Comments on: Why Sol Campbell is Wrong (But Mostly Right)

By: Footballer

Footballer — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:13:42 +0000

All else has proven to be ineffective. DOCK THE POINTS AND BAN THE OFFENDERS FOR LIFE!!!

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:44:27 +0000

Yeah, it makes no sense at all to dock points, that would fuck over clubs when there is nothing they can do about it. Let whoever is racist get the shit kicked out of them by the players they’re targeting.

By: adas

adas — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:29:28 +0000

the clubs are responsible for the safety of the fans. If fans are screaming racist comments at a player on the field, what’s to stop that from happening to a black fan of the opposing team sitting in the stadium. That’s how violence starts, and then fans get hurt. The clubs may not care much if a rival team’s player has his feelings hurt. But if fans in the stadium start getting injured, that’s when lawsuits come in.

By: john

john — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:33:16 +0000

Here’s a system that could work: Make sure that all ticket sales are seat coded and ask for identification upon the sale of said seat. When a fan or group of fans start hurling racist abuse, stadium authorities pull out camcorders and get faces on video. Then by comparing seat numbers to who sold the tickets, you’d at least have a chance of identifying the culprits. Then you ban them from games, if not for life then at least three years.

I realize this would still be far from perfect, especially when you take scalpers and seat swapping into consideration. But at least it would show that the club was making an effort.

Good to see people giving this issue some consideration. Where I agree most with Campbell is that other sports have all but eliminated racist chanting – what’s taking football so long?

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:01:33 +0000

I don’t think the club should be penalized for the fans’ actions. Then they have to spend time judging what was racist and what was not. Who is to decide something that deep during a soccer match? Let them play

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:23:31 +0000

oh phff, my point has already being raised in the article, nevermind!

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:22:19 +0000

I think docking points might spur racism even more. Whats not to prevent a rival fan from deliberately spew hurtful words? If it can level the league standing, some fans will use this to gain competitive edge.

By: Shazback

Shazback — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:08:12 +0000

I agree fines need to be much more massive, but FAs need to take much stronger measures to give these people (especially repeat offenders) long-term stadium bans.

By: Wes

Wes — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:00:21 +0000

Dock the points. Solutions in the past have been penalizing clubs to playing to empty home stadiums, so this is not so far off.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:58:17 +0000

You’d have to be pretty brave to be a non supporter and then sit in with thousands of fans who would be supremely pissed off you could cost their team points wouldn’t you?