Cod Almighty | Diary
A place fit for Gary Enhua to call home
30 April 2021
Daubney and Devon Diaries write: As you will be probably be aware, whether you follow the news or have just popped on Facebook to suggest that A. Player Esq. is a cunt for missing a tackle or spooning one into his own net, English football is boycotting social media this weekend in order to put pressure on Twitter, Facebook, et al to crack down on online abuse.
Picking one club at random, here's what Chelsea tweeted on Saturday:
Chelsea FC will boycott social media between 30 April and 3 May in response to the discriminatory abuse targeted at players and many others. We are united with all in English football in saying that this cannot continue. Social media companies must do more to stop online hate.
The FA, Premier League, Football League, FA Women's Super League, FA Women's Championship, PFA, LMA, PGMOL, Kick It Out and the FSA are all part of this four-day blackout and pretty much every club at every level is joining them.
Tokenism? You might ask. Too little too late? Maybe, but we all know that football at all levels has a problem with abuse and something has to be done. Something permanent. Zero tolerance has to mean exactly that and never again should a player, fan, referee or other official be subject to abuse which is illegal in any other part of normal British life.
But a bit of banter is part of the game, you might say; if a player can't take it then he shouldn’t be on twitter or Instagram or wherever. He's paid well enough, so he should be able to take it. We at CA respect everyone's opinion and here's ours: If you think like that then you are an idiot, an arsehole. We're sure you can take it though, right?
We sincerely hope that Town's new owners are of a similar mind and, having seen how the club has dealt with racism and other abuse over the years, now see an opportunity to clean up the club's act and to set an example. If Grimsby Town truly is a community club then everyone must be welcome, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, disability. Players should be allowed to play for the club, to express themselves without fear of a tirade from some know-it-all in the stands or on their Twitter feed.
Step back to your days in primary school. Remember when a teacher said to you: "How would you feel if someone said that to you?" Think about it. How many times have you said something or tweeted something which would hurt you if the tables were turned. If you turned up to work only to face abuse from colleagues, customers or passing members of the public, how would you feel?
Starting with the shameful reaction to Exeter's opener on Tuesday and working back, there are so many examples from the past five or ten years which we could dig up but what's the point? We all know about them, we could all list any number of unacceptable incidents.
But we're all complicit in the failure to act on them. We're complicit if we ignore it, if we don't report it. The club is complicit in not dealing with it and we're complicit if we continue to support the club regardless, knowing that this is the sort of behaviour which is tolerated or tacitly encouraged.
The social media companies being urged to act by this weekend's boycott will probably only do so once legislation is introduced. Hate and abuse is good for business. Can anything be done? Recording and film studios wouldn't normally be where you look for any type of guidance. However, they successfully lobbied to make the internet providers liable for facilitating the pirating of copyrighted content. The providers quickly started blocking the offending sites and users. If Twitter and the rest were made liable for facilitating abusive racist behaviour, they'd soon prevent users signing up anonymously.
What should Town do about fans who insist on acting like tools, online or at a game? About convicted racists? About fans who persist in abusing another for being different or using racial and homophobic slurs? Ban them for life. That hasn't been the case In the past, it would appear that having a couple of lemonades too many and falling on the pitch carries a greater penalty.
You will no doubt have learned the sad news that Zhang Enhua died this week on his 48th birthday. An icon to Town fans of a certain age, he gave a lovely interview to Jack Johnson and Zhang's words on his Grimbarian son carried a touching sentiment that exiles will be familiar with it but the people in GY sometime forget.
My son Gary has a clear awareness of his birthplace and I can see the traditional English gentlemen spirit inside him. He is now 18 and studying at university. We travelled back to Grimsby several years ago and I believe he will be back often in the future because he knows that Grimsby will always be his first home.
Grimsby and its football club are dear to all of us. It's up to GTFC and its supporters to make it a special place, whether they live there or, like Gary Enhua, call it home.