The Stuart Pearce racism story makes John Terry and Luis Suarez laugh
STUART Pearce – nickname: Psycho – has taken charge of England post-Capello. Stuart’s mastery of the English language makes him a shoo-in for the job – albeit a man bettered only by Harry Redknapp and his Sun column that could be written by a two-year-old. But things are looking bleak for Pearce.
The Sun’s front page story reads “England in race storm No. 2“. The paper trawls the history books and finds an 18-year-old story that Pearce, then with Nottingham Forest, apologised for allegedly racially abusing Manchester United’s Paul Ince during a match in 1994.
It was the game at United’s Old Trafford. Pearce shared the same Forest colours with Des Lyttle, Bryan Roy and Stan Collymore. Did Pearce racially abuse his black teammates? No. As a manager, has he picked players on the strength of their colour? No.
Before the Stephen Lawrence murder, football’s Kick It Out campaign and Sir William Macpherson’s new definition of racism (it’s racism if you say it is), people knew that racism was wrong.
The Sun adds:
PFA chief Gordon Taylor said then: “Stuart will be ringing Paul to apologise. Stuart regrets what he said. It was in the heat of the moment. He wants to make sure everybody knows he is sorry.”
How times change. This was what Taylor had to say when he heard Fifa President Sepp BLatter’s view that things said in the heat of the moment should be made good a with handshake:
“…he doesn’t understand how divisive racism is. Saying that anyone on the receiving end should just treat it as part of the game and shake hands, it’s outrageous. He’s just not with it.”
Was Stuart Peace banned for any matches, like Liverpool’s Luis Suarez? No. Did Ince show the referee the imaginary yellow card and demand that Pearce be dealt with in the most severe way, like Manchester United’s Patrice Evra did? No. Was there a court case that cost Pearce his England career, like there is for John Terry’s alleged racially abuse of QPR’s Anton Ferdinand? No. Did football become more racist as a result of an apology over an allegedly racist comment? No.
Did Perce and Ince show solid camaraderie when England made it to the Euro 96 Semi Final? Yes.
The difference is that the media does not like John Terry, who tried to shut them up with a super-injunction. (Terry really does get some crap advice.) And Luis Suarez is like Fabio Capello -a funny foreigner who doesn’t realise how much better we are than them.
The Sun adds:
“Pearce’s brother Dennis is a member of the ultra-Right British National Party, for whom he has stood as a Parliamentary candidate.”
And what does that have to do with Stuart Pearce? Nothing. It’s just that when you’re England manager, the media love to hate you.
Over to you, Harry Redknapp…
Posted: 10th, February 2012 | In: Key Posts, Sports Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
