Portsmouth Football Club have announced that they will be contacting the English Football Association regarding the verbal abuse aimed at Sol Campbell during the recent match versus Tottenham Hotspur. I find this quite surprising. During the game it appears the Spurs fans berated him with 'Racist and homophobic abuse,' or so it is claimed. The police have been asked to investigate and now the English F.A. will insult every one's intelligence with their comments.
Why did this happen? Abuse is normal at football matches, why should this be any worse than that normally associated with football crowds, which after all are often quite unruly. The truth not given in most reports is that Sol Campbell is responsible for all the abuse by his actions. In days of yore Sol was an inspiring centre half for Tottenham Hotspur. He was a crowd favourite and an international class defender. However fans turned against their club captain when he failed to accept a large new contract as his present one neared its end. Rumour spread that he was destined to move to Spurs biggest rivals Arsenal, and indeed he played out his time at Spurs, some claiming he stated he wished to remain there, but moved to Arsenal, a team playing in the Champions League unlike Spurs, earning himself a large signing on fee and , so they say, £100,000 a week! Could you be surprised at the actions of the Tottenham fans? is it not understandable that they should pass on their wrath towards one whom they see as not only traitorous to the club, but one who moved with no fee reaching Spurs at all. The money all went into Sols pocket.
Since then he has been the object of much verbal abuse at each appearance versus Tottenham. This I say is only natural as those who treat the fans badly are rarely forgiven. A love for a football club is not 'love' in the normal sense. True fans do not support the club because it is powerful or even good at what it does. They support it at all times through thick and thin. There can be no doubt that whether attending or watching from a distance a football club takes hold of a mans emotions as little else can. It is not really 'love,' it is a sickness! When the club does well he is happy, when it does badly he is depressed. I once had to spend half an hour of my Monday morning listening to a chap who managed a team in the Edmonton Sunday League. I had to listen because until he had unburdened himself of the previous days game he could not get on with his work - and he was the foreman! Tough, clever man though he was he could not get the game out of his mind. They were top of the league at the time, I am just glad they were not relegation fodder. I would have needed the entire day!
Stories re Sol Campbell's private life began to circulate while at Arsenal. These did not appear in print, so I will leave you to guess, but this affected his time at Arsenal and soon he was on the move, this time to Portsmouth, a move some saw as the end of his career. However he has proved them wrong and he has helped Portsmouth to an excellent position in English football. However he has began to object to the comments made by Spurs fans concerning racism and homophobia. Usually this is understandable, but to my mind he appears unwilling to accept that these things are irrelevant! What is relevant is his behaviour towards Tottenham Hotspur and their fans. Another black player, Jermaine Defoe, also played for Spurs but left the club in good grace, in fact the fans wished him to stay but the club shoved him out. Defoe actually scored on Saturday but came under no abuse for his colour whatsoever. Surely Sol must understand why this is? Was there anti Gay abuse? Is he Gay? Not that I care as his life is his own, but anything in his life will be used against him. I am however not sure our Sol really has a grip on his personal life. From a great distance I wonder what help and advice folks give him.
There is a simple end to this. Sol Campbell now needs to stand up and accept his mistake in treating Spurs and the fans the way he did. By holding his hand up and accepting he treated them badly he begins to right a wrong. Then I suggest, he could take some of the thousands of pound he earns each week and put it back into football. In my view he may well be on anything between £40-90,000 weekly. By putting one weeks wages into youth development at Spurs, or in that area, he would be showing some willingness to make amends for what Spurs fans see as bad behaviour in the past. Others have moved between clubs and donated the signing on fees to such a cause, why should one paid greater sums than most not do the same, then he will have little in the way of problems.
I could be wrong here, I often am, and the abuse, which did not show up on the BBC highlights, may well have been excessive. Fans, like players, have to decide that enough is enough, and as they say today, 'Move on.' What is done is done and I suggest a small act as suggested by Campbell could end such abuse. However he must ask why Defoe and other ex Spurs players do not receive such treatment. He is a great player, and can continue to be for another few years I suggest, and as a man few appear to complain about him in the game itself. However sometimes our faults need us to amend them before we whine to the authorities for help.
