Probably a dangerous thread to start bit what's everyone's take on the Sterling episode

I have to say i don;t agree with Collymore and Viv Anderson that "nothing has changed" or really see why Ferdinand is suggesting that "we allow this" sort of racist behaviour.

What has changed is that we very clearly do not allow it any more and if it is established he said black rather than manc then the guy in the blue jacket will be arrested, punished, banned for life and is going to become a social pariah. He will have ruined his life and will probably be sacked by his employers as well. That i think is a world away from where things were 15-20 years ago and reflects that fact that there is pretty much zero tolerance to racism in football grounds these days. Certainly on the rare occasions its been heard at Norwich people seem to have been reported and action taken. You won;t ever stamp it out 100% because there will probably always be racist people who like to watch football but it is not tolerated so I think the suggestion that its "allowed to happen because football is in some way endemically racists pr because people have not done enough to stop it is unfair. I think you can arguably say that England or Britain has really led the way in trying to combat racism in our football grounds over the last 20 years and I genuinely feel that football is one of the least racist industries there is and has broken down many barriers. As such, I'm not sure an isolated incident like this (and yes i know it comes off the back of the banana skin at Spurs v Arsenal) means we have some kind of crisis although its a timely reminder to all that you cannot get complacent.

I'm also not sure about the suggestion that the media fuels racism by unfairly targetting black players. I did though get annoyed at the stories having a go at Sterling for his tattoo prior to the world cup but at the time I thought (perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly) it was just the ever annoying, perverse habit our national press has of printing negative stories about our best players on the eve of major tournaments (or indeed the general trait of the media in this country to build people up and then try to knock them down) this is not new although i think with the new age under Southgate it will become increasingly rare as we move forward. He's a great player and I think most England fans appreciate that as they do with Rose, Ali, Lingaard, Gomez, Welbeck....... the list goes on. Certainly this young, England side is the most popular we've had for a long time and I think that also can only help improve matters and make incidents like the Sterling one increasingly rare.

Posted By: Jim, Dec 10, 11:02:01