Football is a release for many. We all have a hard working week. Whether it be in the office, on site or down the mines, but we live for the weekend, for Saturday 3pm (or whatever time the kick off is). We work hard, and the majority of what we earn go’s on tickets, trains, booze and food for the football.
It used to be the working mans sport. A chance to release the stresses of the week. Whether it be screaming for your team till your throat go’s hoarse, drinking till you can not remember, or any countless other extra curriculum activities that happen on game day.
Sadly, football has been on a downward spiral for many years now. And recent actions by the PC brigade seems to be hammering the nail in the coffin.
Chelsea Chant
So Chelsea use the word Yid in their chants. As do Arsenal. As do Spurs. As do West Ham. Kick It Out (always trying to make themselves relevant) reacted to it. Complained. Demanded people who use the word Yid in a song get a life ban. They need to fuck off.
I remember 15 odd years ago, we sang a song about Sol Campbell (to the tune of Hey Baby by Dj Otzi):
Heyyy, Hey Yiddo,
You. Scum.
I wanna knoooow,
Where your captains gone,
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
(repeat)
The next game, in Arsenal’s programme, the club politely asked us to stop singing the song as it was deemed racist. They assumed we were calling Jewish people scum. We were not, we were calling Spurs fans scum. If you have been living under a rock for decades, Spurs fans nickname themselves the Yids.
Arsenal fans were not using the Jewish definition for Yid, but the Tottenham definition.
Recently Chelsea have been condemned for singing an alleged anti-semitic Alvaro Morata song :
Alvaro, oh, Alvaro, oh.
He came from Real Madrid,
he hates the fucking Yids
Like Arsenal’s song about Sol Campbell, Chelsea are not saying Morata hates Jews, but that he hates Spurs fans.
Now there are some very naughty songs out there, about Adolf Hitler, gas chambers and more, and these are in poor taste, and are anti-semitic. But the anti-Spurs songs are degrading to Spurs supporters, not Jewish people.
Too often this subject has been spoken about. Nothing will change. What annoys me is the easily offended snowflakes. They do not go football. They do not care for football. They hate football fans. The type who look at you like you are scum when they are on the way to a museum. Those that say English football fans shame the country.
The problem is too many of these sort of folk work in the media, and like to have their say about things. The type of people who called up Ofcom to complain about the Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross, Andrew Sachs voicemails without ever having heard it.
Many of those who complained over the Chelsea song probably did not watch the game live. They did not watch Match of the Day. They have not even heard the song. They probably do not even know who Alvaro is.
Leave our game alone.
Romelu Lukaku Chants
In very much the same way, Manchester United fans have been condemned for singing a racist song about Romelu Lukaku:
Romelu Lukaku,
He’s our Belgian scoring genius,
With a 24 inch penis,
Scoring all the goals,
Bellend to his toes
Our friends at the very easily offended anti-discriminatory group Kick It Out called the chant “offensive” and have raised it with the FA and Manchester United.
“Kick It Out is aware of footage of alleged racist chanting by supporters of Manchester United that emerged on Wednesday evening, ” a spokesman told The Times.
It clearly is not offensive. They are just saying he has a massive knob. Now whether this is because of the positive stereotype that black man have massive penis’s, or maybe a fan has actually seen him in the shower, it is just not offensive.
Arsenal used to sing a song about Emmanuel Petit:
His blonde
His quick
His names a porno flick
Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle
Would this be considered offensive? After all, we were making a chant about his hair colour. And the majority of blonde people are white. I would imagine Kick It Out are the type of group that deny racism towards white people exists. Some bollocks about oppression and the oppressee’s can not become the oppressors. Some mumbo jumbo invented by some idiot who got a degree in Sociology from SOAS.
Of course, the Petit song is not offensive, and neither is the Lukaku song.
Stop finding a reason to be offended by everything.
Women’s Football
The ladies game has been through hell in recent weeks. Hell of their own making. Players and the FA are to blame over a cover up where it seems a women was dropped, could not handle being called lazy, claimed racism, accepted a pay out to shut up, and then the cover up was exposed leading to the England manager being sacked.
Now I am not going to go into the in’s and out’s of what has happened, as there is a lot to come out. There will be court cases with all parties taking each other to court. Whether it be for discrimination, unfair dismissal or lose of earnings.
One side comment, Lianne Sanderson is clearly of the easily offended nature. This is a woman who refused to play for a black lesbian in Hope Powell, claiming unfair treatment. It seems she is making similar noises about her time under Mark Sampson. Maybe it is her who has the chip on the shoulder. The issues. She needs to look at herself, rather than constantly blame others.
It seems the women’s national side is full of cliques. Some supported the manager, some threw accusations at him and were widely disliked by some in the squad. Imagine tweeting that former-team mates celebrating is ‘divisive’, whilst you are sitting on your phone continually making divisive comments.
I feel ultimately, a few people have realised there is a few quid to be made and, with their careers coming to an end, are looking for an extra pay out, whilst also launching themselves into the media spotlight for a media career.
CBBC and I ‘m a Celeb beckons for some of these.
Anyway, I have digressed.
The FA covered up a banner which stated “Super White Army” that hung from the stand of Tranmere Rovers Prenton Park.
The banner is a nod to Tranmere’s nickname. A Tranmere Rovers Supporters’ Club said it did not know why it was covered, adding it was “not remotely racist” and referred to their team’s shirts.
It was taken down after England player Lucy Bronze tweeted a picture of her team mates training with the stand that contains the banner in the background.
This tweet drew criticism from the PC brigade who claimed the banner was offensive.
Arsenal call themselves Red Army. Is this offensive to Red Indians, ginger people or sunburnt Brits? Plymouth call themselves the Green Army. Everton, Chelsea and others the Blue Army. These are not offensive terms.
What next? Homebase can no longer sell white paint? Screwfix fix stop selling white spirit? Great White Sharks have to get renamed Great Sharks?
It is just a perfect example of what I am talking about. People who probably do not even care about football getting offended about something that is not offended.
Why can’t they just stick to having a go at the Conservative Party, abusing Theresa May, moaning about Brexit and taking in asylum seekers? Just leave our game alone.
The problem is the more the PC brigade do, the more the game dies a little bit. The more atmosphere is killed.
We already can not drink in the stands. Swearing is unacceptable. And we are requested to grass fellow fans up by texting the club if you feel the remote bit offended. How long till football stadiums have safe spaces? Many already have prayer rooms.
I look at cricket. I went to Australia in 2010 for the Ashes. It was brilliant. Boxing is a top crack. The atmosphere at the darts is electric. Rugby is full of posh twats. Even cricket now has a better atmosphere than football – no longer do old folk sit around and politely applaud. Snooker has an incredible atmosphere in its own special way. Even ice hockey now, a few Arsenal lads I know have started going to Gillingham, Lea Valley or Milton Keynes.
I always laugh when I am watching boxing, at 11pm, and someone swears and the commentator apologies’ if you heard foul language. It’s 11pm and its two people fighting FFS. No one is going to be offended.
If football keeps going down this root, its key selling point, the passion and atmosphere, will be no more.
I travel up and down the country and very few stadiums have hostile, vibrant atmospheres. Everyone now sits on their hands and claps politely.
Being in the crowd is no longer as enjoyable. And the more this continues, the less people will go. They will drift to other sports where the atmosphere, the release is still there, and football l will die.
Remember, without fans, football is nothing.
Football has had its troubles in the past, and every now and again these rear their ugly head. But let’s not go too far the other way and make the game completely sanitised. It will kill the game.
The likes of Kick It Out and the Society Of Black Lawyers need to take a step back a little bit. Understand their role in society. And realise that you should not be offended by everything.
We are all consenting adults. Stop trying to sanitise our once-great game.
Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Its not just modern football fans mate, its a problem of modern society. The “liberal” PC brigade are like a bunch of fucking Meerkats, always on the look out for a whiff of so called racism. Always taking offence on behalf of someone else. Always ready to tell tales and waste police time. As you say, there are snowflakes out there who try to engage in banter (or Arse baiting) and find they are out of their depth so lash out the only way they know how. These same prats used to turn up their big noses at Football fans in the 70`s and 80`s but its become trendy to go to the football these days. I just wish they`d fuck off back to the theatre or go shopping with the missus/boyfriend on a Saturday. Maybe then we could get our sport back.
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“I look at cricket. I went to Australia in 2010 for the Ashes.” I was there at the WACA. Brilliant banter between the Aussies and the Barmy Army. All good fun, singing songs at eachother that would attract life sentences today. Brilliant.
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Did Matilda and her billabong get an airing?
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Great article by the way.
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Pingback: On She Wore’s “Stop getting easily offended at the football” « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News; Supporting the club, the players and the manager
I also remember that a number of Jewish Arsenal fans asked that the word ‘Yid’ be dropped, for obvious reasons, and it mostly was. Or were they just being ‘easily offended’ too?
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Yes they were. It is a term used to describe Tottenham supporters. If they are so easily offended then maybe they should think twice about going to the Football. Or maybe the author`s suggestion of a safe space isnt so ridiculous. Or maybe they could go and campaign outside Wembley the next time the Yids play because there`ll be about 60,000 of the cunts singing Yid Army.
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I didn’t know that Yid had anything to do with being Jewish until I was well into my late teens. To me,a Yid was a just a nickname for a Tottenham supporter. I work with a bunch of Yids and not one of them is Jewish. Five anglo saxon born and bred, two of them are Paddys, one is a Packy, two Jocks, a Taff and a Polski. None of them are 4×2’s. But on the day, they are all Yids.
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Arsenal’s Jewish fanbase is considerable – the club always used to wish them a happy Hanukkah when we had a proper program.
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It’s all about defining what constitutes banter and the environment in which the banter is exchanged. I would never punch my fist in the air and yell “Yiddo,Yiddo” to a Jewish schoolkid in Bushey on a Tuesday evening but I have no problem with yelling it with gusto on a Saturday afternoon in Islington. For 99% of the time, we live side by side, work with eachother, sometimes marry, maybe have kids together. But for 90 minutes a week, as consenting adults, we yell shit at eachother and they yell shit back. It’s a big part of what makes “the day” and it is why Football, worldwide, is followed in the way it is. Take the banter away and we may as well be watching tiddlwinks
.
There is a line, the line some idiots might cross when they throw a banana into the path of a black player or wave a bacon butty at Ozil, but 99.99% of us wouldn’t consider approaching that line let alone crossing it.
The 99.99% of us who won’t cross the line will police the 0.01% who can’t control themselves. I’ve seen it happen many times, I’ve done it myself.
We don’t need to be told by a “higher authority” what we can or cannot shout at football matches. We can work it out amonst ourselves.
We can’t stand up anymore and we are staring in the face of not being allowed to open our gobs in case we offend somebody.
Quiet please.. Football match in progress.
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I agree with a lot of what you have said on here, especially regarding the oh so terrible Y word. Its just a load of fake outrage by the liberal PC brigade. I have to disagree with you about taking offence at someone waving a bacon butty about. Honestly mate, would that really bother you? I couldnt give a monkeys myself. I wouldnt personally start throwing bananas at Black players but if someone beside me did, I wouldnt report them, I wouldnt even pull them up about it. I`d probably just ignore them for the rest of the game. Even that is hypocritical of me because when somebody threw a banana at Bale the other year I thought it was funny. I`m a White man but if a person of colour picked up a pigs head and started making pig noises at me, I`d roll about laughing. A Black geezer called me a honky cunt a few years back and it was funny as fuck. This victim culture that the snowflakes have created is all bollocks as far as I`m concerned and I will not buy into it. I made that decision a few years back when the whole transgender issue gained momentum and the PC “liberal” mob decided to ignore biology and science and insisted society had to embrace something that should clearly be defined as mental illness. Cut of your arm and you are mentally ill, cut off your hampton and you are transgender. Its all bollocks (no pun intended) and nobody will shame me into changing my mind on it. This article was absolutely spot on, one of the best ive read in a long time and perfectly illustrates all that is wrong in modern society and Football.
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I’ve never grassed up anyone for anything but I will and I have stood up to people who cross the line.
I was at an England Euro qualifier a few years back and there was this pissed up twat behind me banging on about migrants and coons. For a minute, I thought I was back in the 1970’s.
Loads of people around him were getting pissed off (we were in the Home End about three rows in front of the band).
When he was going full flow, I stood up, turned around and filmed him with my phone. I then told him that all I had to do was hit the home button and his rantings were going viral on youtube.
He buggered off to somewhere else. Got a pretty big cheer for that one.
I was at an Arsenal pre season friendly against Watford at Vicarage Road back in the very early nineties (1991 I think?).
A bunch of kids added the words “oven dodger” onto the back of the old “we hate Tottenham” song. Just about every Gooner there turned and gave them a death stare. A couple of people standing near them gave them a mouthful and a bit of a lecture.
They carried on regardless (kids being kids).
One of them got his nose broken in the ensuing melee.
As for bacon butties and Ozil, if someone throws a bacon butty at Ozils feet, or waves it at him from the stands, it is for one reason only. To intimidate him based on nothing more than his race or religious background. I will not stand by and let that happen. My granddad died in WWII fighting against racists,bigots and fascists and it would be remiss of me to let his sacrifice go to waste.
BTW, I am Anglo Saxon.
White as a sheet with a family history which I can trace back to the Doomsday Book.
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Fair enough mate, youve got your way of dealing with things and I`m not knocking you. Weve all witnessed prats who have totally crossed the line. As I say, I do agree with most of what youve written but I cant have your Ozil argument. If an opposition fan starts waving about a bacon butty it is for one simple reason IMO and that is to put him off his game. Surely if Ozil is so offended by a bit of bacon then he is playing in the wrong country, maybe he should be plying his trade somewhere else. If I`m standing next to a Black geezer at the next NLD and he starts calling Kane a honky cunt and I can see that it is adversely effecting his game, I`d be more likely to join in with him than report it. People with Ginger barnet or Bald nuts have been getting abuse for years as have fat people but you dont hear them moaning. Anyway mate, hope your 2 kids take after the old man and support a proper team.
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I’m not sure if chanting songs about the size of a mans dick is quite the same as chanting yid scum. My view has always been,the more you protest about this type of behavior and rise to the bate, the more they do it,because they know it annoys ..Sometimes if you ignore or laugh at it,they get fed up doing it.Having said that, I feel that racism has no place in football,just supporting your team.Its particularly indicative of the times we are living through and may have always been so but seems to be raising its ugly head again with a vengeance.To miost Jews Yid is a degrrotary word.I remember Spurs known as The Lillywhites. Some on here have actually said they didn’t know until later in life what Yiid meant. Funny that there are just as many Jewish supporters at Arsenal than at Spurs.Daniel Levy has been asked repeatedly to ban the word,yet he refuses yet Chelsea have now covered the whole specttum of racial abuse by banning it.
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Spurs is about as Jewish as Arsenal is irish Roman Catholic.
My missus is Irish Roman Catholic and she is a Yid (she used to go down the lane back in 80’s).
I met her when I was out on the piss at the Punch and Judy in Covent Garden after going to watch Arsenal demolish Coventry on the last day of the season and pick up the league title.
She started bantering with me based on our common interest in North London football.
25 years and two kids later, I still call my flame haired paddy missus Yid on matchdays.
Yid is shorthand for Tottenham Fan. When Arsenal chant Yiddo, there is nothing being aimed at Jewish people, the thought didn’t even cross our minds.
Point being that Yid is not a racist term when it comes to Arsenal V Spurs.
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