Day: 27 April 2012

Last Wednesday saw John Barnes launch a new initiative against racism in an impassioned talk entitled The Beautiful Game: An Ugly Culture delivered to the Union’s Academy 2. The former England star spoke alongside Manchester Village FC manager Matt Hall and offered an unorthodox take on the problem of racism in football.

Despite his previous involvement with campaigns such as Kick It Out!, Barnes was surprisingly dismissive of recent government attempts to introduce new legislation against racism in the game, labeling David Cameron’s recent meeting with black footballers as an “attempt to win votes”. Furthermore, the Liverpool and Watford legend called the prospect of punishments made against John Terry and Luis Suarez for racial abuse a case of “slapping people on the wrists after they’ve been caught being naughty”.

Instead, the Jamaica-born former winger proposed that the government, along with the game’s governing bodies, should focus on deconstructing “the myth of race” within wider society. Dominant cultural perceptions, Barnes argues, must be tackled in order to enact changes that are more than superficial. Punishments for indiscretions on match day, he insists, will do nothing to stop people from expressing racist opinions “the other six days of the week”. By understanding the way in which the discourse of racial difference was imposed in the past, and confronting the “pervasive legacy of colonialism”, Barnes argues that the problem of racism can be effectively tackled.

Startlingly, the 48-year-old called for a wholesale program of “truth and reconciliation”, similar to those seen in South Africa and Rwanda, such is the extent of residual prejudice within the sporting community. Indeed, it was claimed that “any Premier League manager or player over the age of forty” was likely to have harbored racial prejudices. However, Barnes again reiterated that “it’s not football’s fault, it’s society’s fault”, and that singling out individuals for criticism was pointless.

Barnes, who now works as a pundit for ESPN sports, was nevertheless critical of a number of high-profile figures within the press and the footballing establishment. One such figure is Sir Alex Ferguson, who he accuses of hypocrisy in the Suarez affair, considering the manager’s unwavering support of Peter Schmeichel when the Danish goalkeeper was embroiled in a similar scandal. The BBC, Barnes alleges, turned down his proposal for a documentary discussing racism from a sociological perspective, as he was unwilling to compare the Premier League favorably to leagues in Poland and the Ukraine. The Football Association, meanwhile, were characterised as a cast of “60-year-old, white men”. Former Liverpool team-mate Alan Hansen’s recent gaffe of referring to “coloured players”, however, was dismissed as an innocent mistake.

Throughout the talk, Barnes downplayed the shocking racial abuse he received during the early years of his playing career with a disarming humility. The abuse, he claims, never affected him because he “was totally empowered”. He also insisted that the worst aspects of racism were felt by “the black man on the street who can’t get a job in a shop”, rather than by professional sportsmen. However, he has taken his status as an Anfield legend with a pinch of salt, claiming that “they never loved me, they loved John Barnes number ten”.

Bold statements such as this made the opening address of Barnes’ tour of universities a provocative spectacle. However, the former winger’s passion, good humour and impressive understanding of history ensured that the audience left with a new insight into a hotly debated subject.

Obviously you’re a Liverpool legend – what did you make of Liverpool’s struggle this season?
Slightly disappointing. They put a performance in, but just looking at modern football now… before I went to Liverpool, I put in 6 years at Watford. The pressures on clubs now are much higher towards signing unknown players. Henderson is a perfect example of this – just one year at the club and young players are thrust into the limelight. Next year Liverpool will hopefully improve, but the quality they have shown this year has been good. The dedication shown at Cup matches has been of top quality. They will have to adapt their game, but the attitude and commitment they have shown means they can go forward. They have desire and dedication, and I will continue to support them next year.
David Seaman has stated recently that he has no interest in representing Team GB at the Olympics…
John: I’m exactly the same. Culturally, the Olympics are, alongside the World Cup, the world’s most important sporting event. It should not be belittled by sports that don’t take it seriously, by a sport that doesn’t see it as the epitome of its success. Many in Team GB would rather win the World Cup or even the F.A Cup than the Olympics. Even if they win a gold medal, for me it would mean nothing. Football for me is nothing like beach volleyball, swimming, or other sports that would consider this to be their top achievement; that is what the Olympics are all about.
Would you be interested in a return to managing or coaching?

John: Potentially managing. Except for Fergie nowadays, is there any manager now that would definitely be given three years to do the job? Secondly, from a black perspective, what is it to be a black coach or a black manager? Is it an opportunity to be given a job where people are going to help you, support you, give you time? I lamented the fact that the positive response I got from the players in Jamaica was because they saw me as British, while a lot of black coaches get a response from many who think, ‘is he really up to the job?’ Under the right circumstances, I would try it. As for coaching, I’d rather manage a League 2 side than coach a Premier League club. As a coach you would have to believe in everything the manager was saying, and I couldn’t just believe that. I wouldn’t be able to.

I was trawling through YouTube and came across something shocking – it was Michael Barrymore performing an intensely racist ‘impersonation’ of you on the BBC, with the implication that you shouldn’t be playing for England.
John: I haven’t seen it, no. Back then on the Cup final day you had a comedian with you, and we had Michael Barrymore with us at Wembley – we thought he was really funny in a Watford kit jumping on the coach with us. That very much reminds me of, around the same period, Jimmy Greaves wrote an article about me, saying that as I wasn’t born in England, I wasn’t as committed as other players. And when it comes to football, this is nonsense. Consider people like Stuart Pierce, who you’d consider as English as St George – who is incidentally a Turk. I know Stuart well, and I can guarantee you, if he would have to play for France against England, he would give it his 100%. Think of John Aldridge playing his best for Ireland. Because born there or not, it’s who you play for!

Matt Hall, manager of Village Manchester FC’s 2nd team, provided an excellent compliment to John Barnes at the Beautiful Football: An Ugly Culture event, illustrating how his side looks to tackle homophobia in sport at a grassroots level.

Village Manchester FC are Manchester’s only gay men’s football club, plying their trade in the Manchester Accountants League. They are unique in the gay football community however as alongside London side Stonewall they choose to play in local football leagues rather than take part in the Gay Football Supporters Network organized league for gay teams which operates on a national level.

For Hall it is crucial that teams such as Village Manchester compete in ordinary league football, commenting that ‘Homophobia in football is better fought by playing at a grassroots level’. Village Manchester are setting out to dispel any stereotypes and myths that cross their path, aiming to ‘show teams that gay men we can play football just as well they can’. Indeed they have been exceptionally successful with the Village Manchester side now established as one of the best sides in their league, with their second team also going from strength to strength.

It appears that Village Manchester’s aim is being reached, with Hall stating that his experiences have seen very little active homophobia from opposition sides. Indeed a recent Sky Sports News report into Homophobia secretly filmed a Village match in order to try and catch Homophobic attitudes in action. ‘ They didn’t see much’ says Hall with a smile, ‘ apart from that we lost!’

The young manager did state however that not all footballers within the gay community were ready to take such a step as he and his teammates have. Indeed there are players who have felt ostracized playing football. That is where the GFSN comes in providing for gay players to play with ‘likeminded individuals’, a place where gay men to do not feel the need to hide their sexuality in fear of experiencing sexual prejudice from fellow players.

In the professional game meanwhile the situation experienced by Village Manchester is perhaps not reflected with homophobic chanting a regular occurrence on the terraces. Indeed a survey by Stonewall last year stated that 70 percent of football fans had experienced homophobic chanting. For Hall this is partly down to the ‘herd mentality of fans’ that can happen at some grounds. Such prejudice according to the young manager cannot be tackled by the Gay Football community and must be led from a top down level, it is an area that the FA has ‘seriously neglected’, leaving the Gay Community ‘playing catch up in order to end homophobia in the professional game’. The natural progression is for a high profile Premier League player to come out publicly as being gay, as the likes of Gareth Thomas and Steven Davies have in Rugby and Cricket respectively. Such a move is ‘the next step towards inclusion’.

However while the footballing authorities look to eradicate homophobia on the terraces and change long-term attitudes towards gay footballers, Village Manchester will continue to take on any prejudice that comes their way by doing their talking on the field.

Forget London 2012. The highlight of sporting excellence this year has already been and gone as the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester fought to knock Leeds off its perch in the ultimate battle of the north: The Christie Cup. This year it was Liverpool’s turn to host the oldest inter-university competition after the Oxbridge boat race, and over 1500 eager students descended upon the City of Scouse for what would be a day of champagne performances across the board.
The day didn’t exactly get off to an ideal start – the weather clearly didn’t get the memo that Christie day is traditionally blessed with glorious sunshine – and so wetter than a sock in a puddle but not to be deterred, coach loads of Manchester’s finest athletes made the journey down the M62 to reclaim the prize that we all know is rightfully ours. Manchester has won this tremendous accolade more times than either of the other universities since the competition was founded in the 1880s, and so after our shock defeat in 2011, we were hungrier than ever for success. With exams looming in the not-so-distant future, the day is notoriously one of laughs and debaunchery, but following stern words of warning from the feisty Athletic Union Chair, we knew we all had to get our heads in the game.
Amongst the first up were women’s hockey, and with Manchester undefeated all season and promoted to the Premiership, we were pretty confident it was in the bag. The competition was fierce, particularly from newly-relegated Leeds. However it was not enough to stop both Manchester teams from being crowned outright winners. Some might say that the men were even cockier, sporting little more than an attractive set of purple wife-beaters in the icy cold and rain, yet they too emerged champions. The tone was then set for the rest of the day and team after team, Manchester upped their game and clocked up the points.
Those not lucky enough to compete on the artificial pitches were in for a real treat, and men’s football thought up many a new goal celebration which involved sliding around in the mud-bath that the pitches had all become. The colour of both our men’s and women’s rugby kits were similar evidence of the amount of celebrating Manchester had earned, with the only remaining traces of purple to be found in the war-stripes painted on our faces! Both lacrosse teams retained their respective undefeated titles, and when team members are subsequently found asleep during their victory night out, you can’t deny that they must have played hard!
One team that certainly wasn’t bothered by the April showers was the swimming squad, who capped off a great BUCS season with another clean sweep of wins for Manchester. By the midway point of the competition, we were feeling quietly confident that the prestigious Christie Cup would be coming back home with us. Obviously that would never have been good enough for us, and when we win, we like to win by a country mile. After some words of encouragement from our wonderful AU Chair had been bellowed down a shiny new megaphone (saved only for occasions such as this), our remaining athletes kicked, smashed, shot, and ran to countless more victories across the entire spectrum of sports.
Then we played the waiting game. We had tried harder than ever but anything could have happened in those final few fixtures. While every point was being counted up and checked, our freezing, exhausted competitors had found renewed vigour in the thought of their traditional ‘Purple and Proud’ fancy dress costumes for the presentation ceremony. Team by team we filed into the main sports hall dressed as Barney the Dinosaur, purple Avatars, and everything in between, in order to find out whether we had done ourselves proud or whether it had all been in vain. As the individual successes were read out we sensed a pattern emerging, and if the overall victory wasn’t ours then something must definitely have gone wrong. Liverpool must have known they were out of the title race as they slowly started sidling off like part-time supporters at a football match. Nevertheless, Leeds still had high hopes and didn’t seem to fancy the prospect of handing over the cup after just one measly season. The big moment arrived. There was an eerie hush in the room and the tension was thick. Eventually it was announced that Manchester had regained its title as Christie Cup Champion and some even say the cheers were so loud they could be heard all down Oxford Road. Roaring with excitement, we all piled back on to our coaches – medals swinging all over the place – and had a night we’ll never remember to celebrate the day we’ll never forget.