Chelsea FC

Chelsea FC…

I am actually a big football fan.  I have stuck by Chelsea FC through thick and thin, even after marrying an ex Arsenal football player and having my very comfortable life paid for by Arsenal FC, whilst being fully ingratiated into the club and it’s values.

I am not going to lie, when you spend so much time around something that you used to detest, you cannot help but see it in a different light.  Whereas I used to go and sit in the Directors box of Arsenal Football Club, mingling with them all, I would ultimately being going for the free vino and fabulous food, not uttering one word if Arsenal scored a go, uttering a quiet cheer if they lost (I couldn’t be completely disrespectful by cheering loudly).  Fast forward 10 years, I admit I am happy when they score.  Not Chelsea happy – whereby you jump up and down screaming and shouting, but I can now get lost in that goal moment, jump up and smile.

Chelsea, regardless of anything else have always and will always be my team.  I never thought to question that until today.  I mistakenly had thought we had moved on somewhat, or at least driven this diatribe underground, but it appears not. 

I am so appalled and disgusted by the behaviour of their so called fans who threw a black man from the train carriage in France and then proceeded to chant racial abuse, that it has left me questioning everything.  Not just loyalties with football, but the darker depths of are we really heading back to the 70’s and early 80’s, where racial abuse was commonplace and everyone appears to have an angry existence?  Back then, you would see signs in some of the windows of bed and breakfast places saying, “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish.”  Seriously!

Admittedly, not living in the UK and reading all the anti Muslim, anti Semitic stories in the press, I am likely to have a warped view of it.  At some point in the, hopefully no-too-distant future, I want to take my daughter home, but what world will she be brought up in if I do?

Chelsea Football Club HAVE to take a very hardliner approach to this.  Failure to do so will make a mockery out of the FA’s “Kick Racism Out Of Football” campaign.  Also, what about all the black players and fans?  I have no doubt that these thugs are Season Ticket Holders.  If this is the case, they should never, ever, be allowed to step foot inside Stamford Bridge again.  They should also be banned from purchasing any tickets to football in the future. 

This goes deeper than just football though.  These mindless thugs are likely to be part of the Chelsea’s utterly unauthorized ‘firm’, a bunch of morons who meet on match day to fight.  I appreciate that stopping the travel is unlikely, but at least ban them from travelling so they are sending out the right message.

The irony of these uneducated morons is that they will be the first to cheer when Drogba scores a goal and wins Chelsea the match… Need I say anymore?!