For the last few months, this site has attacked Liverpool FC fan’s group ‘Spirit if Shankly’ for its juvenile, counter-productive approach to ousting Liverpool FC’s owners. After raising awareness, putting SOS under public pressure and showing how the majority of fans are against their ‘Yank Liars Out!’ campaign, it seems that SOS has now realized that in order to be taken seriously, organized mob-mentality is not the right way to do things.
The issue of how SOS chooses to represent Liverpool fans has been debated in the following threads over the last few months:
GILLETT'S COMMENTS: Amid the Xenophobia + sensationalism, fans are missing one important thing…
GEORGE GILLETT interview: Did it REALLY happen? I'm not so sure. And here's why...
POLL: Is Spirit of Shankly's xenophobic “YANK LIARS OUT” approach compatible with the ‘Liverpool Way’?
POLL: “YANK LIARS OUT”: Is SOS’s approach compatible with the ‘Liverpool Way’ doing things?
In the post "George Gillett interview: Did it really happen" my ulterior motive was to draw out representatives of SOS onto a public forum in order to engage them in discussion about their ‘Yank Liars Out’ mantra. This worked, and in that thread, Graham Smith (Secretary of SOS) demanded that I print a retraction for the story. I replied offering SOS the following deal:
“I have a deal for you: remove all references to YANKS from your site and literature (including Yank Liars out! etc) and promise Liverpool fans that such derogatory terms will not be used again, and I will remove the article from my site”.
Graham replied:
“No, sorry it doesn't work like that. You have published an article that makes allegations of fabrication, fraud and embellishment without any evidence of your own. You now try and squirm away from this by linking a retraction to the Union's website and campaign tactics. Well this sort of sleight of hand will not work”.
As I said above, my goal was to anger SOS reps to the extent that they felt the need to defend the organization in public, which is what they did. Having done that, I could raise the issue of their derogatory approach to Hicks and Gillett in public, capture their responses for the record, and allow other fans the chance to directly challenge them in a public forum.
Liverpool fans voted in our poll and made their position very clear:
1600 fans have voted so far, and the majority are clearly in favour of SOS becoming a more professional organization.
Well, this concerted pressure on SOS seems to have worked. In an interview with Gareth Roberts’ LFC blog ‘Well Red’, the following question was asked:
WR: The use of the word 'Yanks' on the SOS website and in banners/literature etc has been highlighted by some critics who accuse the union of being xenophobic. What's your response?
To which SOS responded:
"Recently, we have been working on a new campaign called 'Tom and George - You're not welcome here' along with banners such as 'Tom and George - You Tell Lie$' so it further highlights how we are not intending to be xenophobic in our pursuit to get the owners out. Our quarrels are with Hicks and Gillett as individuals and not as a nationality".
It appears that SOS has seen the light and has acknowledged that a xenophobic approach is not the way forward. Not only that, all traces of the 'Yank Liars Out' mantra appears to have been removed from their website.
SOS will, of course, never admit that they were shamed into changing their tune by this site, and the fans who voted in the poll, but given the fact no other media entity or Liverpool FC site had ever raised the issue before, this clearly must be the case.
So - well done to all those Liverpool fans who voted for change. Well done to all those fans who tried to persuade others that attacking the Owners on a personal level was crass and undignified.
Having a fan’s group is a great idea, and one that I and other Liverpool fans would love to support, but only if it is a professional organization acting in line with the Liverpool Way of doing things.
Hopefully this is the first step to SOS becoming a fan’s group of which ALL fans can be proud.
NB. I personally do not agree that the Owners should be ousted as I believe that the long-term future for the club is looking more encouraging all the time.
Sometimes, things have to get worse before they get better.
That has definitely been the case off the pitch, and (unfortunately) the same principle applies to the way things are on the pitch at the moment.
However, any fair-minded person can see that Liverpool is making great strides off the pitch, and I'm sure that this will be reflected on the pitch sooner rather than later.
Jaimie Kanwar
----
Join the site's new Facebook page!
The issue of how SOS chooses to represent Liverpool fans has been debated in the following threads over the last few months:
GILLETT'S COMMENTS: Amid the Xenophobia + sensationalism, fans are missing one important thing…
GEORGE GILLETT interview: Did it REALLY happen? I'm not so sure. And here's why...
POLL: Is Spirit of Shankly's xenophobic “YANK LIARS OUT” approach compatible with the ‘Liverpool Way’?
POLL: “YANK LIARS OUT”: Is SOS’s approach compatible with the ‘Liverpool Way’ doing things?
In the post "George Gillett interview: Did it really happen" my ulterior motive was to draw out representatives of SOS onto a public forum in order to engage them in discussion about their ‘Yank Liars Out’ mantra. This worked, and in that thread, Graham Smith (Secretary of SOS) demanded that I print a retraction for the story. I replied offering SOS the following deal:
“I have a deal for you: remove all references to YANKS from your site and literature (including Yank Liars out! etc) and promise Liverpool fans that such derogatory terms will not be used again, and I will remove the article from my site”.
Graham replied:
“No, sorry it doesn't work like that. You have published an article that makes allegations of fabrication, fraud and embellishment without any evidence of your own. You now try and squirm away from this by linking a retraction to the Union's website and campaign tactics. Well this sort of sleight of hand will not work”.
As I said above, my goal was to anger SOS reps to the extent that they felt the need to defend the organization in public, which is what they did. Having done that, I could raise the issue of their derogatory approach to Hicks and Gillett in public, capture their responses for the record, and allow other fans the chance to directly challenge them in a public forum.
Liverpool fans voted in our poll and made their position very clear:
1600 fans have voted so far, and the majority are clearly in favour of SOS becoming a more professional organization.
Well, this concerted pressure on SOS seems to have worked. In an interview with Gareth Roberts’ LFC blog ‘Well Red’, the following question was asked:
WR: The use of the word 'Yanks' on the SOS website and in banners/literature etc has been highlighted by some critics who accuse the union of being xenophobic. What's your response?
To which SOS responded:
"Recently, we have been working on a new campaign called 'Tom and George - You're not welcome here' along with banners such as 'Tom and George - You Tell Lie$' so it further highlights how we are not intending to be xenophobic in our pursuit to get the owners out. Our quarrels are with Hicks and Gillett as individuals and not as a nationality".
It appears that SOS has seen the light and has acknowledged that a xenophobic approach is not the way forward. Not only that, all traces of the 'Yank Liars Out' mantra appears to have been removed from their website.
SOS will, of course, never admit that they were shamed into changing their tune by this site, and the fans who voted in the poll, but given the fact no other media entity or Liverpool FC site had ever raised the issue before, this clearly must be the case.
So - well done to all those Liverpool fans who voted for change. Well done to all those fans who tried to persuade others that attacking the Owners on a personal level was crass and undignified.
Having a fan’s group is a great idea, and one that I and other Liverpool fans would love to support, but only if it is a professional organization acting in line with the Liverpool Way of doing things.
Hopefully this is the first step to SOS becoming a fan’s group of which ALL fans can be proud.
NB. I personally do not agree that the Owners should be ousted as I believe that the long-term future for the club is looking more encouraging all the time.
Sometimes, things have to get worse before they get better.
That has definitely been the case off the pitch, and (unfortunately) the same principle applies to the way things are on the pitch at the moment.
However, any fair-minded person can see that Liverpool is making great strides off the pitch, and I'm sure that this will be reflected on the pitch sooner rather than later.
Jaimie Kanwar
----
Join the site's new Facebook page!
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