Bohs player accused of racsim.

**Dalymountrower** · 28/04/2009, 5:02 PM

Originally Posted by Dodge

Interesting question. Is a rascist worse than a cokehead?

Well one is guilty of a crime with mandatory sentencing etc, the other , unless the actions can be tied to little used "Incitement to Hatred " legislation, remains a civil law offence under Equality Legislation . Theres no specific aspect of the criminal code dealing with racism afaik and the Irish Government is now obliged to introduce such measures by November 2010 to comply with some European Directive or other. A timescale which they will push back to give them more time to dismantle all of the good work in this area by the Equality Authority over the past eight + years.

Should taking Coke deprive you of your livelihood as a footballer? It should merit a time ban alright with regular drug testing thereafter.
Not sure if theres an ongoing testing regime for alleged racists who have "reformed" ?
A junior Minister describing Turkish Workers as "Kebab Eaters" is apparently acceptable language in our national parliament...so who knows?

**brianw82** · 28/04/2009, 5:49 PM

Bohs have dealt with this well, IMO. If the committee finds their punishment to be acceptable, hopefully that will be the end of the matter and we can get on with football.

**Ezeikial** · 28/04/2009, 7:51 PM

More Fenlon Gems

"It's disappointing. It's disappointing that players are abused every week but what can you do? That's the way it is"

This is a weak and inadequate from Pat Fenlon - it's not disappointing it's simply unacceptable and Fenlon should say so!

"What we've done at this club before is that any problems we have in the dressing room are dealt with in the dressing room," said Fenlon.

Thats fair enough if the problem is in the dressing room - but this was on the pitch.

Would it be cyncial of me to think that Fenlon / Bohemians reactions are motivated by trying to avoid a ban, rather then a genuine recognition that racial abuse should not be tolerated.

**roversforever** · 28/04/2009, 8:12 PM

Im struggling to understand this attitude that bohs have dealt with it well. I was very disappointed with what fenlon said in the indo yesterday. What really bugged me was that he felt it was dealt with internally and should be left at that, In my opinion that was trying to protect the player because he hadn't even been officially named at that stage. The least i would expect is that the player be named and shamed,as has happened since but my immediate reaction after reading the article was that they were trying to get the player off very lightly,something that would also benefit themselves as in terms of him avoiding further suspension.

**Dodge** · 28/04/2009, 8:53 PM

Originally Posted by roversforever

Im struggling to understand this attitude that bohs have dealt with it well. I was very disappointed with what fenlon said in the indo yesterday

Fenlon isn't Bohs.

Bohs fined and suspended the player, and have submitted their info to the FAi for further action. They've made a point of saying that he apologised, and have re-iterated that they as a club abhor racism.

Not much more they can do until after the FAI hearing

**Rovers Maniac** · 28/04/2009, 8:56 PM

How long is he suspended for?

**Dodge** · 28/04/2009, 9:06 PM

Dunno, he missed Friday's game anyway

**R�iteoir** · 28/04/2009, 10:42 PM

Just knew it'd be some of the Rovers lot being the only ones to hurl their vitriol at Bohs like a Liverpool fan slinging ****e at the Mancs - should have whacked a few quid on it happening down at Paddy Power.

The club has handled this well - and actually acknowledged this as an issue - unlike another club who (I still believe) has a convicted hooligan on the board...

**WoodquayBoy** · 28/04/2009, 10:46 PM

Apart from certain quotes by Fenlon, I think Bohs are handling this very well, reaction was immediate, a lot better than the 'shush and it will go away' attitude of United when Mauro Almeida was racially abused by, ahem, 'fans', during his post match interview in Terryland last year. Bit of hand wringing for a week, then it disappeared off the radar. There is no difference between a player racially abusing somone and a fan doing the same

**Duffman** · 28/04/2009, 11:21 PM

I wonder will he be back in the Bohs team to mark Darren Mansaram on Friday night.

**Dodge** · 29/04/2009, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by Dalymountrower

Well one is guilty of a crime with mandatory sentencing etc, the other , unless the actions can be tied to little used "Incitement to Hatred " legislation, remains a civil law offence under Equality Legislation . Theres no specific aspect of the criminal code dealing with racism afaik and the Irish Government is now obliged to introduce such measures by November 2010 to comply with some European Directive or other. A timescale which they will push back to give them more time to dismantle all of the good work in this area by the Equality Authority over the past eight + years.

Should taking Coke deprive you of your livelihood as a footballer? It should merit a time ban alright with regular drug testing thereafter.
Not sure if theres an ongoing testing regime for alleged racists who have "reformed" ?
A junior Minister describing Turkish Workers as "Kebab Eaters" is apparently acceptable language in our national parliament...so who knows?

So you've become less hard on racists in the last month or so?

http://foot.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=114456

**CSFShels** · 29/04/2009, 12:48 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

So you've become less hard on racists in the last month or so?

http://foot.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=114456

Haha amazing.

**Dalymountrower** · 29/04/2009, 7:43 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalymountrower
In fairness to a lot of Rovers fans they have identified it as unacceptable racial abuse. I was simply trying to gauge the reaction without identifying the club or player.

Yeah that was my reference to how a lot of Rovers fans reacted to the racial abuse by their own number of N`do. I suggested a fine for such behaviour not lifetime bans, maybe you can point to something more specific in the thread rather than a general unsupported assertion

**Dalymountrower** · 29/04/2009, 7:45 AM

Originally Posted by CSFShels

Haha amazing.

Amazing that Rovers didn`t get fined or amazing that Dodge was ambiguous about whether the abuse heaped on N`do was racist or not?
Do tell.

**roversforever** · 29/04/2009, 8:46 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

Fenlon isn't Bohs.

Bohs fined and suspended the player, and have submitted their info to the FAi for further action. They've made a point of saying that he apologised, and have re-iterated that they as a club abhor racism.

Not much more they can do until after the FAI hearing

ok i accept your point but would you not agree that,as manager,fenlon is the public face of the club?Surely he should be backing what they've done rather than coming out with what he did in the indo?

**Dodge** · 29/04/2009, 9:11 AM

Originally Posted by roversforever

ok i accept your point but would you not agree that,as manager,fenlon is the public face of the club?Surely he should be backing what they've done rather than coming out with what he did in the indo?

Absolutely, but he's only concerned about how his team performs. He should've kept his mouth shut IMO, or simply stated that the club are dealing with it

**BohDiddley** · 29/04/2009, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by Ezeikial

Would it be cyncial of me to think that Fenlon / Bohemians reactions are motivated by trying to avoid a ban, rather then a genuine recognition that racial abuse should not be tolerated.

Yes. I think it would, because there is no evidence for that. Or, as has been the case with much discussion of the topic so far, you are more motivated by cheap point-scoring than by, as you put it, genuine concern about racism.

Why do you presume that the club does not recognise that racism shouldn't be tolerated?

**Ezeikial** · 29/04/2009, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

Fenlon isn't Bohs.

Bohs fined and suspended the player, and have submitted their info to the FAi for further action. They've made a point of saying that he apologised, and have re-iterated that they as a club abhor racism.

Not much more they can do until after the FAI hearing

You are right there Dodge - Fenlon isn't Bohs, he is merely the manager who has the frontline job in being responsible for the team (and their actions) he puts on the pitch.

When a manager speaks to the media, would you have us believe that he speaks in a personal capacity?

Fenlons pathetic utterances puts additional pressure on Bohemians and the FAI to deal more stridently with this admitted racial abuse.

**Dodge** · 29/04/2009, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by Ezeikial

When a manager speaks to the media, would you have us believe that he speaks in a personal capacity?

Absolutely, this is the LOI ffs. There are very few spin doctors about instructing club employees what to say, and what not to say. Without question what happened was a journo rang Pat and asked him for a quote. He didn't contact bohs looking for something official. You're reading far too much into it IMO

Absolutely the clubs should be held responsible for the actions and words of their managers, but lets not try and make out that this is some huge conspiracy. Dramaqueen ********ology...

**sonofstan** · 29/04/2009, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

Why do you presume that the club does not recognise that racism should be tolerated?

Best amend this before further point scoring, no?

i swore I'd keep out of this, because a discussion about race on a football message board is a recipe for raised blood pressure without a commensurable raising of consciousness: just to say, I think Bohs, so far, have handled this well, as have Sligo, who have not leapt into print with any point scoring ' Boco -my Race Abuse Hell' stories. McG deserves heavy sanctions from club and FAI, but calls for a lifetime ban are just silly.

The real issue about racism and irish football is nothing to do with the league: racist abuse from league supporters is rare enough, even if attitudes are a little naive. Where the issue really need to be dealt with is at schoolboy level where the next generation of irish footballers, a generation that should, by right, have a significant black cohort, is being formed. Kids at that age are a) more likely to suffer abuse and b) more likely to suffer as a consequence, even if 'just' from feeling of exclusion.