My, my, my...

Well racism in football rears its ugly head again.

This time, the victim’s were members of the England under 21 players against the so-called soccer fans of the Serbia under 21's - I won't repeat the details as I'm sure you already know them.

I admire all of the English under 21 players and support staff, who clearly had a lot to endure both on and off the pitch.

I also am grateful that the Serbian Football Association has finally apologised for the actions of some people during this match.

But I also remember South Africa during the days of Apartheid – state approved racism, where White people were the so-called ‘master race’.

Then the Asian people were the next level, then the Coloureds, who were of mixed black Hottentots and White ancestry – they too, like the others, racially abused black people, using the derogatory word, Kaffir.

Then there are the blacks, who were the lowest, who were denied access to even a decent education.

The reason why I mention this is because there was one thing that did finally end this awful system: sanctions.

There were others who embarrassingly undermined this by going to Apartheid-run South Africa, such as the pop group Queen.

Let’s not forget the England rebel tour, when cricketers, led by Mike Gatting, went to this country, without official approval, in the 1980s.

Then there was another tragedy during the 1980s regarding English football: hooligans.

For years during the 1980’s the English Football Association would say sorry to other country’s until the horrible crush of 39 Juventus fans on the 29th May 1985, at the Heysel Stadium, in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

That’s when UEFA finally lost its patience with the English Football Association just saying sorry.

Again, as with South Africa, there was only one thing left to do: sanctions.

This is why I do understand the old saying that goes along the lines of; sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

The bottom line is, sanctions against South Africa and the English football clubs in the 1980s did do the job and made them both accountable and responsible.

I’m very glad to say Apartheid and hooligans at English football matches, as a whole, are a thing of the past.

Yes, there are a few South Africans who do still wave the old Apartheid flag of South Africa.

Hooligans at football matches can still be a problem, as was demonstrated three years ago at the FA Cup match of West Ham against Millwall FC.

But on both issues, there is firm action within England to deal with such undesirables.

The English FA made sure all rioters both within and outside the West Ham ground were caught and dealt with by the legal authorities.

Those South Africans, regardless of their race, who now wave the old flag of South Africa during rugby matches in the UK will now be arrested for inciting racial hatred, which is an offence under the Police and Criminal Evidence act of 1984, also known as P.A.C.E.

So please don’t make excuses like Chicago Bulls player and Serbian national Marko Jaric who says Britain’s link with slavery and hooliganism means we have no right to criticise Serbia fans for alleged racism.

Slavery happened more than 200 years ago – time and society within the UK has moved on since!

Mr Jaric should make a visit to the Anti-Slavery International museum in Liverpool, which will help to explain the meaning of the word SLAV.

It doesn’t take much to see the link, as the four letters of Slav - there are more than 10.5 billion in Serbia (courtesy of Wikipedia) should tell him something.

All that’s missing is the letter E at the end and then you’ve got the meaning of that word!

Andria

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West Ham Vs Millwall: the truth

Hi to one and all

I realise I haven’t written for some time and I do accept full responsibility for this.

Nevertheless, I’m happy to inform you about my experiences, both yesterday as a football steward at West Ham vs Millwall and on other issues.

I can say the real West Ham fans wouldn’t of been involved in the hooliganism we’ve seen regarding Tuesday’s match – during the many times I’ve worked at this club, I’ve been treated very well by both fans and staff.

But since this was a Football Association - FA - Carling Cup match, it was decided that a certain amount of tickets had to be available to the public that otherwise wouldn’t attend Upton Park (home of West Ham football club).

Generally, this is a good thing as it gives everyone the opportunity to see a premiership team live and keeps the romance of what the FA means – Millwall and West Ham haven’t meet each other in years, since The Lions were demoted out of top flight football in 1990.

Furthermore, Millwall and West Ham are well known bitter rivals, which clearly didn’t help.

Unfortunately it also gives troublemakers the chance to take advantage of the good nature of the FA and that’s what happened yesterday evening.

It was truly a good match, with Millwall getting a well deserved in the first half. Many West Ham fans clapped when they scored. Then West Ham equalised in the dying minutes of the second half, which is when the first pitch invasion happened.

It was at a weak point of the pitch, where football fans and the camera people share the same part, near the left-hand corner of the Bobby Moore stand. The real West Ham fans were booing the invaders, who got the message and came off with little fuss within five minutes.

But when extra time was over – thank goodness it didn’t go to penalties – with West Ham winning the match 3-1, that’s when the central part of the Dr Martens Stand gave way to individuals running on the pitch.

It wasn’t easy to get them off and it’s a shame for West Ham they will be receiving fines for yesterday’s commotion, as the only thing they can do is ban the people who caused the trouble.

This isn’t going to be affective, as most of those individuals who behaved badly wouldn’t come to a West Ham match anyway, so again, the club suffers.

Millwall has an established reputation of having the most violent supporters in British football.

At the match, I must give credit to the Millwall supporters who – despite the strong police and steward attendance at the match, were well behaved during the game.

I can also empathise with the frustration of the disabled supporters at the end of the game. They couldn’t leave the building as the lifts had been suspended, a safety precaution at any venue when trouble emerges, which meant they had to stay in the building until the police said it was safe for the elevators to be re-enabled.

One disabled supporter had two of his sons waiting in the car park, which by now was being heavily monitored, for fear of any further acts of violence.

Indeed it was outside the match that further violence flared up – I can still vividly remember walking up to Upton Park underground station at night, seeing ambulance workers placing people inside their vehicles regarding head, chest and arm injuries.

Despite being past 11pm, violent blood shedding was clearly visible on the pavements, with police having to cauldron off open spaces.

I also remember having no choice but walking on broken glass for the last 100 metres in getting to the station, such was the aftermath of the violence.

English clubs have worked so hard in eradicating hooliganism and it’s clearly a battle the police and football stewards must win – families, disabled people and individuals of colour have as much right to attend these events. Hooliganism is the opposite of this.

Right now, I feel for the safety officer and deputy safety office, Mr Ron Pearce and Mr Leon Blackburn respectively, who will no doubt have to compile a report on what happened. These two men have a lot of responsibility heaped on their shoulders, which they can’t sort out by themselves, if certain people are hell bent on violence.

More security is definitely needed, from football stewards to police – both had increased the usual amount of people to attend this match but sadly the people they had on that day was not enough.

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I’m not surprised that Jose Mourinho is once again in hot water, over his remarks that Inter Milan player Sulley Muntari should not be fasting during Ramadan.

All Muslims abstain from eating or drinking during this period during the daytime, that’s something Mourinho would have known about when deciding to play Muntari on Sunday’s draw against Bari.

A person’s religion is a part of their identity in this world and helps to signify meaning to their life.

Furthermore, it’s only for one month – I’m sure Mr Muntari wants to win games like Mr Mourinho, so I can’t help but feel Jose, by criticising one of his own players in such a public way, is scoring an own goal.

Isn’t it for the opposition to be undermining his players?

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Not relating to football, but I’m saddened to hear about the recent death of Senator Edward Kennedy.

He was a force to contend with and clearly played a strong role in getting Barack Obama into the White House.

With the recent death of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, mother of top-rated journalist and first lady of Florida Maria Shriver – who happens to be married to Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s only Jean Kennedy Smith that’s now alive of the original Kennedy clan who are forever enshrined as America’s Royal Family.

Although I understand some were unhappy in his involvement in the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland, I’m relived for him that he no longer has to suffer from the brain cancer which robbed him of his life.

I’m also relieved the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland are over – walking in Wembley yesterday, I went past the Army Careers office that was a target in 1994 – one man lost his life due to an IRA bomb, so again, I’m glad those days are a thing of the past.

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All of this means I don’t have the chance to talk about the sport books I’d highly recommend to read!

But the week is young, so I intend to update this log soon.

After yesterday’s commotion – I didn’t get home until minutes past one in the morning, I’ll be glad to watch (not attend) the Arsenal Vs Celtic match.

Until then, bye!


Light and Peace

Andria

PS, don’t forget to visit my other site (unfortunately, I can't put a link on it, for some unknown reason): www.andriagreaves.com