No Charge

 The Liverpool supporter arrested over the alleged racial abuse of Oldham Athletic's Tom Adeyemi in our FA Cup 3rd round clash has been released without charge. The CPS has investigated the matter and after taking into account many witness statements and making full use of technology, including sound isolation and enhancement software, decided there is insufficient evidence to bring any criminal charges.

 There is no suggestion that Tom Adeyemi has made anything up or invented a story of being abused, it was clear at the time he genuinely believed  he had been on the receiving end of something very out of order. The lack of charge seems to relate to whether he was called a 'black bastard' or a 'manc bastard' and there is not enough evidence of either to make a decision. In short common sense has prevailed. I'm not saying I particularly approve of anyone calling a complete stranger any sort of bastard but one is clearly far more offensive than the other. In light of the climate at the time and the fact that the incident happened in a noisy stadium makes it very possible Adeyemi was convinced he heard the word 'black' and if this is true he was totally correct to report it. It is refreshing to see a case where there is not enough evidence either way being left at that, there is no guessing what happened and punishing somebody accordingly, it has been made clear in the statement released by the CPS exactly what the situation is and nobody is left in any doubt.

 It was this incident at Anfield that led to some massive overreaction from people in positions of influence and it will be interesting to see how they react to today's news. There was a picture in one of the tabloids of a Liverpool crowd with photoshopped KKK hats on, this was sensationalised and out of order whether or not a guilty verdict arrived, but to come out with this before an investigation had even taken place was disgraceful. More of note than this was the reaction of Piara Powar, the chief executive of FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe), an organisation backed by UEFA, FIFA and the European Commission so when it speaks it carries alot of weight. The following are quotes directly from Powar's Twitter account after the Oldham game, before any investigation had taken place - "I'm afraid there is no question that the club's approach has stoked this affair, and there is now a highly charged atmosphere around the issue. The Suarez T-shirts surely no longer have a place at Anfield. This has done alot of damage to Liverpool FC and in many people's eyes to English football. We have a young footballer in Tom Adeyemi who was abused quite badly at Anfield. Young footballers do not get that upset without due course. The abuser has been charged and it is for the courts to decide the context of it"

 And then - "The obvious thing for LFC today must be to come out as a club -owner, manager, captain- and start to undo some of the damage, including addressing their fans. Go onto the LFC website and there is not a single expression of regret about what happened last night. Are LFC fans going to do this at every game, support the mistakes made by their own man by abusing others? 25% of PL players are black. That's alot of players to abuse". From somebody in Powar's position with his influence these comments were dangerous, inflammatory and, it has now been shown, incorrect.

 Innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt is an important part of our society and this is another recent case of somebody within football not acting how we would in the everyday world. We often cite football as being a tool with which to educate society, maybe we should also use society as a tool to educate football sometimes.