Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 24 August 2012

24 August 2012

Mardy Diary writes: Little more has been said on the incident involving racial abuse of a player at Blundell Park last season, other than the reports by the Grimsby Telegraph on the person convicted. The club made a short statement at the time to say that, in spite of its "zero tolerance" attitude to racism, it prefers neither to comment further nor act to ban the individual until the whole thing washes through the courts. It's a side-stepping of responsibility if you like, but it's unclear why the club feels it needs to act that way.

What is clear is that the whole sorry mess does nothing for the image of a club that seems to lurch from one disaster to the next. The difference this time is that, with the issue of racism in football being such a hot topic, it was inevitable it would come to the attention of the national press. This wasn't just an embarassment suffered locally but largely ignored beyond the town and its supporters. This was news picked up by players, managers and supporters across the country. Grimsby Town, it appears, are willing to tolerate racism or, at least, do nothing about it. It amounts to the same thing.

We don't think this is acceptable. We don't think the club should just sit back and hope the whole thing blows over. We don't think this issue should just be brushed under the carpet in the hope it goes away. Some things stick in the minds of people, and to be seen to do nothing is to forge negative opinions of the club. No-one wants the club to become pariahs in the football world, and even if you see no problem with what happened because 'it's just banter', there's no denying that such a negative image could have a detrimental effect on the club's ability to attract players and supporters in the future.

No-one wants to persecute individuals here, or to have a public flogging in the Town square. We just want to see the club be a bit more proactive.

To this end, Paul Savage of the excellent Too Good To Go Down blog has organised a joint response along with Cod Almighty, The Fishy and the Mariners Trust. A letter sent to the club urges it to take a positive step to improve its image - not just with its own supporters, but with everyone active inside and outside of football across the country. I won't replicate the letter here because Paul has placed it on his blog and written about it better than I can.

We're not asking for sacrifice, punishment or some sort of 'PC Brigade' pinko police state imposing on your 'yuman rites' here. We're simply asking that the club show publicly that this sort of behaviour isn't acceptable, to show that football as a sport is open to all people from all backgrounds. A bit of Olympic spirit, if you like.

Prejudice can't be tolerated. We should, collectively, be beyond this now - we should have evolved our attitudes and moved on. This is the future now - it's time to catch up, isn't it?