Yeah, real satire. A black man, in his home city, being told to "f#@k off", shoved off a train and hearing "We are racist and that’s the way we like it" bellowed at him by a mob of belligerent boofheads. Real funny.
What worried and stunned me about this tweet is the thought that there are or may be actual people out there who find ways to justify or explain such contemptible behavior.
This was not satire. This was straight out, common garden, thuggery and bullying by a group of cowards, intoxicated to the ears by their own macho juices.
I know this species well, have known it ever since, as a small immigrant boy, I was set upon by four bully boys in a playground who proceeded to beat me up for being a ‘wog’.
The strength of bullies is in numbers. They never act alone. They only find power and courage to intimidate when they are in a group. Alone, members of such groups are cowards and when confronted run a mile. I am betting not one of them would have had the courage to confront that athletic looking tall young black man alone on a dark night.
And what has this got to do with football? Well, nothing, except that football breeds a fan collective which lives on tribalistic instincts, which in turn provides a licence to bully, insult and wreak violence on other tribes in the name of ‘supporting’ a team.
Football, and Chelsea in this case, need to act decisively in cases such as these (as and may yet ban them for life). The game’s broader governors, like UEFA, too.
UEFA says meekly that it has no jurisdiction on this incident because it did not take place at a match venue. Then UEFA should broaden its jurisdiction.
The offenders here were clearly Chelsea fans, chanting Chelsea war cries. There can be no mistaking that they were integral to a match occasion under UEFA’s watch.
Football’s governors, FIFA and UEFA alike, give a lot of ceremonial lip service to racism but so far they have failed miserably to eradicate it. The incident on the Paris Metro proves this.
Much progress has been made since the Heysel Stadium tragedy of 1985, when 39 people died as a result of fan violence at a European Cup final match between Liverpool and Juventus.
But the hooliganism, the bigotry, the propensity for violence and bullying still live and breathe. They are still within the heart of football culture.
This needs to stop.
