The Official Thread of Chelsea FC

[take_yer_points]

Think this is the fella...

[AQMP]

Come on, admit it Norf. Your house is dripping in racist stuff and Combat18 memorabilia. No point denying it now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2119806/Arsenal-fan-arrested-racist-abuse-Newcastle-midfielder-Cheick-Tiote.html

There are eejits that support every club.  No point denying it now.

[AQMP]

If the images above are representative of Chelsea fans as a whole, I'd guess there are roughly the same amount of racists who support Chelsea as support most other clubs?

[Norf Tyrone]

Come on, admit it Norf. Your house is dripping in racist stuff and Combat18 memorabilia. No point denying it now.

My small, black moustache is simply an homage to Movember meine freund.

[Norf Tyrone]

Do Chelsea and their supporters just not get it ?

Chelsea have launched an investigation after a supporter was photographed making an apparent racist gesture towards a Manchester United player.

The picture, published in more than one national newspaper, seems to show a fan making a 'monkey' gesture towards a United player during last night's Capital One Cup clash between the two clubs at Stamford Bridge.

Police are also aware of the photograph but have not yet received a formal allegation on which to open a criminal investigation.

A statement from the club read: "Chelsea Football Club can confirm we are investigating an incident involving a member of the crowd at last night's game against Manchester United.

"The club will be examining all available footage and asks anyone who can identify the individual to contact the club.

"Chelsea FC is committed to removing all forms of discrimination and if we have sufficient evidence we will take the strongest possible action, including supporting criminal prosecution."

Supporters? Not sure why you are using plural.

You'll get arseholes like that in every crowd, and he should be banned for life. A simple idiot.

Hope Man United ban all the supporters last night that mock the dead, but I doubt we'll read too much about that.

I'd be more impressed if they banned players for life for using racist language.

When Arsenal starting banning players for anti- semitic language perhaps the world will follow suit.

[AQMP]

Chelsea play Leeds in the next round of whatever the League Cup is called this year.

Could be another spiky encounter.  Reminds me of this incident from the 1970 FA Cup Final replay.  Bear in mind, the ref didn't consider this a foul.

Was there contact?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t_5sZ4-LRA

[Dinny Breen]

Do Chelsea and their supporters just not get it ?

Chelsea have launched an investigation after a supporter was photographed making an apparent racist gesture towards a Manchester United player.

The picture, published in more than one national newspaper, seems to show a fan making a 'monkey' gesture towards a United player during last night's Capital One Cup clash between the two clubs at Stamford Bridge.

Police are also aware of the photograph but have not yet received a formal allegation on which to open a criminal investigation.

A statement from the club read: "Chelsea Football Club can confirm we are investigating an incident involving a member of the crowd at last night's game against Manchester United.

"The club will be examining all available footage and asks anyone who can identify the individual to contact the club.

"Chelsea FC is committed to removing all forms of discrimination and if we have sufficient evidence we will take the strongest possible action, including supporting criminal prosecution."

Supporters? Not sure why you are using plural.

You'll get arseholes like that in every crowd, and he should be banned for life. A simple idiot.

Hope Man United ban all the supporters last night that mock the dead, but I doubt we'll read too much about that.

I'd be more impressed if they banned players for life for using racist language.

When Arsenal starting banning players for anti- semitic language perhaps the world will follow suit.

Whataboutery!

You're reaching, Frimpong who I assume you are referring to called someone a yid scum, Spurs fans call themselves The Yid Army, it's used as a tribal badge. Frimpong was found guilty of improper conduct and made aware of his social responsibilities and was educated on the term which Spurs welcomed. Spurs also educated Danny Rose on the term Yiddo's which Rose used referring to his own fans. Don't mistaken ignorance for antisemitism.

[Norf Tyrone]

Do Chelsea and their supporters just not get it ?

Chelsea have launched an investigation after a supporter was photographed making an apparent racist gesture towards a Manchester United player.

The picture, published in more than one national newspaper, seems to show a fan making a 'monkey' gesture towards a United player during last night's Capital One Cup clash between the two clubs at Stamford Bridge.

Police are also aware of the photograph but have not yet received a formal allegation on which to open a criminal investigation.

A statement from the club read: "Chelsea Football Club can confirm we are investigating an incident involving a member of the crowd at last night's game against Manchester United.

"The club will be examining all available footage and asks anyone who can identify the individual to contact the club.

"Chelsea FC is committed to removing all forms of discrimination and if we have sufficient evidence we will take the strongest possible action, including supporting criminal prosecution."

Supporters? Not sure why you are using plural.

You'll get arseholes like that in every crowd, and he should be banned for life. A simple idiot.

Hope Man United ban all the supporters last night that mock the dead, but I doubt we'll read too much about that.

I'd be more impressed if they banned players for life for using racist language.

When Arsenal starting banning players for anti- semitic language perhaps the world will follow suit.

Whataboutery!

You're reaching, Frimpong who I assume you are referring to called someone a yid scum, Spurs fans call themselves The Yid Army, it's used as a tribal badge. Frimpong was found guilty of improper conduct and made aware of his social responsibilities and was educated on the term which Spurs welcomed. Spurs also educated Danny Rose on the term Yiddo's which Rose used referring to his own fans. Don't mistaken ignorance for antisemitism.

Fair points, and I knew at the time he was 'thick'. However if John Terry or Ashley Cole, or David Luiz had've tweeted that, would the world have been forgiving?

[Norf Tyrone]

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/michael-volpe/chelsea-mark-clattenburg_b_2043928.html

Sums up the Clattenburg thing rightly.

Billy Connolly once said that hypocrisy is the Vaseline of political intercourse. Well, the politicians of football and their media agitators are about to launch themselves into an orgy.

If many of us found the taste of hypocrisy and the destruction of natural justice in the John
Terry case rancid and grotesque, then we are about to endure being force fed a great deal more of it in the coming weeks and months as the ramifications of the Mark Clattenburg race row develop. Indeed, it is happening already.

What do we know of the events? We know that Clattenburg had a dreadful match for sure but it pales into insignificance when set against the alleged abuse of two Chelsea players. Chelsea officials are said to have challenged John Obi Mikel for two hours, urging him to be certain about what happened before proceeding with a formal complaint. Several players are said to support him. Clattenburg denies it and so we must now wait for the investigations.

Suddenly, the FA, so brazen in their determination to skewer due process in the Terry case, have a real problem. And the media, who were so eager to promote the concept of Terry's innate racism, even after he was found not guilty in a court of law, are beset by a real sense of hysteria, the awful truth of what is happening beginning to dawn on them. Already we have seen several articles raising question marks over Chelsea's complaint, the suggestion being it is malicious. James Lawton called the club "bitterly aggrieved", Matthew Syed of the Times raised the question of the complaint's veracity twice in one article and in the same newspaper, Oliver Holt, a cheerleader for the pursuit of Terry at all costs has the shameless temerity to angrily evoke the concept of innocence until proven guilty and about mud sticking. The Evening Standard ran a piece in which Neil Warnock called the club "despicable" and demanded the complainants "get done".

That it is John Obi Mikel who is at the centre of the complaint appears not to have struck any of the correspondents as ironic. Maybe it has but the awful, inconvenient irony of it has struck them dumb instead. It is imperative that they keep the idea of a malicious complaint alive but this is Mikel, the same Mikel who many in the media were so eager to point out (spitefully and erroneously) was unprepared to support John Terry, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Would a man who, it is claimed, had reason to distance himself from Terry launch a profoundly serious complaint in order to effect "revenge" on his behalf?

It does not appear to occur to those commentators who are currently desperately seeking a foothold in the matter that their suggestions of malice and mischief are deeply insulting to a player not known for his controversies, hotheadedness or emotionality. Does he not deserve to be given the sort of unending sympathy and respect that Anton Ferdinand was afforded? Does he not deserve to have his complaint considered genuine? Why should it have already become Clattenburg, the FA and half the world versus Chelsea Football Club? And what if the other complainant, Juan Mata? Here is a player who has spoken about moving on from the Terry affair, a calm, pleasant footballer; moreover, both he and Mikel have the intelligence to understand the implications of what their complaints have unleashed.

There is, also, a curiosity about what the recent campaigners Jason Roberts and Rio Ferdinand have to say on the matter. Rio was busy trolling on Twitter on Sunday night, trying to wind up Chelsea fans in a schoolboy fashion. He wasn't concerned that two of his fellow professionals were feeling deeply aggrieved at being abused, one of them a black player who was so incensed he exploded with fury at the referee after the game. It was never going to take long to put Ferdinand's credentials to the test but one really couldn't have imagined that his already wafer thin credibility would be so quickly smashed to pieces. One expects he will keep his mouth shut henceforth and allow due process (should the FA permit it) to be exercised.

For the rest of us I offer guide to how to behave hereon;

Consider the complaint to be a genuine one.
Understand that Chelsea, of all clubs, is aware of its implications
Accept that nevertheless, Chelsea had no choice whatsoever but to support its players
That Clattenburg is innocent until proven guilty

What we eventually make of the processes used to arrive at Clattenburg's guilt or innocence is another matter.

For myself, I have no idea what Clattenburg did or did not say. I have sympathy for him should it all be a misunderstanding. Equally, I will find any campaign by the media to rubbish Mikel and Mata and their complaint to be abhorrent. Any character assassination of Clattenburg will be equally condemned as will (the more likely) attempts to paint pretty pictures of him. If he is found not guilty we must accept it, there must be no hints and suggestions that "we know what he is like, he did it". Should no clear evidence be found to condemn him, we must not point at Mikel's obvious fury at what he feels was said to him and say "no smoke without fire". If members of Mikel's family should step to the fore and have the light of self-interest shone upon them so that we see their faux-indignation and upset, we must remind them of Clattenburg's innocence and send them packing back to their furious little worlds of bitterness and vengeful spite.

It pains me to say that a bit of me will likely enjoy the unfathomable awkwardness that the whole case represents for the FA and the football press. I will, I am sorry to say, enjoy seeing how they manage to reconcile their recent history with their growing realisation that fate has dealt them a cruel, almost perfect and mouth-wateringly delicious blow.

[ONeill]

The thing about it Norf is the complaint.

Mikel himself says he heard nothing but was told about it by Ramires who needs an interpreter but seems to have been able to understand the ref's thick Geordie accent. I know equal consideration should be given to the Terry case and this but it just appears, to the neutral, to be highly, highly unlikely.

Is it true that the Mata case has now been dropped?

Apologies if any of the above is incorrect.

[Norf Tyrone]

The thing about it Norf is the complaint.

Mikel himself says he heard nothing but was told about it by Ramires who needs an interpreter but seems to have been able to understand the ref's thick Geordie accent. I know equal consideration should be given to the Terry case and this but it just appears, to the neutral, to be highly, highly unlikely.

Is it true that the Mata case has now been dropped?

Apologies if any of the above is incorrect.

You're lucky you apologised!

Yip, the Mata case has been dropped.

The Mikel case goes ahead, and I believe he is pushing it himself with support from 1/2 other players. However that's only what I read. The papers will have umpteen versions despite the fact that Chelsea are saying nothing.

Personally I wish that the Club weren't pushing this. However if Mikel is adament then what choice have they. I am waiting for Jason Roberts, Stan Collymore, Rio Ferdinand, Clarke Carlilse and co to shout their support soon. Any second now. Just one more minute. Wait for it. Wait for it....

[ONeill]

But you understand why they aren't. They probably feel the same way as most do - that this appears to be either a misunderstanding or mischievousness on someone's part. Again, I know equal consideration should be given to any accusations of racism. The other player is supposedly Luiz I believe.

No matter what happens, I do think the ref's career has changed irrevocably. I know refs get serious abuse anyway but this is going to stick.

[deiseach]

Suddenly, the FA, so brazen in their determination to skewer due process in the Terry case, have a real problem.

Talk about a non-sequitur. How could the FA have handled the Terry case differently so that the Clattenburg/Mikel case would not present a real problem?

[Norf Tyrone]

But you understand why they aren't. They probably feel the same way as most do - that this appears to be either a misunderstanding or mischievousness on someone's part. Again, I know equal consideration should be given to any accusations of racism. The other player is supposedly Luiz I believe.

No matter what happens, I do think the ref's career has changed irrevocably. I know refs get serious abuse anyway but this is going to stick.

I understand that. However people are saying that this is a misunderstanding or mischievousness because it's against Chelsea. If it had've been another team, then followers of that team would've backed that team's stance. It's not because they are giving him the benefit of the doubt. Terry was hung and drawn that evening of the QPR game. The masses waded in, and didn't stand back to consider a second opinion.

Consider if the roles were reversed and Anton had accused Terry of calling him 'monkey' or whatever it was, with no visual evidence. Would people have said that it is mischievousness or a misunderstanding? Not a hope. They'd have called for his head. They would've said "sure it's Terry, he must of done it".

The reason for this is that Terry's personality has, rightly or wrongly, been the subject of media assasination over the years. Some truth, some lies, some half truths.

If you read between the lines, Clattenburg's private life is probably much more controversial than Terry's has been. However the tribal rights of supporters means that people always pick sides. If it's Terry he's automatically guilty. If it's against Chelsea, they must be making it up.

[Norf Tyrone]

Suddenly, the FA, so brazen in their determination to skewer due process in the Terry case, have a real problem.

Talk about a non-sequitur. How could the FA have handled the Terry case differently so that the Clattenburg/Mikel case would not present a real problem?

I'd say that it's because their rules stated that they couldn't try Terry as he has been found not guilty in court UNLESS new evidence presented itself.

However they circumnavigated this by producing evidence that was tenuous in the extreme. In other words, we know you did it, and we'll get you no matter what.

In addition the offence happened in 2011 but Terry was tried under 2012/2013 rules and regs that the FA had rehashed.

If the FA had of found Terry not guilty, or announced that they couldn't charge him, how do you think they would looked in thie eyes of the public and the football world? Their captain getting off on a technicality would've been a disaster for them.