Viewing Thread:
"Ron Atkinson"

Quick poll.

Mis-treated of fairly treated?

Both.

Unfairly, because he was more harshly treated than others, who did similar things.

Fairly, because I feel the disciplinary measures handed out these days are pathetic.

Was mistreated i feel especially when you consider the Aragones situation. He should have just been suspended without pay for a couple months or so. To call him racist though which i've seen people in the media do these past months is just idiotic. Go ask all the black footballers he coached and brought into football how racist he is

If I'm being really honest, I think he was mistreated.

The problem was I tried arguing against one of my best mates (who attends the national debating trials) and he managed to slightly convince me that he was treated fairly. But I'm still unsure.

I agree it's stupid that whiteboy is "ok." BUT if someone says whiteboy on tv, do you feel offended? No because its not derogatory to our past or anything, whereas what Ron said is....

So saying 'ni**er' (I notice I can't say this in the filter) IS bad, and 'whiteboy' isn't? Ron was angry because Desailly had put in a bad performance. And I agree, he probably shouldn't have said it - from a career point of view. But was it a racist comment? I severely doubt it. Desailly and the country overreacted. An apology should have been the end of it.

It's NOT racist, it's just a good example of the overheated political climate we live in.

Calling someone a white boy is not derogatory...

I agree, here the punishment didn't fit the crime, but what could they have done?

He may not be a racist, only people who actually know him can verify that, but why would he "accidentally" voice racist views live on television TWICE?

Unfairly. The whole thing is yet another example of how ridiculous political correctness has got. Wow, he said mean things about the black man, get over it. How many times on films and T.V do we hear 'whiteboy'? Somehow there's nothing wrong with that.

Colourless wrote:
> Well yeah, he did bring black footballers into the English game.

Exactly, a racist wouldn't tolerate black people in their football team, people have to bare in mind that he must have worked with the black players on a daily basis, you really think a racist could do that? I think not.

> But why would he make such comments?

Well we all say things and then wonder why. Normally when we're frustrated, as Ron was at the end of the game, things come out as spur of the moment.

Well yeah, he did bring black footballers into the English game.

But why would he make such comments?

Also this wasn't the first time he'd accidentally broadcast racist comments. Last time he got away with it by convincing everyone it was just a joke....

Very unfairly treated.

Anybody with half a brain can see he isn't a racist, just not educated on political correctness.

In comparison to how others are being dealt with (Cough Aragones cough Spain cough again) I think he has been unfairly treated.

However that's due to the others being treated softly and not him being treated harshly.

I do have sympathy for the guy though, having his life pretty much ruined by making one mistake. It does seem a bit like the punishment didn't fit the crime, but these days you just cant say those sort of things...