Crime Of The Century

Racism has reared it's ugly head in football again and recently, during a game between Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City, a former Blackburn player was racially abused on his return to Ewood Park. Dwight Yorke had left Ewood in the summer following a season of very disappointing performances in a Blackburn shirt. Most Blackburn fans would probably say a lot worse. So he returns to Ewood and is warming up on the sidelines and is racialy abused by some moron. Next day it is all over the papers. Birmingham City owner David Sullivan, whilst agreeing that there was no place for this sort of behaviour in football, said "It is hardly crime of the century". He was lambasted by the press and, I feel, rather harshly treated. In a crowd of 22,000 people at the game that night one has decided to make monkey chants in Dwight Yorke's direction. 1 in 22,000. If we look at that as a percentage then 1 in 22,000 people in this country are racists than we are doing very well indeed. If 1 in 22,000 people in the Army or the Police is a racist then we are doing brilliantly.