Chelsea must take a zero tolerance policy on racism and player misbehaviour, writes Naveenan Thanendra.
Following a memorable victory for Chelsea in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday, we were unfortunately reminded that while we berate nations like Serbia for their fans’ racism, we are still struggling to exterminate it from our game.
The image in this instance was the picture of a Chelsea fan taunting Danny Welbeck with a “monkey” gesture. While, Chelsea isn’t solely to blame for this nation’s failings in this respect, it was simply the latest in a string of untoward events associated with the club.
For a team that professes to have zero tolerance on the issues of racism and inappropriate behaviour, there seems to be mixed signals being demonstrated about their overall stance, despite what their words may state.
While I am sure they will provide 100 per cent assistance to the police in bringing this miscreant to justice it is their handling of in-house, and in particular personnel issues that is not good enough and is fundamentally clouding their stance.
In recent years, I can only vividly remember one Chelsea player getting the appropriate punishment for their ridiculous actions. That player was youngster Jacob Mellis, who set off a smoke grenade as a prank to force an evacuation of the training ground.
He was rightly sacked but his co-conspirator, youth team player Billy Clifford, only received a fine for bringing the smoke grenade to the ground.
This was just one of many insufficient punishments that Chelsea have dished out over the years.
In January 2011, Ashley Cole shot an intern with an air rifle and only received a “severe dressing down” to go with a £250,00 fine (equivalent to 2 weeks wages). Not only was this inadequate for what he had done, but it was the first blatant example of a disparity in punishment to their ‘big names,’ especially when there was a clearer intention to harm.
Some may argue that there was a inconsistency because the Mellis incident occurred 12 months later but it must be said that the precedent for punishment was set by the Cole case.
It could even be proposed that it is naïve to think that the senior players would be treated the same, but ultimately they are the ones that the public have a greater focus on and as such should be dealt with more vigour.
Especially when we consider the biggest culprit of all, multiple offender, John Terry. Controversy follows him around: Requesting £10,000 for a “behind-the-scenes” tour of the training ground; gibing at American tourists shortly after September 11th 2001 and most recently of all “using abusive and/or insulting words… which included a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Ferdinand.”
So surely a club that so publicly declares their no holds barred attitude to this kind of behaviour would send a character like that packing. Evidently not. The maximum punishment that the club has levied on John Terry for those offences is a fine. They have even had the audacity to keep him on as captain and as such, the face of their team. He is the type of character that Chelsea feel is suitable to lead them both on and off the pitch.
So, while Chelsea may say, “the club firmly believes such language is not acceptable and fell below the standards expected of John as a Chelsea player,” their actions suggest otherwise.
This is something that has apparently been noted by their fans. They demonstrated as such by booing of Rio Ferdinand on Sunday, who earned such treatment for quite reasonably defending his brother following the abuse he received from the person the Stamford Bridge faithful call “Captain, Leader, Legend” on one of their most prominent banners in the ground. This is exactly the kind of message that is resonating from the club.
The sad thing is that football is so engrained in our society now that until more reasonable punishments are handed out to the players that represent the club and its values, then it will be hard to expect their fans to behave any different, as their passion will lead them to defend their heroes through almost any situation.
That aside, I would also expect the club to be cautious about the value of their brand and particularly the image of the players, which represent said brand, portrays.
The sad thing is that while they are demonstrating such tremendous ability on the pitch, their brand is being tarnished by those that represent it, so more must be done by Chelsea to help perpetuate the message of what is right and wrong to both its players and its fans.
Do Chelsea need to get tougher on all player and fan behaviour? Should Terry remain captain?
image: © Ronnie Macdonald
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