Moronic Supporters Past And Present Ignorance Is The Key

The angry bigoted man images of the abuse hurled at Liverpool's Mo Salah during Hammers 1-1 draw with the match officials has received plenty of coverage and rightly so, normally rational people, in a similar way to some car drivers can suddenly become either vile or monstrous or both in just a split second. In no way do we countenance such behaviour, however we do need to look at the root of the problem, and there is a problem but it is one born out of ignorance and fear, not generally loathing.

The unknown is frightening to some, particularly to those who are ill-informed and take most of their information from the red top' newspapers who have no qualms about sensationalising racial and religious issues to sell more copies. Back in the day when the wonderful Clyde Best first turned out for the Hammers he received abuse from both sets of fans because of his colour, he shut them up the only way he could, by smiling and scoring! It wasn't a period that West Ham or any other top team could be proud of, but bit by bit the prejudice was lifted and soon Clyde became 'one of our own'.

Best led the way for other black players to join the Hammers, and when they arrived they were generally treated with so much more respect than that had previously been shown. Similarly when Yossi Benayoun joined West Ham there were those who were 'uncomfortable' with his religious status, but after a short while their voices were not heard. The club won't tolerate the sort of vile rant aimed at Mo Salah, and in a statement said they have “a zero tolerance policy to any form of violent or abusive behaviour, we are an inclusive football club. Anyone identified committing an offence will have their details passed to the police and will face a lifetime ban from London Stadium. There is no place for this kind of behaviour at our stadium.”

The thread is of course ignorance, before black players arrived racism was rife and still is in certain aspects of life, but from a sporting point of view things improved massively. Players of the Jewish faith were also 'targeted' as were many others who were not 'traditional', but through the course of time and through a learning curve such outdated opinions fade away. Being angry at Mo Salah because he is a Muslim is such a short sighted and incorrect way to be, it is obvious that the person who was highlighted 'lost it', and perhaps the club could offer him the chance to apologise instead of just banning him. Salah is a bright and deep thinking man, he might even welcome the chance of discourse with this man. - Ed



Is they aren't intelligent enough to realise someone is going to film them nowadays,he will be publicly named & shamed,banned for life (& rightly so)...

40 users have voted.
Dicks is the man's picture

I apologise for my behaviour. It wont happen again. Jokes aside, I'm pretty sure these guys act like it because they are in a crowd. They would probably not do anything like it in everyday life.

26 users have voted.


29 users have voted.
moore2come's picture

Maybe banning the idiots until they undergo some sort of therapy is one part of a solution. As you say Nev, in the heat of the moment, people (generally white) revert to ancestral bigotry or red top sensationalism but if they're unwilling to undergo some help, banning them and getting them out of the club is the right thing to do.

32 users have voted.

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