Hoop BlahAlexander Litvinenko I think Show Racism the Red Card deserves far, far more of the credit for changes in the game - but they're not funded from inside football (except a small donation from the PFA) so what they can do is appropriate and make a difference.
Kick It Out is almost wholly funded from within football, and so has to kow-tow to its leaders and not ruffle feathers. A couple of years ago KIO virtually ran out of funds and had to apply to the PL for "emergency funding" to stay in business. In the same way that the PL funds Supporters Direct and other advocacy and representative organisations in the game, there's a tacit understanding that the funding comes as long as you don't make too many waves and don't criticise the funders or what they stand for.
KIO won't ruffle feathers because they know they'll lose their funding again .....they need funding without strings attached to be effective. And *that's* the key argument.
I can see the worth in that argument but I'm not sure it's actually needed.
Outside bodies kicking up a fuss over incidents and basically being more militant and confrontational probably isn't going to have the right effect on footballs governing bodies or those members of society that really need the education. What football needs, and IMO already does, is to take racial incidents seriously and consistently. Treat them with the contempt they deserve and deal with the culprits. I think that's being done, in this country, pretty well.
Football needs the support of society as a whole in order to tackle racism as an issue and to stamp out abuse. Players taking an aggressive stance against KIO isn't going to do that. I just don't see the point of basically attacking a charitable organisation who undertake a decent amount of work to help the evolution of thinking regarding racism moving in the right direction. It just seems to me that Roberts, and those that are following his lead (and I don't include Lescott here btw) are lashing out at KIO because it follows on so quickly after the awful scenes in Serbia.
KIO are the wrong target. Show Racism the Red Card are likewise the wrong target (although I don't see why you think they deserve more credit Dirk, they're work doesn't seem to be more effective to me).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember Roberts speaking out about Ferdinands 'choc ice' re-tweet and his minimal fine. I don't remember him speaking out and calling for Terry's ban to be X before the FA found him guilty.
I just wonder exactly what these players want. It just seems like lashing out aimlessly and having a bit of a hissy fit against the wrong people.
Well argued, though I see it differently. Kick it Out aren't the target, in my opinion; if you listen to what people are saying, weakness by the authorities on racism is the target, and Kick it Out is being seen, even by those who support it, as unable to change that. One reason, as Roberts said, is that they are more or less totally funded, and very meagrely at that, by the FA.
So for me, Roberts and the others were making an entirely consistent political stand. The idea is that since the authorities and charities cannot bring radical changes on racism, the players should take up the baton. The problem with that, of course, is that most footballers are not political and will not, at least to begin with, be easy to rouse. But players are very powerful if they want to be. If player action at matches started taking place, the authorities would have to get stricter on racism--by which I mean banning players for long periods and, in the case of places like Serbia, banning teams for the actions of their fans. I think if the players ever properly organised themselves on a European scale, they could have a significant influence on the levels of punishment for racism in football.
Of course, it may be that the players cannot do this, because there aren't enough radical ones among them, nor enough who understand political action. But that doesn't make Roberts less smart in trying to influence things in that direction. There have been many silly things said on this thread, but some of the most superficial have been those calling him unintelligent--far from it.
