Football Chanting: Pure Racism or Unfair Example?

As football has progressed through the years, FIFA have been doing everything possible to promote the removal of racism from football. In England this movement has taken center stage in several cases, and rightfully so.

Most recently, there has been controversy over a chant regarding new Manchester City star Emmanuel Adebayor. Such a chant provides inappropriate references and claims about Adebayor’s family.

Clearly, this chant should not be accepted in modern football, as it is rude and has nothing to do with the beautiful game. Anyone who is seen chanting this should be punished through a temporary ban from football.

This much is certain for most people, but with this fact arises a valid question. Are chants like these used against professional black footballers racist?

To claim racism against an individual or a group of fans is a very serious thing in our society, which can bring about a multitude of legal and personal problems.

Just ask Tottenham Hotspur fan Ian Trow and his 14-year-old son. Nine months ago, Trow and his son were two of 16 Tottenham Hotspur fans charged for racist chanting against their former academy prodigy and eventual traitor to local rivals Arsenal, Sol Campbell.

In this case of racism in football, the media was quick in working with police to identify the potential racist chanters, who were photographed singing inside of Portsmouth’s Fratton Park. However, as the case carried on, the accusations weren't as definitive as they had initially seemed.

“Seven people were offered cautions, as they had not been singing indecent songs,” Trow stated.

Instead, these seven fans had been heaping praise on their club hero and defender Ledley King through a different chant, which is quite popular among Spurs fans, called "We've got Ledley at the back."

“I decided to uphold my principles and decided I have done nothing wrong so why should me and my son admit any form of guilt (which in effect is what a caution does). The police then offered to drop all charges against me if I would get my son to accept a reprimand (they were obviously scared of future repercussions by my son), I rejected this out of principal as well.”

This act by Ian Trow did not go down well with the media or the prosecution. Accordingly, Ian and his son went to trial at the Portsmouth Magistrates Court, where they were eventually handed a three-year football banning order “by association of singing indecent songs.”

Again out of 'principle' Ian Trow and his son had a retrial, which saw “all costs awarded” to the Spurs fan, in a trial which the media was not present at, and so far refuses to report.

In retrospect, Tottenham ended up losing the game against Portsmouth at Fratton Park, but Ian, his son, and five other Spurs fans lost something much worse: their reputation.

These seven fans had their “images placed in all papers, on the front page of Crimestoppers next to the likes of murderers and drug dealers,” only to be found not guilty, and have their innocence not be immediately reported by the majority of the mainstream media.

Looking back on these events, it could be argued that the media wanted to make an example of racist chanters, in order to prevent such a terrible occurrence from happening again. Although there is a great deal of logic in making an example out of a group of fans, how much of an example should the media, FA, and English court system make of these supposed racist chanters?

Ian Trow and his son were clearly innocent in this case, yet they were defamed as racist on the front page of newspapers across the country and on internet sites around the globe. One can only imagine the problems these people and their families have gone through over the past nine months due to these publications.

In this way it is quite evident that stomping racism out of football requires a much more tact and tentative approach, because an example was wrongfully made out of a father and son who have proved themselves to be conclusively innocent.

Such injustice brings about another valid question: Where should the line be drawn in terms of potential racism in football?

It is clear that fans who sing intolerable racist chants against players like Sol Campbell and Emmanuel Adebayor should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, as this family case has pointed out, an all-out witch-hunt against possible offenders could potentially violate the rights, reputations, and personal well-being of a group of innocent people.

For some, this error is a necessary price to pay in order to rid racism from football and more importantly from our society. For others, Ian and his son should not have to suffer because of the stupidity of other fans. Either way, let’s all hope that racism can eventually be cut out of football for both players and fans sake.