Topic: Racism at Anfield

[Livani]

I was listening to 5Live after the Gala game when a bloke rang in to say he'd heard racist chanting by a section of the Kop, where all the singing normally starts. He said it was aimed at Momo and went along the lines of 'we like him so much, that we consider him white'. A few text messages were received confirming this was the case, tho a few were received by people saying they had not heard this.
I've only ever heard racism at football at the cesspit that lies across Stanley Park and was genuinely upset to hear Liverpool fans doing this. The guy said most people looked bemused and shocked, as if they couldn't believe what they were hearing. If this was being sung, the nobheads that invented this charmless little ditty probably don't consider it racist, maybe they consider it complimentary.
Anyway, can anyone at the game confirm this did or did not happen?

[Corkboy]

See below.


http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=145620.0

[Don Vito Corleone]

The incident that was alluded to on 5Live was pure fiction

But, yes, there is racism as anfield, not as much as at some other grounds, but possibly more than others  and pretending that thier isnt is foolish.

[Rushian]

The incident that was alluded to on 5Live was pure fiction

Not according to a couple of very reliable witnesses from this forum.

[Don Vito Corleone]

Hmm, strange, just come off nights so havent been able to scan the other thread.

Nice one

[Rhino]

May as well lock this now ay Rusian 

[the craigster]

This is bollocks. I was in Block 202 of the Kop and i didn't hear anything, or even heard people mentioning it

[ben]

i've never heard a racist comment at anfield. i've been going every week for 15 years and haven't heard anything of the sort.

however, i hear it every week at away games so don't doubt that the odd fool has a go on the kop aswell. disgusting stuff really.

[dobbadobbs]

I was in 202 and heard nothing either

[JP!]

We've had this once.  IF it was there then the people should never be allowed inside Anfield again.  There's enough people I trust to be right said it did go on, so I think it did, and I think it's a disgrace.  Simple really.

[jward85]

It happened, it happens nearly every away game and a lot of home games, no-one says anything at the time and then when its brought into a public domain, ie the radio or the internet, the same people who said fuck all at the time either deny hearing it or feign outrage and shock. Same with Munich songs, Shipman songs and whatever else.

[Livbes]

i was in 203 never heard anything.

[Sport Billy]

208 and heard no such thing!

[Rizla]

May as well lock this now ay Rusian 

Well the last one was but I think the powers that be may leave this one alone and give it a chance so long as it is all discussed sensibly...

If this was being sung, the nobheads that invented this charmless little ditty probably don't consider it racist, maybe they consider it complimentary.

Is plausible...some people are just thick 

But on the occasions I have been there, never heard anything of this sort, and from those who I know who go more regularly, they say it's not something that has been noticeable in recent times, certainly no worse than anywhere else. But there are minorities everywhere who engage in this sort of shite in occasional incidents such as these, and so long as people let the club know who they are/what seats they occupy, it can be dealt with effectively

[kopite-stu]

Update on the chanting.

For those who didnt hear it or pretend to have not heard it, believe me it did happen. I have rang Liverpool about it and they have called me back today. I was not the only complaint they received and it appears it was in Block 202 on row 59 or 60. all i could tell them was it came from the direction of bloc k202. Others have told them exactly where. They have told me that the culprits will be banned for life when found and the stewards will be more alert to it in future.

Good riddance to bad rubbish if you ask me.

[lloydiethe1st]

I was in row 54 of 202 and that sounds about right. I can't remember what I heard but it was definitely something derogatory. These tits have no place in Anfield and any other ground for that matter.

[rob89]

i was in 202 and heard it all row 56, it was a disgrace 'mo mo is white' and 'weve got a racist called steve finnan when he's driving he's always killing' and the nobheads who were singing were alsp throwing bottles everywhere and had bottles of vodka, PURE DISGRACE

[kopite-stu]

If you heard it ring up!!!

The number is on the other thread.

[rob89]

okay i will do, get the wankers off the kop, that spoiled a gd game for me

[kopite-stu]

well in rob, make sure you mention the vodka. The club werent happy with the stewards when they rang me.

[kopite-stu]

If the club find out who they are then they have promised me they will be banned for life.
How do you know they were young lads? Did you see them? If so why haven't you done something about it?
Suppose you think we should let it all pass and it will go away?

[Paul Ando]

Dont exaggerate things. There was one, small emplty plastic bottle that got thrown. Not like they were chucking big glass vodka ones like you're suggesting. It doesnt make it right - I know. However, by making mountains out of molehills like that, word spreads and we're all getting villified for something that never really happened.

And the lads wont get banned for life because the club have no way of knowing who they are. But maybe some food for thought - should they get banned for life? These arent grown men we're talking about - they're young lads. How many of the "older generation" didnt sing stuff they regret when they were 16-20 years old? I'm betting a good few.

I'm not justifying the racism - far from it, infact. It's not something I think should be heard in the ground. But I do think that people are too quick to jump on it, when really, most of you dont have a clue what happend or what was being sung.

case closed.

[Rushian]

Dont exaggerate things. There was one, small emplty plastic bottle that got thrown. Not like they were chucking big glass vodka ones like you're suggesting. It doesnt make it right - I know. However, by making mountains out of molehills like that, word spreads and we're all getting villified for something that never really happened.

And the lads wont get banned for life because the club have no way of knowing who they are. But maybe some food for thought - should they get banned for life? These arent grown men we're talking about - they're young lads. How many of the "older generation" didnt sing stuff they regret when they were 16-20 years old? I'm betting a good few.

I'm not justifying the racism - far from it, infact. It's not something I think should be heard in the ground. But I do think that people are too quick to jump on it, when really, most of you dont have a clue what happend or what was being sung.

Come on Rhi, isn't that a little naive? The lads know what they're doing - they're proud of it.

Bans for life is ridiculously harsh, but they need their heads cracking together otherwise this sort of shite will continue to be heard at Anfield and at away games, no matter how much it's something you think shouldn't be heard.

A laissez faire attitude just leads them to think they can get away with it whenever and wherever they want and will encourage others to think the anti-racism message many have worked hard to elucidate over the last 20 years means fuck all.

[wattie]

Dont exaggerate things. There was one, small emplty plastic bottle that got thrown. Not like they were chucking big glass vodka ones like you're suggesting. It doesnt make it right - I know. However, by making mountains out of molehills like that, word spreads and we're all getting villified for something that never really happened.

And the lads wont get banned for life because the club have no way of knowing who they are. But maybe some food for thought - should they get banned for life? These arent grown men we're talking about - they're young lads. How many of the "older generation" didnt sing stuff they regret when they were 16-20 years old? I'm betting a good few.

I'm not justifying the racism - far from it, infact. It's not something I think should be heard in the ground. But I do think that people are too quick to jump on it, when really, most of you dont have a clue what happend or what was being sung.

Great post, i totally agree with what your saying.

[rob89]

will ring in the morning, they need sorting out, im 16 and go to the football to watch football and get behind my team, i sing and shout but nothing racist and that how football should be

[Rhino]

I was in block 202 and didn't hear the momo chant, but I was much lower than row 59/60.

I did hear the Finnan song, but don't think it has a racist intent, but has been sung after Finnan was accused and cleared of racially abusing Evra last season

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N151652060304-1616.htm

I don't know all the words so could be wrong.

The point about singing things when we were younger we regret is valid to a point, except that racist chanting is a criminal offence nowadays and simply cannot be tolerated.

A life ban is perhaps harsh, I think education is the key, but the punishment is the same at every club as football is wants to send a strong message

[Barry Banana]

They weren't even in seats, just bunched together at the top of the stairs so their is no way they will be identified by their seats. Nothing will happen.

[Rhino]

Yeah, I understand that Steve. And maybe agree to some extent. But it while you might think Im being naive, I think its a bit naive of anyone to think that slagging them off on here or ringing the club is the way to go about doing something about it. Infact, its probably the worst way to get them to stop. And I also think that rather than the culprits getting punished - I think the innocent people in the surrounding seats are more likely to be blamed.

Maybe its my lack of social concience or whatever - but say they do get caught, will that change their opinons? No. Will a good kicking? No. At the end of the day, theyll either grow out of it, or realise that its not right or theyll carry on doing it. Theres nothing we can do to change that.

I think that sounds a bit harsher than I mean it to really, but I cant really explain what i mean. Fuck it. I think my opinions reasonable enough and thats all that matters to me, to be honest.

(sorry about the lack of punctuation in this, every time i press the apostrophe button, it jumps to "find" in my browser )

So we sit back and let them get on with it hoping they grow out of it

[WillieBob]

 These arent grown men we're talking about - they're young lads. How many of the "older generation" didnt sing stuff they regret when they were 16-20 years old? I'm betting a good few.

I'm not justifying the racism - far from it, infact. It's not something I think should be heard in the ground. But I do think that people are too quick to jump on it, when really, most of you dont have a clue what happend or what was being sung.

Ashamed to say that when I was much younger I was one of those that would join in the racist chants and songs - fact is most people did.

I have to say that it is now many years since I have heard any sort of determined racist chanting at Anfield,although I have on occasion heard the odd racist comment but have been unable to positively identify the source.

Point is - there are to many people who make the excuse "I didn't hear it, therefore it didn't happen".

[Neil D]

Point is - there are to many people who make the excuse "I didn't hear it, therefore it didn't happen".

And too many people who did hear, but hope it will go away.

[anon-y-mouse]

Point is - there are to many people who make the excuse "I didn't hear it, therefore it didn't happen".

That's bollocks. I didn't hear it but can quite believe it did happen. What's your point?

[Neil D]

That's bollocks. I didn't hear it but can quite believe it did happen. What's your point?

Surely he is referring to these kind of comments:

This is bollocks. I was in Block 202 of the Kop and i didn't hear anything, or even heard people mentioning it

Where people say if they didn't hear it therefore it didn't happen

[Rushian]

I thought the one alluded to on 5 Live was 'monkey noises' which we had established was one of the Gala songs which did involve lots of 'Ooo ooo' noises?

There were some songs up in 202, but those weren't the gist of the 5 Live complaint as I understand it...

My understanding is the caller to 5live specifically mentioned the "Momo is white" song.

The non-existant monkey chants arose from people who didn't listen to 5live posting replies on various websites assuming the caller was confusing the Gala chants with racism from the Kop when in fact he didn't mention monkey chants.

[WillieBob]

Twenty five minutes into this call should do it.

I think the call is at about 25'50".

EDIT: The times should be right now.

[redforlife]

My understanding is the caller to 5live specifically mentioned the "Momo is white" song.

Yeh he did, heard the call on the way home but was in the Lower Anny and obviously didn't hear the Momo is white song but that was what the caller mentioned.  Then again I was oblivious to any 'monkey noises' being made.

[Armless Joe Gambino]

Was it nasty?

[redforlife]

By the sounds of it it wasn't nasty towards Momo as they were saying he was good enough to be white but by saying so they are classing white as the superior race which leads to the accusations of racism against blacks and all non-whites I suppose

[Rome 84]

The Steve Finnan song is racist, if not in content then certainly in tone because it clearly is a show of pride that one of our players was (wrongly) accused of racism.
For those of you who haven't had the "pleasure" of hearing it yet, the words are "We've got a racist called Steve Finnan, when he drives he's always killing them, he knocks them down and they don't get up again, we've got a racist called Steve Finann".
Not only is it sick, it's also libelous against one of our own players.
I first heard it being sung by a gang of pricks on the train to Crewe during pre-season. They also had a song about Nigel Reo-Coker swinging from the trees and one that said something like "Everton are racist and so are we".
There isn't a major problem amongst Liverpool fans but there are pockets of beauts who think this sort of shit is okay.

[Ste G]

I'm glad people have reported this. I'd like to think something can be done, but if it was a group of scallies not in proper seats then it might be difficult.

But if that was the case, what the hell were the stewards doing letting them stand/sit at the back of the stairway?

That Steve Finnan song is disgraceful. Racist and offensive. Not only is it celebrating the fact that he was accused of racism, but it's making light of the fact that he was involved in an accident in which someone later died. Well out of order.

The young lads involved in this kind of thing need sorting out now. They might grow out of it, but in the meantime they'll be 'recruiting' younger fans to do the same and the sheep mentality will just lead other young fans to follow. Waiting for them to grow out of it isn't an option anyway as who really wants to hear this shite?

A ban for life may be extreme, but a tough punishment for this type of thing is necessary. A message needs to be sent out that this sort of thing is plain wrong and unacceptable. It won't solve the problem in general, but we can start by at least silencing these idiots at the match.

[Armchair and I dont care]

The Momo song is more stupid than racist.  What?  he's good enough to be white....do me a favour.  Pele, Digger, Eusebio, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Garincha, Gullit, Seedorf, Thuram, Wrighty, Davids, Viera, Drogba, Makelele, Rijkaard, etcetera etcetera etcetera.  It's just a very silly song sung by very silly people.

Here's a new one:

Ste Gerrard, Ste Gerrard, he runs the game from front to back, he's so bloody good he could be black!!! 


PS  There real reason that there's racism at Anfield is cause there's racism/prejudice in Liverpool, in England and in fact the whole wide world.  Prejudice is opinoin without judgement and unfortunately you need the ability to think and reason to make good judgements and half the worlds population are sorely lacking.

There's absolutely no point throwing the racists out of anfield if we then do nothing to educate them within society.  We need to tackle the problem at it's source (in school and especially in the home) not just push it the corners of society where it is left to fester and grow.

The Finnan song is sick but is just a testimony to the sorry state of society where violence is accepted and gangsterdom is worshipped.  We're all at fault, ask yourself, what's your favourite film?  If you answered, Goodfellas, Godfather, Casino, Scarface, Pulp Fiction, Resevoir Dogs and the like, then you are only helping to fuel the fire of violence in society.
In everyday life we give no respect to murdering, thievin, extortioning, drug dealing scum, but put them in a film, give 'em some cool one liners and they become our heroes....strange that, don't ya think?