Unofficial Halesowen Town FC Forum

Are goalkeepers not reporting being called a Fat Bastard every week to the referee, refs must hear it every week but never report it most of them are never fat except the odd one but it's still said.

KenR wrote: ↑

17 Mar 2024, 20:06

I used to play nearly every week against West Indian, Pakistani or Indian sides and we were always referred to as white bastards. We just accepted it as spoken . I really do think that too much is made out of homophobic, rascist or disparaging remarks and that they are blown up out of all proportion and could be ignored.

But the key thing is used to. It wasnt acceptable then and isnt now. The issue with ignoring it, makes it become acceptable. Imagine Miracle, by way of example, having to tolerate the abuse now, that Regis, Cunningham and Batson had to face. Week in, week out. Bullets in the post, if you put an England shirt on. Where does that stop??

By all means give opposition teams stick and vice versa but gender, sexuality and colour are a big no for me. However, Ive seen our fans shout "keeper your shit" etc etc. Wtf is that about? Theyre playing. Way to gee them up. Usually shouted by someone just above the brain level of an amoeba.

Sheesh.

I wasn’t going to overly concern myself with the club statement as it was seemingly one eejit (and not necessarily one of ours) but the opinions/comments on display since have become a bit worrying, if I’m honest.

We don’t need to break down the remarks and debate their meaning and offensiveness - they’re just downright unacceptable and have no place at the football.

Halesowen has always been a great place to watch football - the fans have understood “banter”. These last few seasons, people are getting increasingly more profane, and it’s not on. We should all work against that and protect what makes this club so great.

Personally, thick skin and rhino wise, I wouldn't care what I was called. That said, quite rightly so nobody should be called out for any of the reasons that have been mentioned. Everyone should be able to attend without feeling victimised or unwelcome. But, and it's becoming a big but, it is getting to to a stage, not necessarily this occasion as I have no idea what was said, where the fun is being taken out of banter. Not just at the football but everywhere. People are becoming frightened to say anything. I appreciate that things are taken too far, but sometimes people are just looking for it. I would hate the banter to be taken out of football, it's one of the reasons I love it.

I think that the concept of "banter" is overstated and, like many things in sport and life, riddled with false nostalgia.

For every great moment of terrace wit over the last 40+ years (and I'm struggling to think of any specific examples if I'm honest), there are a million examples of "tragedy chanting", tediously dull insults, pointless aggression and filth, and sometimes, outright verbal assaults that would get you arrested on the street.

As white, heterosexual, middle-aged, British men, our only role is to not do it and condemn it. We can't even sympathise or empathise as we have no idea of the lived experience.

I think that we should probably knock further discussion on the head until more is known.

YeltzDoc wrote: ↑

18 Mar 2024, 11:22

I think that the concept of "banter" is overstated and, like many things in sport and life, riddled with false nostalgia.

For every great moment of terrace wit over the last 40+ years (and I'm struggling to think of any specific examples if I'm honest), there are a million examples of "tragedy chanting", tediously dull insults, pointless aggression and filth, and sometimes, outright verbal assaults that would get you arrested on the street.

As white, heterosexual, middle-aged, British men, our only role is to not do it and condemn it. We can't even sympathise or empathise as we have no idea of the lived experience.

I think that we should probably knock further discussion on the head until more is known.

A wonderful and elegantly put post. I'm disappointed at some of the comments on here, and other social media, I've read over the past 24 hours.

Thanks Josh, but let's not rake over it at this time.

Happy to put it to bed and will do. However, I will say, I thought we were all having a sensible discussion on here, as adults should, so bit lost by Josh's post there. More than happy if you wanna clarify by pm bud.

Sorry I was just catching up, so apologies for adding to the thread.

Apart from condemning any possible inexcusable remarks, YeltzDoc's point about insults and verbal attacks is a really good and important one.

Some fans think that by going to a game, it gives them a right to swear at, insult and abuse players and officials, when they would never dare to do it face to face out of a game environment.

It always riles me how officials at our level come in for such abuse. I understand frustrations at incorrect decisions or poor performances, but that shouldn't really be supplemented with expletives and verbal insults aimed at individuals. Without officials, we wouldn't even have a game to watch, and people watching often seem to think they know better for some reason.

I recall reading a piece last year about negative chanting (verbal attacks on opponents and officials, but without racism, homophobia, sexism etc), and how it is as prevalent, if not more so, than positive chanting. It's so true, it just seems crazy that in this day and age, things haven't moved forwards for the better.