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Quiet Desperation

Dave Bowler

1/24/08

We had occasion, just a couple of weeks ago, to bemoan the way small sections of supporters are taking the normal level of “banter” directed at opposition players to rather more disturbing extremes, above and beyond what the majority of us would term acceptable.

In the past, when we were dealing with issues such as this in terms of racist abuse, action was finally, belatedly taken. Offenders were chucked out, banned from grounds, fined. The message went out and the problem, if always a bubbling undercurrent given the Neanderthal nature of sections of our society, has been largely resolved within our football stadia.

Typical of our collective willingness to stick our heads in the sand until we reach crisis point, and our general refusal to learn anything more from history than which mistakes to make over and over again, we’ve done nothing about the recent spate of verbal violence as we hang on in quiet desperation to the hope that we won’t actually have to do anything.

Well, that crisis point is just around the corner I’m afraid, and already, the game has managed to find contrasting ways of meeting it head on, or avoiding it altogether.

The crisis point in question will come in early February, when it comes time to mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash that all but wiped out the legendary Busby Babes of Manchester United. It was the single biggest disaster to have beset an English sporting team, a fact which in itself would have made it an anniversary worth marking and reflecting upon.

But that crash took away not just a great Manchester United team, but a clutch of footballers who might well have etched their names in the game’s folklore for what they did achieve on the field rather than for what we can only imagine they would have done. Players like Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor and the monumental Duncan Edwards had a decade and more at the very top of the game ahead of them, men that might have won many more Leagues, European Cups, World Cups even. That such youthful brilliance should be snuffed out makes the tragedy of Munich all the greater, and makes it a date that those of us who love football should respect each year.

Since when did respect come into things though? The upcoming tributes have induced differing reactions, not least from the Football Association, the organisation that is supposed to uphold football’s values, that is supposed to take a lead, that is supposed to shape the game, how we play it, what it stands for. Apparently, it stands for craven surrender.

At the upcoming England v Switzerland game, the idea of a minute’s silence in memory of those who died at Munich - not limited to players, but including administrators including the great former goalkeeper Frank Swift - was floated as a proper tribute. Then, it was quickly dismissed, on the grounds that those supporters who don’t like Manchester United could not be trusted not to boo or disrupt the silence in some way. So instead of keeping a look out for those that cannot respect the dead, the FA chose to cave in to then instead.

Just when we could be isolating them, pulling them out of the ground and keeping them out of our game for good, we decide it’s too much effort so we’ll just brush the idea under the carpet. No wonder the English game is in such a state if they’re leading it.

Naturally, the focus of it all is Manchester United. Which bright spark decided that scheduling a game between them and Manchester city on the weekend of the anniversary was such a good idea I’m not sure, but as it’s turned out, it will be a great litmus test for just how sophisticated, how decent, football supporters are in this country.

Already, the signs are not good. Manchester City have asked for a minute’s applause rather than a minute’ silence, so that anybody who wants to boo the dead can be drowned out.

How big a betrayal of football is that? That we have to design our tributes, our memorials so that we can disguise the attacks on decency, the attacks that we should be highlighting and then dealing with properly. What about putting CCTV on the crowd and removing season tickets etc from any fan that behaves badly?

Fair play to Manchester United for standing firm and insisting upon a minute of proper, reflective, silence. It’s precisely what an anniversary of a tragedy on that scale demands.

The rest of us should demand that it be respected. And if we see anyone failing to do so, we should help stewards and police get hold of them and check them back into the gutter that they crawled out of. It’s time for the silent majority to speak up again.

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