Who Needs Evidence When There Are Scores to be Settled?

Posted on 22. Dec, 2011 by David Conlan in Blog

So now we all know. The FA’s select committee have decided that Luis Suarez is racist. The same fine body have let Liverpool football club know that they don’t think he is racist. Ah but Patrice Evra thinks he’s racist doesn’t he and the FA believed him, right? Well Evra has gone on record to say he doesn’t think Suarez is racist either. Ok, so that means there must have been third party evidence to prove his racist behaviour, yeah? Not really, no officials or players from either team heard even one racist remark by Suarez, let alone ten of them. Interesting.

So there must have been visual evidence of Suarez being really aggressive towards Evra that could be lip read. Emm no, that’s not the case either. Ah sure I guess Evra’s previous record of honesty and integrity made up the committee’s mind then. The same man who, as captain, led a strike of his fellow countrymen in the last World Cup and has provided ‘unreliable’ evidence to FA on a previous case of ‘alleged’ racism against him. Mmmm..

The evidence really stacked up, didn’t it? In fairness to the FA they probably just wanted to make a statement on racism and fair play am I right? I mean when the England captain used the ‘c’  word along with the little translation of ‘negrito’ in an aggressive manner for millions of viewers to see they probably stripped him of the national captaincy straight away, didn’t they? No? Ah sure the word ‘negrito’ is awful isn’t it, why say such a word at all I hear you say? If it’s that bad I await Chicarito’s charge for using it in relation to his Mexican team mate….I won’t hold my breath though!

When one of the committee ruling on Suarez appealed on the FA’s behalf to reduce Wayne Rooney’s suspension from 3 games for kicking someone in an aggressive manner, the ban was reduced to 2 games. ‘He thought the Macedonia’s leg was a ball sir, he’s not the brightest’ would have been as good a defence as any no doubt. Under the FA’s own rules surely this was as frivolous as any appeal could ever be but sure why let justice be a factor when there’s a chance for national team glory?

In the case of Suarez the only reasonable conclusion that can be gleaned is that the FA wanted to get back at FIFA and particularly the fool that is Sepp Blatter using Suarez as a political guinea pig. Still livid at missing out on hosting the World Cup, the FA will stop at nothing to make the point that whilst the rest of the world might be racist; the English are far from it. They can wash their hands of the Terry affair as it was a complaint made by a member of the public, not a player and therefore is a police matter. It suits the suits to turn a blind eye to that one of course.

The racist card has been played effectively by Patrice Evra and Manchester United but I wonder about the long term consequences of their actions. Any respect that existed between die hard followers of the two biggest teams in the country has been seriously put at risk now. Whilst nobody would condone any reaction from extremists on both sides, it is inevitable that future games will be very hard to police.  Tensions evoked at Old Firm games in Glasgow will become the norm around Anfield and Old Trafford at least twice a season.

Some may argue that these are the ramblings of a biased Liverpool fan that isn’t in a position to be rational and unemotional in trying to judge a case of such complexity. I take your point but would argue that I have spoken to a couple of devoted Manchester United fans after the judgement. They do not understand the ruling or the reasons for it either. I haven’t even touched on the likelihood of why Suarez would be racist when some of his friends and family are black. It may be considered by some to be flimsy evidence in his defence. But at least it is evidence of some form. Without evidence, surely no case can lead to a conviction? Maybe, Luis, I’m even more naive than you lad….