The Adeyemi incident is what you get when you summon the full forces of tribalism
By Oliver Holt in
Published 00:01 07/01/12
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There is no pleasure in saying this, but Liverpool have begun to reap a little of what they have sown.
New Liverpool racism row: Fan's abuse has Oldham player in tears
When you defend racist language, when you enter into angry denial and summon the full forces of tribalism, this is what you get.
It was only a couple of morons who racially abused Tom Adeyemi at Anfield. A couple of fools among a crowd of more than 44,000.
But the aggression with which Liverpool defended Luis Suarez over the last few weeks spread a paranoia and an anger among their fans that always threatened to lead to something like this.
Maybe now the Liverpool board will realise that their stance on Suarez has empowered people like whoever screamed vile insults at Adeyemi.
Maybe now they will realise it has empowered other so-called Liverpool fans to send messages to a blameless FA executive, saying they hoped his wife is raped.
Maybe now they will realise it has empowered people to shower black footballers and ex-footballers such as Stan Collymore with the most disgusting racist abuse on Twitter.
Maybe they will deny that Adeyemi was abused, too.
Some will no doubt return to conspiracy theories and say a modern-day version of the Salem Witch Trials is breaking out.
Perhaps they will blame collective anti-Liverpool hysteria, ignoring the fact that there is no anti-Liverpool hysteria and that outside Manchester, most people have only respect for such a great club.
The reality is that, thankfully, players such as Adeyemi are not prepared to suffer in silence any more.
They are not prepared to allow abuse like this to be classed as a necessary part of the game.
English football is desperate to put the Luis Suarez Affair behind it, but such is the bitterness and resentment that has grown up around the issue, it may take a lot longer than we think.
