John Barnes blasts Luis Suarez 'witch hunt'

siempre

No, I think they just denied what they were accused of.
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daredevil

To be honest, I don't know much about the Terry case, I only know and comment about the Suarez case because it involved United, and I frequent the United board and have thus engaged in the 'debate' about it!

As for the Rooney case, I know that most United fans (from what I read) thought that the decision was one born out of ignorance and incompetence, it was unfair and that the FA and their committees had proved that they were out of touch with the game today and what happens on the pitch! Basically, they did not know what they were doing!

I guess they are now 100% correct, are completely in touch and are fair!

Billy, Rooney was stupid and deserved his punishment. Our argument was that a lot of people swear on the pitch and cameras show this but people were never punished. Even Kenny told Wenger where to go infront of the camera and nothing happened.

In Suarez's case though he chose to insult Evra using the colour of his skin and has got punished. Suarez himself admitted this and has been punished so I really wonder what you guys are complaining about.

I also do not believe your John Terry nonsense because that's all over the news so please do not peddle such rubbish. You are better than that.

daredevil

Yeah, I know what the argument was, it was against the incompetence and out-of-touch aspect of the FA.

The Suarez case is clearly more complicated than simply saying he admitted this and got punished! He admitted what? To using a word he did not think was offensive, obviously this is where the problem lies. If it was just as simple as you incorrectly make out, i.e. Suarez has admitted to knowingly using racially abusive language, then I doubt anybody would be complaining.

And seriously, I know the basics of the Terry case, I haven't read in any detail the minutiae of the case...the x-factor final was also all over the media, do you think I should therefore know all about that too? I don't by the way!

Billy, I'm sorry I do not buy that excuse. Suarez knew what he was doing.

Like I said he could have used a variety of insults, surely there's more than one way to insult people in Spanish. I'm a non spanish speaker and I know a few. Why did Suarez bring Evra's colour into it and use the term repeatedly.

I do not buy the ignorance excuse. Anyone that does would have to buy the same ignorance that racists and bigots use.

You can't pick and choose. SInce ignorance is the excuse, racial intolerance and bigotry is also ignorance and prevalent in a variety of cultures.

Based on your logic and LFCs, we have to accept that as well

daredevil

The ignorance excuse is specific to this case and should be assessed on this instance alone imo. You should not say that because Suarez is saying he is unaware of the offence that his words caused, then this should be applied in all other instances. Each case has its own specifics, and should be judged in isolation. So in essence you can pick and choose.

On another forum, separate from football, there was a discussion about the word coloured. A lot of people were saying that they were unaware that the term is deemed racially offensive when used with reference to black people. I can understand that, because obviously not everybody is up to speed on every detail concerning racial awareness. So when one of these people uses that term unwittingly, should their 'ignorance' be used against them and thus they are deemed to be racist, or at least guilty of using racially abusive language? I think not, you obviously do seeing as ignorance is no excuse and you can't pick and choose!

As for you saying that Suarez knew what he was doing, that clearly is not true...you don't know, I don't know, the FA panel don't know, only Suarez does...and he has said that he didn't know he was being offensive. You have dismissed this on the basis of what exactly?
Because you think? Is that good enough?

I'm sorry Billy but you can't separate both.

In a variety of cultures and societies racism, bigotry and intolerance are prevalent. If the people from those countries come here and practice their culture, LFC and you say it's acceptable. They would be doing exactly the same thing Suarez did and should be defended by you as well.

When you get into an argument with someone,you are well aware of the things you say and you pick and choose words that will hurt the person. We all do it. However when you pick a word which refers to the colour of skin, it is racist abuse. Especially when it is done multiple times.

Suarez did it and has been found guilty and punished. It's not rocket science.

If you want to excuse his behaviour because of the cultural differences, then like I stated above, you have to excuse people who do similar things. After all, it's their culture

I think we can agree to disagree here.

I think each incident of alleged racism should be judged on its own specific merits.

You think that, for example, a 50 year old white Englishman who is unaware of what is acceptable is and should be deemed guilty of using racially abusive language, because he called a black man coloured in the canteen over a cup of tea!

Ok!

as I have said before, I have no doubt that Suarez didn't think what he was doing was all that bad because racism is openly tolerated in latin countries. But so is drink driving but that would be no defence if he got nicked for it here.

Billy, you are picking and choosing again, as well as twisting what I said to suit your argument and ignoring the context.

I won't bother with this again. Your man has been found guilty of racist abuse and has to deal with the consequences

I couldnt believe John Barnes coming out with this, thought he would have been a bit more balanced about it. Looking at the nasty racist tweets against Evra they seem to be from people of all races.
I worked in places where Ive been called 'a sorry excuse for a white boy" or white this white that all the time. I'm glad Suarez got done, because this is part of protecting everyone in a complicated multicultural society. In a way thats a big credit to England and the Uk that we have these laws that protect people, we aint perfect but were imo probably far in advance of most places in the world when it comes to this.