Football Food For Thought / Dan Fitch / 16 December 2008 /

Dan "The Betting Man" Fitch gives us his take on the Spurs fans arrested for verbally abusing Sol Campbell and where to draw the line when it comes to what is and isn't acceptable to sing about at football matches.

A strong police presence can be reassuring when you go to a football match, especially in an area like Tottenham, where even the police dogs insist on going round in pairs.

Yet for Saturday's home match with Manchester United, there were rather too many police around for my liking. The Park Lane was full of so many boys in blue, that you'd have thought we were a group of picketing miners, rather than a football crowd.

The reason for this hefty police presence was twofold. Firstly, the home game came in the same week as Tottenham fans had been arrested for singing songs of a racist and homophobic nature towards Sol Campbell. Secondly, the Manchester United game saw the return of Dimitar Berbatov to White Hart Lane.

Although I didn't attend the Portsmouth game, I have heard every Sol Campbell song going and none of them contain any racist undertones. I'd like to be able to say that Spurs fans would never sing a racist song, given the fact that Tottenham is a very multi-cultural area, the side has many black players and Spurs fans are regularly subjected to anti-Semitic abuse.

Unfortunately though, there is a song that is sung about Emmanuel Adebayor, that I can't bring myself to join in with, as it makes me feel a bit like Alf Garnett. But like I said, I've never heard a racist chant about Sol Campbell, though there are plenty which are homophobic.

What I find strange about this situation, is why the police have only arrested 16 people. Surely there must have been more than 16 people singing the songs, for them to have been heard? If this is the case, how can the police pick and choose who they arrest?

And if Tottenham fans were arrested for their indecent chanting, then will the West Ham fans singing anti-Semitic abuse at the recent Monday night game, also be sought by police? There are indecent chants being sung, up and down the country, every week. Are all of the perpetrators going to be arrested?

To do this would be impossible. The majority of songs sung by football fans are good natured, but inevitably there will be some that overstep the boundaries of good taste. If you start policing what is right and wrong on the terraces, where will it end?

When news broke that Andy Goram had a mild form of schizophrenia, the terraces sung "Two Andy Gorams, there's only two Andy Gorams..." Now is it nice for hundreds of people to collectively sing a song regarding the state of someone's mental health? Of course it's not. It is though, undeniably funny.

British football terraces are renowned for their ribald humour. As Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand could tell you, when your comedy is on the edge, it's very easy to venture into bad taste. The only way to make sure that football fans don't overstep the mark would be to ban singing at stadiums entirely. Anyone that has ever gone to a game at The Emirates will know that this is not desirable.

Berbatov didn't receive too much stick, apart from a few boos and some regular choruses of a song that goes "Dimitar. Dimitar. Your mum washes windscreens, on the north circular". It's arguable that the police could arrest fans on account of the fact that this song barely rhymes, but not because of its offensiveness.

The former Spurs favourite is a distant [65.0] to be the top scorer in the Premier League. I have to admit that I'd thought that Berbatov would score loads at United, though there's still plenty of time for him to hit form. Manchester United can be backed at [2.92] to win the Premier League, in a week in which all the title contenders dropped points.

One of these title contenders is Liverpool, who drew 2-2 at home to Hull and are now available at [5.8] to win the league. Liverpool are a side that have always been boosted by the vocal support of the Kop, but this has not stopped them from dropping home points this season against Hull, West Ham, Fulham and Stoke.

In terms of unpleasantness, Liverpool's Steven Gerrard has received personal abuse from Everton fans, which rivals anything that Campbell has received from Tottenham. I think Gerrard has done the right thing by just keeping his head down and ignoring it. Players should remember the old adage, sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me.

Or maybe just follow this new adage: if you want a group of fans to be nice to you, it's best not to join their deadliest rivals on a free transfer.

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