muttley
Alert Team
If we publicly called Rudiger a liar wouldn’t he have to prove the existence of racial chants/actions in order to defend his accusations.
We are still pussyfooting around this race thing . It’s abhorrent in any walk of life , any abuse of a person on any level is abhorrent.
But we shouldn’t be running scared on the first hint of it .
The only people who heard the “abuse” in the stadium, full of thousands in that area , was Rudiger and someone on twitter who “thought he heard it .
Was Rudiger isolated in that area at the time , the only player within twenty yards of any body else ? No .
No stewards , who are trained to listen for that sort of thing , heard it .
No fans in the area have said they heard it , there is a great post on this thread from a fan who emailed Donna Cullen and put his name and face in the frame, saying he didn’t hear it.
No officials heard it , but still used the wrong protocol to make the allegations seem worse by having three announcements made over the tannoy (that made it appear that it was an ongoing incident) .
Part of Rudigers claim is clearly that spectators were not only making obscene animal chants but were actually acting out the actions of the animal.
You don’t need lip readers to identify that .
If he saw it , and he clearly “demonstrated”his allegations , as caught in numerous photos , where is the evidence of that . If the noise of the racial abuse could not be heard , which may be understandable (!) then the ACTION of the racial abuse that he saw MUST be clearly visible .
But obviously isn’t .
So to sum up
All Sky’s cameras and microphones didn’t pick it up .
The most sophisticated of CCTV operations didn’t pick it up .
Trained Stewards didnt pick it up .
Spectators in the area didn’t pick it up ( one reported on Twitter that he might have heard it)
Players on the pitch didn’t pick it up .
Officials didn’t pick it up .
Nobody SAW any offending actions either at the time or since .
The Met have found no evidence .
The Chavs have brought no evidence in support of their player .
Yet they are saying that just because of all the above , it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen !
Why don’t we all stop pussyfooting about and say to him , “ look Toni old son , why don’t you just take the opportunity to say it’s possible that you are wrong and say sorry “
But that would just be churlish . Wouldn’t it
All of this is purely my personal opinion , which as we all know counts for nothing .
Rant over
Look, I absolutely get it.
I think Rudiger did call the race card. He also went into a tackle with a closed fist and an open hand with the latter being on the side the ball was at. I interpreted that as premeditated and classless in itself, and had no delusions about his character when he starts the shenanigans during the sending off incident. I also wish he played in the era when I did and was out for the next few weeks after being slippered in the next 20 mins. I did and I bet you did.
I did have a good proof point earlier today though that our communication approach was good. I was chatting with one of my 50 something Siekh mates after the gym this morning. An Arsenal fan for his sins. He was crystal clear that he thought Rudiger had played the race card. That to me proves the communication machine is working correctly and that the emphasis has been put back on Rudiger.
Whilst there's been no locking up and throwing away the key, it is Rudiger that has come out of this badly in the eyes of the public. I was trying to figure out whether "you let anti-racism down" was an appropriate chant for the away fans in the forthcoming game against the 2 sides. It probably isn't :-)