As are most things. Sending a message that this is unacceptable at a game is a worthwhile one in comparison to doing nothing and inadvertantly encouraging it. We could argue that football itself takes up a massively disproportionate amount of media attention, but here we are with it being massively popular and so within that setting there are rules to be adhered to.

I know that posts that start with "What about......" are a bit tedious. All the same, what about other aspects of football crowd behaviour that aren't welcome at games? As we all know, "fans" routinely wave a finger, make w**nking gestures and V signs, sing "your support is f*cking sh*t", and so on. Even though they are blatantly infringing against the ground regulations in full view of stewards, police, TV cameras, manager, directors and journalists, not a soul says a word about it.

I accept what an earlier poster said, namely, that racist gestures and chants are different in that they insult a whole tribe or human type (I can't think of another word for race), but the chasm between the shrug of the shoulders for one class of offensive behaviour and a near-emotional breakdown for another smacks to me slightly of hypocrisy.

A fair point. It's likely as much about what's workable and how targetted it is. Racially abusing a player. whether it's the conduct of this tosser, or someone thinking monkey noises or bananas thrown on a pitch is a laugh, crosses a line with most I would say, whereas calling someone a w***er is a bit of a meaningless equal opportunity insult. It was captured on camera (and possibly even seen by Son at the time), and I would say that behaving like this towards an Asian in other settings is hardly decent behaviour. The club had little choice.

I get what you mean about what is allowed to go on and what isn't, but I'm pretty sure Palace don't want to be seen as the club where this conduct is encouraged through lack of action. The bloke got the kind of response you'd expect when racially targetting a sportsman before a global audience. Consequence for crap behaviour is a good learning opportunity.

Edited by footythoughts (12 May 2023 4.37pm)

Indeed. In the public sphere with some there's perfectly valid comment about the level of punishment that should be dished out, and in more disingenuous quarters it's as much about being scared that there is consequence for the type of conduct that they may well align with or their ego is based in (feeling 'better' than this group or that) and wanting to be able to live that fantasy out with impunity. As you say, any other outcome than a ban of some length wouldn't make much sense and would be a bad reflection on the club. He let the club down and was suitably sent packing.

Edited by footythoughts (12 May 2023 5.28pm)

You have unintentionally hit the nail on the head.

Our standards are now governed by commercial interests.

You see it every day.

You might think that is a force for good, but I say it is simple a force for the self interest of business. Sadly it isn't yours if you are White ,male, heterosexual and don't own a multi national.

The potential global market consists of only 10% Whites and advertisements are generally aimed at Women and minorities. Those are the ones who wish to feel empowered and therefore are the easiest meat.

You might think that our new puritanical world is a step towards utopia but look under the surface and something ugly lurks.

Where some have ego and self worth set in the need to feel superior to certain groups, it is indeed unfortunately too much to ask. That will be true a percentage and you can readily tell who by where their focus habitually lies. Such people are certainly one facet of those most obsessed by this stadium ban. Those questioning the severity of the ban of course make a reasonable point about how seriously or otherwise it should be treated though.

I'd say Hrolf certainly has a point regarding commercial interests, but it's worth considering that there can be both local and global aspects to that. Locally I wouldn't automatically assume that the majority of fans are happy with this man's behaviour - we're hardly in cross section territory here. Ultimately, nobody with any sense wants bellends like this popping up every time we're playing doing racially abusive faces as way of reflecting the clubs and its values. We're better than that. He should slink off for a while and learn some basic values and common decency.

Edited by footythoughts (13 May 2023 1.10am)