The first issue raised was the apparent lack of Black coaches or Black members of the FA commission. This issue will be a concern for many, but as Garth Crooks pointed out, if Black ex-pros don't want to be involved in coaching, they don't have to. There may be barriers stopping those who want to be coaches but the vast majority do not feel coaching is their path. This view was challenged by Jason Roberts, who claimed that most football fans are racist and that its stopping those from ethnic minorities being involved in football. This is a false claim, as he should know from the work of his peers, Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson that the situation has improved and its a tiny minority involved in the racist chanting we have seen over the past 10 years. Also with regards to Roberts, he is single-handedly breaking the hard work up by the footballing community by trying to create a Black players union and his apparent mentality that "whoever disagrees with me is racist", he is not helping mend the wounds in the footballing world.
Also raised was the contents of the England managers team talk in which he referred to giving the ball to Andros Townsend as "giving it to the monkey in space". The comments may not have been politically correct, but Townsend did not take offence and it seems no one else did. As a result a line should be drawn underneath the whole incident, however the tabloids got hold of the story and blew it out of proportion, this again is damaging to the whole anti-racism in football cause, purely because there are more pressing issues to deal with in football with regards to racism, but as it was taken up by the tabloids the pressing issues are forgotten about. Another issue from this is that it allowed the divisive voices of Roberts and the society of black lawyers to try and drive another wedge in the football community, again weakening the core of the football family.
Finally is the behaviour of fans at football matches with regards to racism. It helps to look over a period from 1975 to 2010 to see how far we have progressed, in 1975 to 1982 there was an apparent lack of interest in the racist chanting coming from the stands with commentator Gerald Sinstadt saying "chanting from the Man United fans, against the coloured Albion lot" the apparent apathy towards the fact bananas were being thrown at them was sickening. Over time in 1982 to 1990 managers Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson picked more Black players and the success of Walker, Regis, Barnes and Anderson really helped improve race relations in football. Over the 20 years between 1990-2010 footballers of all races have had largely equal standing and the football family is better for it. In conclusion racism is not as prevalent in football as made out by some campaigners, it still needs attention but it is probably in its best state in the history of the sport and long may it continue.
