Ironic Blues!

Did anyone read the article in tonight’s Belfast Telegraph about Linfield complaining about a small section of their supporters using racial abuse and sectarian chants? If you did I’m sure like me you must have found this, quite funny, or at least quite ironic. This is the same Linfield who still play in red, white and blue (red socks, white shorts and blue jerseys). Dyed in the wool ‘bluemen’ would no doubt argue that these are the club colours and have been for a considerable time. But surely if Linfield are intent in stamping out sectarianism, as they continue to insist, maybe they should consider dropping one of the two primary colours of the Union Jack from their kit. As they have, whether consciously or unconsciously, made their team one of mixed religion, surely it’s time to go one step further. Not for many a year have we heard the old sectarian cry from diehard bluemen, ‘come on the sons!’ For any uninitiated followers, this was a shortened version of ‘Come on the sons of William’ (King William 3rd). Now with players like Pat McShane, Aiden O’Kane and our own dear former player, Oran Kearney, swelling their ranks, even bluemen have had to give up this favoured chant. As for racism, it would be rather a strange chant from Linfield fans, whose team were one of the first to introduce black players to the local game. Just this January, during the transfer window, they signed a black player, who had been on Ards books. Would there be any Linfield fans stupid enough to use racism when they have a black player in their midst? Wait a minute, what am I talking about, it is Linfield fans after all and they have been known to make the odd gaffe before now. Racism is going to be hard to stamp out here in Northern Ireland as it’s a fairly new concept and we must educate people in order to deal with it. Sectarianism on the other hand has been with us for many years and still it’s simmering away beneath the surface. I even notice that an Ulster flag has been brought along to our games lately. I know this is a small minority amongst our supporters, but it reflects on us all and our club should advise such people that this flag is not welcome at our games. The Ulster flag has its place at International matches, not club games and the sooner fans realise this, the sooner we’ll give sectarianism the ‘boot’. Come on Linfield, give us all an example, kick out sectarianism for good and then maybe we can start to work on racism!