Jason Roberts...Do you sometimes find him annoying?!

[blueroyals]

Funny how Jason Roberts' decision to not wear a t-shirt has generated us more media attention in 3 days than the whole season thus far.

[loyalroyaldaz]

Jason Roberts ‏@JasonRoberts30
Funny....People asking ME not to RT...I've seen it!..Why not you?...does it make you feel uncomfortable..? Welcome to my life..

Doing bugger all for most of the day other than enjoying the wealth you have achieved from playing under the organisition you now believe is inherently racist and discriminates against black players?
Not a bad life eh??
Im sure 99% of us on here would swap with you any day.
Two incidents in a year does not constitute a culture of racism and i dont believe either player to be rascist, stupid maybe, but not racist.
Save it until you retire Jason and then maybe yourself and Rio can but some of that aquired wealth into something you think can do better.

What really gets my fecking back up is anybody who dares to dissagree with you is automatically assumed to be racist by some of the bellends on here.

Its called freedom of speech you gimps and your ridiculous protestations are as ignorant as the Racists themselves.

[ZacNaloen]

"terrific progress"???? Really?????

How much more progress might a properly-funded and effective organisation have made? And by this I mean "real, actual progress" - progress that achieves something.

Yes really,


Racism in football is punished more heavily than it is by the Criminal justice system of the united kingdom.

That's some progress considering a few short years ago no one talked about it and there were no punishments. Or do you think that this is a first time Terry has called someone a "black oxf*rd" on the football pitch?

[peterroyal76]

Several more players from QPR and Everton aren't wearing the KIO tshirts. I personally can't understand why the players are aiming their anger at KIO. The FA surely make and enforce the rules. KIO raise awareness and campaign for change.

[marcusopp]

Several more players from QPR and Everton aren't wearing the KIO tshirts. I personally can't understand why the players are aiming their anger at KIO. The FA surely make and enforce the rules. KIO raise awareness and campaign for change.

Because it's a waste of time. It's been set up so it appears the FA cares about racism, when it clearly doesn't, but as long as the powers that be can 'prove' they're doing something that's enough for them to say 'we're actively trying to stop racism in football (by setting up a mickey mouse organisation and giving it no funding or power)'.

[SPARTA]

This has gone too far.

Paranormal Blacktivity?

[Jay o/]

[loyalroyaldaz]

Several more players from QPR and Everton aren't wearing the KIO tshirts. I personally can't understand why the players are aiming their anger at KIO. The FA surely make and enforce the rules. KIO raise awareness and campaign for change.

Because it's a waste of time. It's been set up so it appears the FA cares about racism, when it clearly doesn't, but as long as the powers that be can 'prove' they're doing something that's enough for them to say 'we're actively trying to stop racism in football (by setting up a mickey mouse organisation and giving it no funding or power)'.

Absolute Bollox

[Rex]

This has gone too far.

Paranormal Blacktivity?

John Terry approves of any form of diving.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

"terrific progress"???? Really?????

How much more progress might a properly-funded and effective organisation have made? And by this I mean "real, actual progress" - progress that achieves something.

Yes really,


Racism in football is punished more heavily than it is by the Criminal justice system of the united kingdom.

That's some progress considering a few short years ago no one talked about it and there were no punishments. Or do you think that this is a first time Terry has called someone a "black oxf*rd" on the football pitch?

And you really think that that's down to KIO dishing out t-shirts once a year?

[Upper West Ginger]

Overt racism in English football is much less prevalent than it was 15 - 20 years ago, and the Kick It Out campaign does a fair job in keeping the issue in the public consciousness.

However there is still much to do in terms of eliminating the covert racism which still exists within football. The scarcity of black managers at the highest level of the game is obvious for all to see. Is there some unwritten law that only white Europeans are fit to manage a football club?

Like it or not, Jason Roberts already had a media presence when we employed him, and he is using that fact to highlight an issue about which he feels particularly strongly. I can only hold him in the greatest respect for this. More power to him, I say. (Oh, and can he score some more goals please!).

[ZacNaloen]

"terrific progress"???? Really?????

How much more progress might a properly-funded and effective organisation have made? And by this I mean "real, actual progress" - progress that achieves something.

Yes really,


Racism in football is punished more heavily than it is by the Criminal justice system of the united kingdom.

That's some progress considering a few short years ago no one talked about it and there were no punishments. Or do you think that this is a first time Terry has called someone a "black oxf*rd" on the football pitch?

And you really think that that's down to KIO dishing out t-shirts once a year?

Are you seriously making the argument that that is all Kick it out does?

[ZacNaloen]

Kick it outs own statement on the matter

[UK] Kick It Out statement
Friday 19 Oct 2012
On the eve of Kick It Out's first round of fixtures to celebrate its annual One Game, One Community weeks of action, the campaign is heartened and encouraged by the support of not only high-profile and well-respected people within the game, but groups and individuals at all levels of football, and external partners and supporters too.

As a small campaigning charity, we rely on people's goodwill and time to help reaffirm our message of football for all, irrespective of colour, creed, background, age, faith, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

The past 12 months has seen our area of work become mainstream news in a way not witnessed for many seasons. During this, certain myths and misinformation about Kick It Out's remit have been laid down.

Kick It Out works in partnership with the game's governing bodies, representative bodies, leagues, clubs, players and supporters to raise awareness about inequality and discrimination.

This is done through our Mentoring and Leadership Project, our work with the Gypsy Roma Traveller community, our work in tackling antisemitism, our seminars on faith, our work in increasing Asian participation in the game, and our work in Young Offenders Institutes and community settings.

We are not a decision-making organisation with power and resource as some people think, and can only work effectively in the context of these partnerships. We want to look forward to the weeks of action, but crucially beyond that, to ensure we can assist the decision makers in bringing swift, decisive action to perpetrators of discrimination.

We thank everyone involved for their continued support and look forward to a successful weeks of action.

[loyalroyaldaz]

Overt racism in English football is much less prevalent than it was 15 - 20 years ago, and the Kick It Out campaign does a fair job in keeping the issue in the public consciousness.

However there is still much to do in terms of eliminating the covert racism which still exists within football. The scarcity of black managers at the highest level of the game is obvious for all to see. Is there some unwritten law that only white Europeans are fit to manage a football club? .

Wrong
Percentage of uk population that is black/mixed race = 2.2 %
Percentage of black/mixed race managers in English professional leagues =1.9%

Pretty consistent if you ask me...

[Alexander Litvinenko]

I think Show Racism the Red Card deserves far, far more of the credit for changes in the game - but they're not funded from inside football (except a small donation from the PFA) so what they can do is appropriate and make a difference.

Kick It Out is almost wholly funded from within football, and so has to kow-tow to its leaders and not ruffle feathers. A couple of years ago KIO virtually ran out of funds and had to apply to the PL for "emergency funding" to stay in business. In the same way that the PL funds Supporters Direct and other advocacy and representative organisations in the game, there's a tacit understanding that the funding comes as long as you don't make too many waves and don't criticise the funders or what they stand for.

KIO won't ruffle feathers because they know they'll lose their funding again .....they need funding without strings attached to be effective. And *that's* the key argument.

[Royal Rother]

why does reading keep signing outspoken retards...

The use of the last word in the extract above is pretty abhorrent afaiac, but the reason is probably that we look for players with a higher than average intelligence for a footballer.

Listen to interviews with Reading players, and then listen to interviews with England players. Big difference.

England players almost without exception talk in cliches every bloody time. It's utterly pathetic imo. Retard ain't far away from being an apt description for some of that lot.

Our players tend to have minds of their own. Most of the time that's a good thing.

[Upper West Ginger]

Overt racism in English football is much less prevalent than it was 15 - 20 years ago, and the Kick It Out campaign does a fair job in keeping the issue in the public consciousness.

However there is still much to do in terms of eliminating the covert racism which still exists within football. The scarcity of black managers at the highest level of the game is obvious for all to see. Is there some unwritten law that only white Europeans are fit to manage a football club? .

Wrong
Percentage of uk population that is black/mixed race = 2.2 %
Percentage of black/mixed race managers in English professional leagues =1.9%

Pretty consistent if you ask me...

That would be a valid argument if the racial mix of professional footballers matched that of the population as a whole. It doesn't though, as there are far more black and Asian footballers playing at the highest level than 2.2%. With a few exceptions, the accepted route into football management is to have been a professional footballer. So there is a sharp contrast between the percentage of top-class black and Asian players and the percentage of top-class black and Asian managers. I don't have a racial breakdown of the English professional leagues, but in the case of our own team it is around 25% black and Asian players.

[tink]

According to wikipedia the demographics of the UK show that in fact only 87.5% of the UK population are white british/irish or other, which means that 12.5% of the population is asian/black/chinese/mixed.

I don't know what that means - statistics can tell you whatever you want to hear.

Personally, I don't think that the lack of black managers is a race issue per se, but as has been pointed out already, managers are usually picked from the pool of ex-professionals. The number of black players in the game has increased considerably in the last 20 years, and I therefore see no reason why the number of black managers should not steadily start to increase in the future as well. The number of black ex-pros is currently quite limited, but in say, 10 years, there will be a considerably larger pool of black players to draw from.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

So there are too many in football then, rather than not enough in management.

FWIW managing is different to playing, perhaps they make great players but not so good managers. Paul Ince could be used as an example, great player but not up to the Prem as a manager.

What is needed is Charlton to go up, personally would love that, then again he is just a bloke and doing well, nothing to do with colour, but talent.

[adief]

The number of black players in the game has increased considerably in the last 20 years, and I therefore see no reason why the number of black managers should not steadily start to increase in the future as well. The number of black ex-pros is currently quite limited, but in say, 10 years, there will be a considerably larger pool of black players to draw from.

Sure, but I strongly doubt anyone will want to hire Jason Roberts as manager, after he's caused all this commotion.
Nobody likes bad publicity.
Chairmen will know that if they hire him as manager, every single week he'll go off on some black supremacist rubbish in the media.

What bad publicity exactly? The only person in football who seems to think that JR's comments were inappropriate was Alex Ferguson and he opened his mouth before engaging his brain.....look at the embarrassing position he now finds himself in with his nonsense about "dealing with" Rio F.

....and as for "black supremacist...." - good grief.