupled with an insulting word absorbs the insult. If I call you a "Welsh bastard", I am not merely informing you that you are Welsh -- you would already know this if you were indeed Welsh -- as well as drawing your attention to my opinion that you are a bastard. I am implying that you are a bastard at least in part BECAUSE you are Welsh; that it's inherent in Welsh people to be of a bastard-like nature. So the use of "Welsh" here is of a racially/nationally- insulting intent. This kind of phrasing is such a common feature of English speech that it can only be overlooked by the disingenuous or self-deluding.

By the way, I'm fully aware that your surname does not indicate that you are Welsh by nationality, should you have been thinking of using that as a lame rejoinder.

As to the article, I'm a bit puzzled about Dr D's attitude to verbal racial abuse. He seems to think it's OK as long as the target is of an insensitive or coarse nature, thus implicitly reviving the old racists' defence: he didn't mind/we've always said that here/we don't mean nuffink by it.

It is not at all absurd to expect the police to enforce all laws, whether in sport or not.
It is, after all, what they have sworn (and are paid) to do.

Maybe the alternative to this institutionalized "system" of soccer racism is to corporatize it with rules, like professional football, or something like the United States Criminal Code mixed in. There would be so many referee calls (football has coaches in the fields AND the benches)so much emphasis on teamwork, so much scrutiny on the private lives of the players (and inevitable criminal prosecutions) that the players would be forced to think about their behavior every minute of the day. And the fans would be forced to join in.

Seems that in the US and UK there are two different kinds of political correctness that play out in sports, but the same social escape valve: acting up at matches. But the Brits have been at it longer, at least since Braveheart.

That sort of thing has been going on since recreational sport began.

The hate crimes system is designed to validate prejudice, not to eradicate it. Thus practitioners' cheerful endorsement of sexual slurs as "non-hateful."

Women who would be degraded in any case by silly boors (who would be treated as boors) are now doubly degraded by sensitivity experts who officially deem their degradation irrelevant (while being treated as superior life forms). It's a nasty industry, manufacturing ironically nasty stuff.

Thanks to Bill Clinton and Eric Holder, who crafted this distinction and others equally insidious in 1999, we have gone from using social pressures to quell bias to using bias laws to selectively encourage it.

I am not sure where you are trying to get at with this story about black football players in the UK. There was a time as you mentioned when a player could expect racial hostility, even from their own side. My older cousin (a famous black player from the 70s) had 6 England caps yet he still had to endure racial abuse. There are many reasons why racism subsided but in my opinion the demographic of the fans changed and initiatives such as ‘lets kick out racism’ started in 1993 helped. The middle class author Nick Hornby wrote a book in 1992 called ‘Fever Pitch’ which many have indicated as the period for middle class people to pledge their love of the ‘beautiful game’. Also due to the massive crackdown on football hooligans, and the increase of ticket prices changes occurred in the game.

Great Britain and other European nations do not need a new and better police. They need the sort of old and better police they had 50 or 60 years ago.

'"racism is not tolerated even in its tiniest manifestations,"

Not so, not so, not so'.

Ah but Peter - black people cannot be racist. Only white people can be racist.

When sports like soccer, cricket, tennis, and even athletics were practiced by amateurs for amusement and the good of their souls, the rules were perfectly adequate. Even in the professional era, I have heard it said that such a great champion as Bjorn Borg never challenged or even questioned a line call. Perhaps he could see with his own eyes that the ball was three inches out; nevertheless, he simply accepted the decision and carried on playing.

The vast majority of professional sportsmen lack such Olympian calm, and are very powerfully motivated to win at all costs. Hence the prevalence of cynical cheating, which renders the traditional rules and techniques of enforcement utterly inadequate - laughable, even.

In Bernard Cornwell's excellent historical novel "Azincourt", it is mentioned that the hero's father was kicked to death in the annual village football match. When the lord of the manor is asked to take some action against the killers, he laughingly replies that if everyone who committed lethal violence in the course of a football game were to be imprisoned, there would hardly be any young men left at liberty in the whole country.

It is undeniably funny that Terry was apparently punished for the only word he used that was undeniably true: "black". Ferdinand is black, or at least he is generally described as being black.

Frank,Dan,read the article again it isn`t about football it just happens to be their day job

My God, not only is soccer dull, but anecdotes about borish soccer players are dull as well. And I'm a huge fan of Mr. Dalrymple's writing otherwise.

here here

In reference to the last incident, I am sure I need not remind this audience of the appropriate Heinlein attribution.

"racism is not tolerated even in its tiniest manifestations,"

Not so, not so, not so.

Negroes can be as racist as they want and they are still acceptable to the establishment -- Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Rev. Wright, the Black Congressional Caucasus, Eric holder, etc., etc. etc.