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Posts Tagged ‘Liverpool’

While English Soccer is looking at ways to glamorize the FA CUP, (we´ll talk about it in following posts) let´s just say that at least this Saturday there will be no need to draw more extra attention to the competition.

All eyes are, undoubtedly so, set on the clash between Liverpool and Manchester United.

It would be the first time they met since Luis Suárez was banned for eight matches, after shouting racial slurs to Patrice Evra in the 1-1 draw in October.

But this circumstance, instead of being treated as a hassle, Liverpool´s managing director, Ian Ayres, plans to use it as a way to showcase a new attitude in the club requesting calm and respect towards the rivals from both fans and players.

On the other hand, Sir Alex Ferguson, following the same line, addressed the fans writing a letter that said: “I wrote to fans attending the away match in October urging them to co-operate with stewards and officials at Liverpool so we can make a strong case for restoring our allocation for future United games at Anfield. The fans did almost everything asked of that day and as a result, we have a much improved allocation for this important FA Cup tie”.

The rest is just common sense. Let´s follow both of them and hope that next post will be focused only on football, and not on hate or violence.

Allegations of racism in the Premier League are sadly becoming news. One of the most shocking incidents involves Liverpool´s Luis Suárez, who allegedly racially abused Manchester United´s Patrice Evra in a match that took place October 15th in Anfield.

If you are not familiar with what happened, it appears that Suárez kicked Evra, and when Evra asked why he had been so aggressive, Suárez reportedly said that “because you are black”. But the accusations do not stop here. The English Football Association report indicates that Suárez is alleged to have said “black” to Evra seven times in two minutes.

This not the only case of this nature taking place in the Premier league. Also in October, Chelsea´s John Terry reportedly used a racial slur against Queens Park Rangers Anton Ferdinand, although Terry denies it.

The English Football Association has already taken actions against both players, Terry and Suárez. Suárez has been banned for eight games; Liverpool has until January 13 to appeal if the club decides to do so. Terry faces a criminal charge, and his case will be heard at a London magistrate´s court in February.

But whatever the outcome, we can only conclude that it is a real shame that we have to continue talking about this issue, and now involving such great players from such emblematic teams. We hope that racism disappears, not only because of the popularity of the people involved in these incidents, or because the Olympics are getting closer, but because it is the right thing to do, and because London has to show the world that it is a city that embraces its multicultural component with maturity.