via the telegraph:

Royston Drenthe, Everton’s on-loan midfielder has revealed that Barcelona striker Lionel Messi racially abused him he played for Real Madrid. In an interview with a Dutch website the midfielder says, “I played against him many times and we always have problems with each other.”

“You know what bothers me so? That tone with which he always says, ‘negro, negro’,” Drenthe added. “I understand that negro in South America is very common, but we can not stand it. Mahamadou Diarra, my team-mate at Real, could explode if ‘negro’ was aimed at him. The Argentinean Gabriel Heinze and Gonzalo Higuain said it initially on the training ground, but they were stopped.

“When Hércules played Barcelona, during the game I had a small altercation with him. He gave me a hand in the match and again said a few times, ‘hola negro’.”

Messi nor Barcelona are yet to comment on this.

* Head over to the TOW Facebook page to discuss.

One of our readers from South America weighed in saying, “I’m south american and black, and he is right when we say that “negro”is very common in south america, the same happened with Evra and Suarez, many south americans use that word in other places but they don’t know if that word can be offensive to people of black/african descent, it’s probably that messi did that, but I don’t think he is racist or something like that”

Shouts out to J. Rivas for the facebook comment.

So here’s how the story goes. Earlier this season, former Newcastle man Emre Belozoglu admitted to “maybe being a little bit racist” and was found guilty and banned for two matches for dropping a “dirty N-bomb” on former Tottenham midfielder Didier Zokora.

According to Emre, “In the heat of the moment in matches, you say bad things to one another.” – Whatever that means… but the next time they played, which was this weekend, Didier showed that in the heat of the moment, some times you foul people. I say he got his moneys worth…. then he gets a yellow card.

* The best part of this video, is that after Didier destroys this cats groin he just turns around to the ref, like, yep – i know, my bad.

Video after the jump…..

via Guardian

A law student who bombarded the football commentator Stan Collymore with racist tweets has been sentenced to two years’ community service and ordered to pay £150 legal costs.

Joshua Cryer had initially claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked, but was spared jail after pleading guilty to the offence.

The 21-year-old admitted sending grossly offensive messages in breach of section 127 of the Communications Act, hoping to “snare a celebrity” on Twitter, where response tweets from well-known people are highly valued.

Cryer told police on Tyneside, where he is studying at Newcastle University, that he hoped to get a reaction from the former England striker, who has campaigned against racism in football and society more widely for many years.

He did in the end – but only after his conviction earlier this month, when Collymore tweeted: ‘J Cryer pleaded guilty yesterday and will be sentenced on 21 March at Newcastle magistrates court.’

Veronica Jordan, prosecuting, said Cryer – a keen footballer and the captain of a Newcastle University team – had given in to “showing off and boasting to friends that he had found a new hobby”.

She rejected the idea that he had acted stupidly on the spur of the moment, telling the court: “It was not impulsive. He has done this up to seven times over a period of days. That does not smack of impulsive behaviour. He was intending to insult and abuse.”

Passing sentence, District Judge Stephen Earl told Cryer he had been “foolish, immature and pathetic”. He said: “You know that this conviction will have a dramatic effect on your job and career prospects, but you put yourself here and you have to man up to that reality.

“I don’t doubt you are not an inherently racist person, but you did act in an intentionally racist way. You intended to get a rise out of Mr Collymore. He has made a justifiable and reasoned stance against you to the point where you shut down your Twitter account.

“I find it difficult to fathom what on Earth you thought you were doing. It was stupid, and you ought to have known better. You were a legend in your own head in this attention-seeking moment.” He said a prison sentence would serve no useful purpose and ordered Cryer to carry out 240 hours of unpaid community work over the next two years.

Cryer’s solicitor, Andrew O’Hanlon, said in mitigation that his client had many Asian friends and was “not somebody I would regard as being a dyed-in-the-wool racist. The reason he contacted Collymore in the first place was he is a fan of his.”

Cryer, from Burnley, Lancashire, attended court with his father and sisters but did not comment during the hearing or afterwards. He was arrested in January after Collymore reported the abuse to Staffordshire police, who passed the details on to the Northumbria force.

Collymore, 41, made his name playing for Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Aston Villa and now works for the TV company talkSport. He supports the Depression Alliance charity as well as anti-racism campaigns.

image

via Guardian

via the telegraph:

“Anton is my little brother,” he said. “We have grown up together and I looked after him when we were kids.

“If something is going to affect him and hurt him, I am always there as a shoulder to lean on. In moments like this, when things are so public and you can’t really say anything, it can be frustrating.

“For my family, yes, it has been tough. At the end of the day, my brother has not brought any accusations to anyone. He is not the accused.

“But he has had to sit there and take abuse from some small-minded people, which has been very disappointing.” Asked about progress made in fighting racism, Ferdinand said he had been “been fooled a little bit” into thinking it had.

via Guardian

via Chelsea

Chelsea Football Club is concerned to hear that a small number of fans travelling back by train from Norwich were alleged to be involved in racist chants and comment.

We are working to help the relevant authorities identify those responsible and will take the strongest possible action should these allegations prove to be true.

The club, like the overwhelming majority of our fans, strongly believe that all forms of discrimination are abhorrent and have absolutely no place in society.

via ESPN

Edgar Davids has hit out at fellow Ajax supervisory board member Johan Cruyff for his failure to apologise for an alleged racist remark.

The issue has dominated in Holland over the past week, with Davids reiterating his criticism of Cruyff in a television interview.

Cruyff is alleged to have told the former Barcelona and AC Milan midfielder he was only appointed on to the supervisory board due to the colour of his skin. Cruyff has repeatedly stated the remark was not intended to be racist.

Davids has accepted Cruyff’s explanation but believes he was still deserving of an apology.

He told CNN: ”Johan Cruyff made a racist remark but apologise and people will accept it. He admitted it, but he didn’t apologise. And that’s even harder.

”The Dutch press let it slide a little bit, and I think that’s what you have to condemn because when somebody makes a racist remark, that doesn’t make him a racist.

”But you have to say this is the line…you crossed it and you have to apologise. Not only for the person who has been hurt, but also for the people who lived with that racial abuse almost all their lives. And I think that’s unacceptable if you don’t.”

The issue is just one of many currently embroiling Ajax with Cruyff also at the centre of a split in the supervisory board over the appointment of Louis van Gaal as general director.

On top of that, members of the Ajax board – a separate committee to the supervisory board – confirmed last weekend they had relinquished their posts with immediate effect after announcing in March they would be stepping down when successors could be found.

image