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Barry Ferguson tells it like it is.


centenarystand

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YOU need a thick skin to be a professional football player. If you’re going to fall to pieces when fans scream abuse at you then you’re in the wrong game.

But there are occasions when lines are crossed and when behaviour becomes so disgusting it’s unacceptable.

That line was crossed in Moscow the other night.

It wasn’t the thickness of Yaya Toure’s skin that made him a target for the bampots in the CSKA support. It was the colour.

And this is exactly the kind of incident that should get football stopped.

I’m deadly serious, if UEFA have any intention of stamping racism out of the game they should hit the Russians hard and fast. Kick them out of the Champions League right now and show the world football takes a zero tolerance approach to morons who think making monkey noises at black players is just a harmless bit of fun.

I take my hat off to Toure for being able to handle what was going on around him and to concentrate on playing football.

If it was me I might have walked off the pitch, as Kevin Prince Boateng did last season during a friendly for AC Milan.

Maybe if Toure and his Man City team-mates had done the same thing – bringing a

Champions League game to a standstill – it would have forced the powers that be to hand out proper punishments. But I can’t blame the guy for dealing with it in his own way.

He stayed out there, took everything they could throw at him and did not quit until the game was won and his team was heading home with three points.

He left them with nothing and I have to say I really admire Toure for being so strong.

The question now though is what exactly are UEFA going to do about it? They talk a lot about “fair play” and “respect” but it’s time for them to put up or shut up and to show Toure they’ve got his back.

They have a chance to make a real difference. Handing out two bob fines or closing stadiums for a one-off game won’t wash.

It is time for a clear message to be sent around the world there is no place in football for behaviour such as this – and I’m speaking as a guy who is not easily offended.

In fact, I’m all for rival fans giving the other team pelters.

I used to love walking off the Rangers bus outside Parkhead on Old Firm day.

As soon as you popped your head out of the door you’d hear the Celtic fans screaming and booing. It was brilliant. I’d go so far as to say I thrived on it. The moment you walked off that bus the game head was on.

There was something special about walking out into a stadium knowing 55,000 people hated your guts – but the other 5000 were standing shoulder to shoulder with you and your team-mates. It created a feeling we were all in it together and that brought the best out of me.

If you’re going to s*** yourself at the thought of getting abused you’d be as well walking back to the bus. It’s a man’s game and I don’t recall any team-mate of mine quaking in his boots because they felt intimidated by any set of supporters.

Yes, a few of the foreign lads might have had that “what’s going on here” look about them when they first played in an Old Firm game but for me this was just the way it was meant to be.

But I remember one game when I felt a line was crossed. It happened at Ibrox shortly after the 9/11 atrocity when Claudio Reyna was at the club.

Some halfwit at the front of the Celtic end made an aeroplane gesture when Claudio was over there taking a corner. That one was hard for us all to take.

I had sat in the dressing room with Claudio on the day the World Trade Centre came down so I knew how devastated he was. He had friends who were in one of the towers so it hit him on a really personal level.

So for some idiot to stand there, arms outstretched, trying to goad and mock him at a

football game? No, that was completely unacceptable.

But what was done to Toure was even more appalling.

I remember 1988 when I was just nine years old and Mark Walters had signed for Rangers.

I used to go and watch a lot of games back then because my brother was in the team. To this day I can still see those images in my head of bananas being thrown on to the pitch.

I was a kid, I didn’t really understand what was going on. But looking back, it turns my stomach to think Scottish fans could have acted like that.

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then. If such a thing happened in a British stadium today there would be a massive outcry. You just need to see the stick Roy Hodgson has taken for telling a joke about a monkey to see how seriously the subject of race is treated.

That ridiculous episode should never have got further than the dressing-room walls.

Andros Townsend didn’t take offence because it wasn’t racism. It was just a bad joke.

But what went on in Moscow on Wednesday night really does deserve all of our outrage. I just hope UEFA have the courage to do the right thing.

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Beggars game for definite

I had no ticket on day of game and bought 1 from guy at Gers bus park. Unfortnately it was for their main stand around 4 rows from front and nearest celtic end. Some of their fans were dressed in monkey suits and plenty of bananas thrown that day.

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Where did you lift this from c.s.?

I would like to think it's from an English media outlet.

Just puts a wee spotlight on some of the behaviour the beggars fans really get up to.

The jolly craicsters that they try to portray theirselves gets blown out the water with that.

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Where did you lift this from c.s.?

I would like to think it's from an English media outlet.

Just puts a wee spotlight on some of the behaviour the beggars fans really get up to.

The jolly craicsters that they try to portray theirselves gets blown out the water with that.

This was from this mornings online rhebel surprisingly. Quite refreshing as this country is brainwashed into thinking the tarrier support are some sort of role models for football supporters all over the world.

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Bananas were thrown at both Celtic Park & Tynecastle just after Mark joined us. If my memory serves me correct the "Sportscene" cameras actually showed the trackside in front of the "Jungle" which was littered with bananas.

The BBC were once a impartial, respected media outfit believe it or not.

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Bananas were thrown at both Celtic Park & Tynecastle just after Mark joined us. If my memory serves me correct the "Sportscene" cameras actually showed the trackside in front of the "Jungle" which was littered with bananas.

The BBC were once a impartial, respected media outfit believe it or not.

Exactly the beasts always try to play this off and say it was just at tynecastle.

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Bananas were thrown at both Celtic Park & Tynecastle just after Mark joined us. If my memory serves me correct the "Sportscene" cameras actually showed the trackside in front of the "Jungle" which was littered with bananas.

The BBC were once a impartial, respected media outfit believe it or not.

Aye they did and big Archie brought it up in his commentary I am sure. Afterwards Billy McBungle made a comment that it was "tongue in cheek stuff from the Septic fans , maybe highlighting their unhappiness at the anti-RC policy at Ibrox! " seriously , to this day still trying to work that one out!

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Why not name the clubs whose supporters threw the bananas, Barry?

I remember some daft tarrier bint in work laughing afterwards that her husband had been all over the East End before the game looking for bananas and all the fruit shops were sold out.

Good point. Why not name the clubs ?

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Beggars game for definite

I had no ticket on day of game and bought 1 from guy at Gers bus park. Unfortnately it was for their main stand around 4 rows from front and nearest celtic end. Some of their fans were dressed in monkey suits and plenty of bananas thrown that day.

Surely not are these not the guys that get all mock offended about songs calling it "racism?"

Is this the same mob who is against "racisim" and "fascism"

They are a fucking joke they don't even know half of there history the cunts!

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