Shouting abuse at footballers

[raoul]

Maybe there's another thread re Sterling specifically but I wanted to share thoughts.

It seems to me that a fair few football fans let rip at football matches. It seems worst at the actual ground but I've seen it at the pub almost as bad. And some players seem to get it a lot more than others. Worth noting that managers and opposition fans also get plenty ... a lot of this is just passion getting out but some of it is way over the line.

The question is this. Is Sterling getting abuse because of his colour? Or is he somehow unlikable as a person?

Seems some players attract abuse more than others and once fans have picked you out they select any attribute that is easy (e.g. colour) and use it?

Beckham for his wife, for example.

Whilst I am sure there are some who are doing this as racists, I suspect Sterling has become a target for other reasons. Is it media? Is it his supposedly poor performances at the WC? His demands for a big contract?

I really don't know. Maybe he just isn't the type of "bloke" fans feel they can associate with?

[Zimmerman]

I’m guessing they are calling him a black bustard because of his skin colour.

The media (and social media) hasn’t helped him though.

The way he is portrayed makes it acceptable to attack him. We see it all the time. It’s bullying (like you see in a schoolyard or workplace). The more you see someone attacked, the more acceptable it is to join in.

I think Liverpool fans (the majority) have loathed him since he bailed out on us.

a) I don’t agree with them
b) I completely understood him leaving
c) I’ve never booed him
d) I have laughed/jeered when he has failed to deliver or been substituted against us
e) never heard him racially abused

The case he himself highlighted this week between the two tough players at City was a perfect illustration.

He himself has been painted in this way too.
If you compare and contrast his portrayal (as a father of 8 (it’s two) and his fiancée who is a girl he has been with since his QPR days... yet we have an image of a womanising ‘typical footballer’ who impregnates anyone who makes eye contact.

Versus Harry Kane the hard working professional setting up a future with his childhood sweetheart

[murf]

The way he left Liverpool caused the loathing, similar to Owen who was, err, white. Sterling was seen as a prime example of a money grabbing, spoilt, young footballer. Not entirely true but enough mud stick. Was that stereotyping wirse because he was black? Maybe but you can never know for sure.

As to the 2 lads at City, was it because one was black or because the white one is a known talent and nobody knows the other one? Again we don't know for sure.

Probably an element of racial stereotyping in both cases but both are poor examples to prove racism because of the other factors.

[Spinynorman]

Whatever the reason whatever the colour it all shows that some people (the fans in this instance) are just vile horrible people.

[raoul]

Whatever the reason whatever the colour it all shows that some people (the fans in this instance) are just vile horrible people.

On that point I think we all agree.

[Mo Bot]

Regarding Sterling, I see three main possibilities.

1. It is because he is black
2. It is because of the way he left Liverpool
3. It is because of the wasteful way he can miss opportunities for goals.
Maybe all 3 combined brings the abuse.

I think Gary Neville summed it up pretty well last night with the comparisons with Ashley Cole, Gazza and Beckham. They all got the grief when things went wrong but Cole didn't get the plaudits when he had a blinder. I think it's the same with Sterling to an extent.

On a personal level, I have shouted racist abuse before. About 25 years ago I shouted at an opposition player. I didn't think about it, it wasn't pre-planned and I don't consider myself to be a racist person at all and I don't have any excuses. It's a copout to say it was the heat of the moment but at that precise time it really was. I selected his skin colour rather than his team or lack of skill or anything else to differentiate him. It also doesn't matter that he didn't hear it and neither did the rest of the crowd.

I stopped going to games for a while a few years ago and since I started back I've not heard any racist abuse at all.

[forestfan]

The way the media have portrayed his lifestyle certainly has an effect, whether that is specifically racially motivated or not.

His often disappointing England performances have also fuelled it to an extent, as has leaving one “big” club for another, there’s no single cause, but a number of things combine to make him a target. Compare with John Barnes, who did obviously receive racist abuse at times, and there was a lot more of it in his day than now, but most of the people booing him were just doing so because a succession of England managers kept picking him time after time when he hadn’t had a good game for his country in years!