Tuesday 15th April - Swansea in-fight

It emerged, on Tuesday, that Swansea players once again have been in a fight during training. In January it was revealed that Chico Flores had picked up a brick during a row with Monk, back when monk was still active as a player. Just two weeks after Laudrup was sacked. Since then, Monk has taken over as an interim-manager, and now  the dressing room has been ripped apart by in-fighting between the players once again. According to the Daily Mail, Monk had organised a training game trying to get the Hull defeat out of the system. However, the plan was undermined by a training ground fight involving not less than six first-team players. To make the situation even worse for Monk, Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins witnessed the clash. 

Mark Clattenburg is the hot topic today as Chelsea launch racism allegation against the referee.

The English referee made some rather doubtful decisions on Sunday night, during the match between Chelsea  and Manchester United. Clattenburg stole the stage with two red cards and failing to see an obvious offside. The first red card is not to be questioned, while Fernando Torres received his second yellow card for a dive that never was. However, it was not the controversial decisions that caused most rage on Sunday.

After the match, Chelsea lodged a formal complaint against Clattenburg for, ironically, racism. Media, today has revealed what the referee should have said on the pitch. According to the Daily Mirror, Clattenburg is alleged to have called John Obi Mikel a 'monkey' while he named Juan Matta as a 'Spanish twat'.

Furthermore, Mikel should have tried to force his entry in to the referees dressing room, yelling that he would break his leg.

All this comes after the John Terry saga finally seemed to be forgotten and will not be well accepted in the F.A., however; it was known today that Juan Matta never heard the referee calling him a 'Spanish twat' and this has raised doubt whether there has been any racism at all. According to Romeu, “Neither Juan nor Fernando [Torres] told me they heard it because from what I have understood they didn’t hear anything."

Clattenburg, who has denied the allegations, will now be investigated by the London Metropolitan Police, as well as The F.A.. The football world, will be following this closely. If it is proved that Mark Clattenburg has acted unprofessional and racist against the Chelsea players the F.A. will have to take action. John Terry was punished hard, even though the police cleared his name, and if the Football Association doesn't penalise Clattenburg just as hard they will be a laughing joke. That if he has acted as blamed.

The Kick It Out campaign has existed since the start of the 90's, but given the latest events in the Premier League question raises if racism has been kicked out of football?

A number of players boycotted the campaign in the weekend, and denied wearing the Kick It Out T-shirt during their warm-up. Anton Ferdinand, who was the one side of the John Terry saga, was one of the players who ditch the shirt. The same matters for Rio Ferdinand as well as the whole Swansea squad. However, more and more players, especially black, has denied wearing the shirt since 2007.

But how has the a campaign with such a great message, gone so wrong? Well, one of the reasons why is the shared feeling amongst black players, that KIO is not doing enough to battle racism. Joleon Lescott was the first player to refuse to wear the shirt, after his involvement in the Joseph Yobo vs. Emre Belozoglu. Emre was not punished in the racism case, even though Lescott had given written evidence.

The weekend's protest is more or less a result of the John Terry saga, as many of the players feels that the Chelsea captain was getting off easy from his alleged racism case. Furthermore, we see a tendency of more and more racial abuse in the Premier League, and it seems that Kick It Out and the F.A. have trouble stopping it.
 

Since Kick It Out was established there has been at least fifteen incidents of racism - which we know of - and several of them has either been without any intervention from KIO or have ended without any or a small punishment.

The message of keeping racism out of football has been shattered the last couple of years, and it seems unlikely that the body behind can collect all the pieces and reestablish it to was it was; at least in England. However, racism has to be KICKED out of football, but some new initiatives have to be made - fast! As Sir Alex Ferguson says:.

"This is a moment where we have to take stock. I think we should do something about it if it's surfacing again, and be really hard and firm on any form or shape of racism."

The trial against John Terry, charged with a racially-aggravated public order offence, started yesterday at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court. Has the Terry-case gone too far?

Racism is never okay; not even on a football pitch. But for me, the case against John Terry has gone too far. There is no doubt that the Chelsea-defender shall be punished, and The FA has already stripped the England Captaincy of him. The question is if what happens of a football pitch should be judged as a public order offence.

John Terry has always been one of Premier Leagues ‘Bad boys’ and the trial, which has been requested by the public, seems  as a revenge for the defenders past. The defender suffers under, not just his own mistakes, but also his family’s as his father has been accused of dealing drugs while his mother and sister is accused of shoplifting. At this moment, it may sound as I am a fan of the Chelsea player, but please believe me, as an Arsenal fan through many years John Terry is not a favorite player at all. I would love to see him go down, but not like this.

Terry is risking a fine of £2500, which for he will be able to pay in less than a day’s work. This seems downright ridicules to me, as well. First of all, he should not be judged by the public law but by The FA. Second of all racism should be punished much harder. Luis Suarez was banned and fined hard by the Football Association, but Ferdinand has not been punished yet. It is obviously that FA is waiting for the Westminster Magistrates' Court’s decision, but it should not be necessary. If they believe he is guilty, they should punish him just as they punished Suarez.

If Terry is found guilty, my fear is that we will see a lot of situations as this in the future. What happens on the pitch should be judged by the Football Association and not a court. Even though, some will argue me wrong, situations happening on the football pitch are different from the situations happening on the streets. Football is a contact sport and sometimes a sportsman says wrong things in frustration.  My hope is that the court will set things apart!

The trial is scheduled to end on Friday, until then we can only wait and see.