Anfield legend John Barnes has shown regular public support for Liverpool during the Luis-Suarez-Patrice Evra saga, and he still insists that the club was right to back the Uruguayan to the hilt. However, Barnes now accepts that T-shirt stunt was probably not the best idea.
On Saturday's edition of Soccer AM, Barnes was asked if he thought that wearing Luis Suarez T-shirts was a 'good idea'. He said:
"Probably in hindsight it was not the cleverest thing to do, but they were showing that they completely believe Suarez.
"The thing is if they [Liverpool] don't, and they don't back him, what they're actually saying is, he's a racist.
"Not appealing the decision means they accept the verdict, without accepting the decision".
I have to disagree with Barnesy here; how would not wearing the T-shirts send a message that Liverpool think Suarez is racist? There are plenty of ways to support a player without pulling such a tacky stunt.
Barnes added
"The FA Committee believed Evra, but that doesn't mean they're right".
Absolutely. As I've argued repeatedly, the FA's 'findings of fact' were, for the most part, UNPROVEN. The only proven fact in the whole situation was that Suarez used the word 'Negro' once to refer to Evra, and that was admitted by the man himself.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 over the weekend, Barnes called for clarity on what can and cannot be said, both on the pitch and in the crowd:
"There are lots of questions that need to be asked. The dialogue on the problem has to continue. There has to be a classification of what is and isn't allowed. You can't be ambiguous about what you can and can't say.
"For supporters, you're not allowed to make monkey chants but can you scratch your arm pits? It's a difficult situation but one that football has to deal with".
Jaimie Kanwar
On Saturday's edition of Soccer AM, Barnes was asked if he thought that wearing Luis Suarez T-shirts was a 'good idea'. He said:
"Probably in hindsight it was not the cleverest thing to do, but they were showing that they completely believe Suarez.
"The thing is if they [Liverpool] don't, and they don't back him, what they're actually saying is, he's a racist.
"Not appealing the decision means they accept the verdict, without accepting the decision".
I have to disagree with Barnesy here; how would not wearing the T-shirts send a message that Liverpool think Suarez is racist? There are plenty of ways to support a player without pulling such a tacky stunt.
Barnes added
"The FA Committee believed Evra, but that doesn't mean they're right".
Absolutely. As I've argued repeatedly, the FA's 'findings of fact' were, for the most part, UNPROVEN. The only proven fact in the whole situation was that Suarez used the word 'Negro' once to refer to Evra, and that was admitted by the man himself.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 over the weekend, Barnes called for clarity on what can and cannot be said, both on the pitch and in the crowd:
"There are lots of questions that need to be asked. The dialogue on the problem has to continue. There has to be a classification of what is and isn't allowed. You can't be ambiguous about what you can and can't say.
"For supporters, you're not allowed to make monkey chants but can you scratch your arm pits? It's a difficult situation but one that football has to deal with".
Jaimie Kanwar
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not another Suarez discussion!
ReplyDeleteI must say I heard the whole thing and I have to agree with everything Barnes said... He was objective in his analysis and discussion, the person (cant remember his name) that spoke after him was very biased in saying what Suarez did was wrong and needed apologizing... well I dont think that had suarez known this would be the reaction after a cultural misunderstanding that he would have done it... Anyway I have to agree lets put it to sleep, and forget it, the more we give it a reaction the more it means its a problem I think we must let time do its magic of forgetting...
ReplyDeletedo you ever give up. f--k sake drop this issue. do you have nothing else to offer except suarez articles..your a twat kanwar and a man u fan as well i suspect.. i will be complaining to liverpoolkop and hope everyone else who reads your articles follows suit.you anti suarez anti kenny anti lfc tos--r..
ReplyDeleteThis is what the player is doing for the club. We knew he had a reputation before he came here, now this has happened and we are being dragged through it. I think there will be a few incidents with him before he moves on.
ReplyDeleteThe club has been reasonably lucky in the past with our players except for may be Diouf who had a spitting problems and we stood by him and his dirty little habit. Also just read an interesting story of him racially abusing a
ReplyDeletewhite Everton ball boy that's another story and another club!!!!!!. Only way Suarez is going to learn is living in a country like ours that he can't get away with using certain words. He will hopefully have learnt his lesson and will just concentrate on his football like he was last season and the start of this season and no more t-shirts!
Personally, I loved the teeshirt thing. It was just another hilarious aspect of what was a farcical situation in which nobody from any party involved came out looking good. Apart from the bloke who got paid to make those teeshirts.
ReplyDeletejust really really really hope the liverpool squad, manager and staff and fans,..............wear the suarez shirts when we host man utd in the fa cup!
ReplyDeleteor do you think its bad taste and maybe not a good idea???
joking aside i agree with mr barnes, this bloke has common sense and understands everything about football
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you need to interpret what Barnes is saying in quite that way. When he says:
ReplyDelete"... the thing is, if they don't ... "
he's not referring to the t-shirt stunt. He's not saying " ... if they don't wear the t-shirts ..." but instead " ... if they don't completely believe Suarez ...".
Read it a few times that way, I think it's a reasonable interpretation and it would mean that he thinks exactly the same as you: that supporting the player is fine and probably the right thing to do, but they way they did it at the time wasn't the best.
He means 'racist' in the eyes of the public and media, who were just waiting to stick the knife in. Media because it makes for a good story and fans because they like to denigrate opposition and their best player and everyone likes a good villain.
ReplyDeleteI see what Barnes means but the t-shirt thing was misjudged.
Let the Suarez issue be put to rest, Barnes. Dont cry over spilled milk.
ReplyDeleteDifference is that Diouf was rubbish, so we moved him on. But is Holland really that different to the UK? Do they go around calling people 'negro' during arguments on the pitch? I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Suarez joined, a few supporters had reservations about us signing a player who seemed to be followed by trouble wherever he went. I told them they were talking nonsense but I'm not so sure now. I think he has damaged the club's image with his antics and he really is going to have to behave now. It's time for everyone to move on, including our supporters when Man Utd show up in the cup game, but my main concern is that there will be more to come, where Suarez is concerned. Will this be the last incident involving him? Somehow I doubt it.
Black in Dutch is zwart so he wouldn't have had to use negro! Remember negro is black in Spanish so it sounds even worse when we say it in English. He didn't get done for saying negro but black.
ReplyDeleteHas any other player come out and said they have been racially abused by Suarez? The answer is no,so I reckon we can safely say this was a one off with this word.
ReplyDelete