Build A Bonfire

 The anti-racism group FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) has reported the England fans to FIFA for alleged racist abuse of Rio Ferdinand and his brother Anton during England's world cup qualifier with San Marino. 

 A quick google search seems to reveal that the chant which has caused the offence was a song that is sung at Old Trafford every week, with a couple of alterations to a couple of words. We all know the 'build a bonfire, put the Scousers on the top, put the City in the middle and burn the ******* lot' chant that's heard any time you watch Man Utd on tv. Apparently the England fans changed the words 'Scousers' and 'City' for 'Rio' and 'Anton'.

 Well I'm sorry but if that's racist then we might as well all zip out mouths shut now.

 Singing about burning black people would be abhorrent, in fact singing about burning people in general isn't really acceptable. But when the Man Utd fans sing their song it's classed as banter between sets of rival fans and as a Liverpool supporter I have no issues with them singing this, they are our rivals, we are theirs, we're not supposed to like each other. I take the song as meaning they dislike us, not that they would actually burn all of us on a bonfire, the same way when a minority of Liverpool fans sing 'we only carry axes, to bury in your head' we don't actually mean we intend to do this.

 If singing this particular song about burning people based solely on where they come from is racist then they might as well shut down Old Trafford now and force Man Utd to play all of their games behind closed doors as their fans have been singing this for years and will continue to do so. For the record I'm not actually suggesting the FA do this.

 Rio Ferdinand has made a rod for his own back when it comes to England, being so vocal every time he was overlooked as Roy Hodgson correctly builds for the future and called up somebody else ahead of the man who will be 35 by the time the next big tournament comes along. Finally being recalled, pulling out and then taking a long flight to do (presumably well paid) commentary work on the same game he missed doesn't look good on Rio, and if he's as intelligent as he'd like us to think then surely he can see that. Players miss internationals (especially friendlies) all the time with extremely slight (i.e. made up) injuries and if he'd had any sense that's what he would have come out with. I'm not surprised the England fans turned on him, I'm sure any club supporter would do the same thing if a player did the same thing at club level.

 It's not Rio who has made the allegations against the England fans to be fair to him, it's the group FARE. They do very good work in an important area but occasionally their executive director Piara Powar pops up with something that for me undermines their good work. On this occasion Powar expresses a personal belief that 'there was an undercurrent of racism there' but freely admits 'we did not have observers at the match'. A little research would have dug up the origins of the chant, and, while not exactly savoury, it seems quite clear it's not racist. If the England fans were expressing a dislike of black players then they would have made their feeling known when half of the England goals scored that match arrived from the feet of black players.

 After Liverpool played Oldham in the FA Cup last season Powar appeared talking about Liverpool supporters being whipped up into a frenzy by the club resulting in an Oldham player being racially abused. This was said BEFORE any investigation took place and once the police had finished their detailed enquiries the man accused was completely acquitted. Powar has not yet, and probably never will, said sorry for the comments which appeared to brand all Liverpool supporters as a racist mob. 

 Piara Powar only appears to surface when there is the potential of a high profile case. One Liverpool supporter (wrongly) accused of calling an Oldham player something and the England fans singing something that could, if twisted the right way, be made out as racist even though it isn't could make massive headlines and Powar pops up. I like to think of myself as a right minded person who is against any form of prejudice and I want to give my full support to any organisation wishing to clean up the more unwanted aspects of the sport I love. But I am also an intelligent, considered individual and when I see an organisation seemingly going for headlines it makes me question the validity of their work. I hope I'm wrong. But I also hope the England fans were doing nothing more than expressing their disappointment in a player who's attitude has let them down.