FIFPro, the international professional soccer players union, has released a wide-ranging report on working conditions for pro players in Eastern Europe. The Black Book Eastern Europe is available as a pdf download from FIFPro's official site. Representing the experiences of 3,357 players, the report details evidence of racism and harassment of players along with club financial issues, unenforced contracts, and lack of oversight in how soccer operates in the region.

One of the most depressing things to have emerged from the racism scandal that has threatened to overshadow large parts of the Premier League season is the loyalty blindness that has affected large amounts of fans throughout the league. The ...
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Although Ben Franklin had probably been considering industrious colonial farmers when he recommended going to bed early only to wake up before the rooster crowed would make one "healthy, wealthy, and wise," his words still resonate today and appear an apt suggestion to the modern professional athlete.

John Terry has been England captain three times. He has been stripped of the captaincy three times. Rio Ferdinand has been England captain once. He does not want the England captaincy again. Steven Gerrard has been overlooked for the England captaincy several times. He is no longer a guaranteed starter in the side.

On Saturday evening, Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Tyler Deric and midfielder Warren Creavalle were arrested outside of the Roosevelt Bar on Washington Avenue in the Heights. The various reports indicate that Deric and Creavalle as well as Will Bruin and Alex Dixon were denied entry and they believed that the grounds for said denial were based on the bar's apparent racist policies.

Ahead of another match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford this weekend, Alex Ferguson has made his position on the rash of race-related controversies in the game clear. He's surprised by it all and demands firm action.

As Richard Whittall of The Footy Blog points out, the fact that these cases are getting scrutinized and dealt with should be a sign that progress is being made, but Ferguson seems to want more.

Ahead of United's game against Liverpool at the weekend, Kenny Dalglish has created even more ill-feeling by claiming that Luis Suarez, who was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra, shouldn't have been banned.

"We don't think he should ever have been away but we are delighted to get him back," he said.

Queens Park Rangers boss Mark Hughes has slammed the decision to delay John Terry's racism hearing until July. Terry was involved in an alleged racially-motivated clash with QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, and Hughes is upset that the trial will interrupt his side's preseason plans.

"They've made a decision that impacts on one of my players, they've given a date which is slap bang in the middle of pre-season," Hughes said.

The English FA have been forced to strip John Terry of the England captaincy after outcry over his racism case being put back till after this Summer's Euro 2012 Finals in Poland and Ukraine with many looking for the Chelsea defender to be stripped of even an
England Jersey
.

Tory MP Damian Collins who has campaigned for FIFA reform hit out saying:
"He is in a public position as England captain.

The news broke this morning that the FA had finally taken some action over the John Terry racism affair. Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy with immediate effect. Of course the inadequate FA fell short of suspending him from playing for his country and it's unlikely that Terry will be big enough to remove himself for selection.

John Terry has today been stripped of the England captaincy for a second time following allegations of racism.

Terry allegedly called Anton Ferdinand a "black cunt" in Chelsea's defeat against QPR. In last weekend's Cup game between the two clubs the FA scrapped the traditional handshake ahead of kick-off after it became apparent that the QPR players would snub Terry in support of Ferdinand.

John Terry Good Or Bad For England's Euro 2012 Campaign? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

The extraordinary delays in a resolution to the Terry-Ferdinand affair have already resulted in the wholly unnecessary cop-out by the FA and the Premier League in asking Chelsea and QPR to forego handshakes in their recent league clash.

It seems that a lot of people are not talking about football these days. Whether it be racism, gayism (ok not sure if that's an actual word) or other outrageous incidents not even related to the beautiful game. Here are a few things which I think should be brought back/or removed to help bring the English game back to the glory days of the 90s.

The FA Cup Draw gave us a one in three and a half thousand chance that the Racism Derbies (Liverpool v Man Utd and QPR v Chelsea) would be sequelled.
Amidst massive extra police costs and abundant blurtings of racism, the two teams associated with racist behaviour won via a dubious penalty and through one of the victims of racism making the mistake that produced the winner having been under intense racist and/or verbal abuse throughout the previous couple of hours.

szólj hozzá: l2-1mu

The subtext was Luis Suarez watching from the stand with Patrice Evra getting booed by the Anfield crowd and all the lovely chanting between the two sets of fans about the existence of racism. At the end, the Reds had the greater satisfaction of beating Utd, the second Manchester club to suffer at their hands in three days.

Merseyside Police are investigating a Liverpool fan caught on TV mimicking a monkey during the Red's smash and grab 2-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield today.

Match Commander Ch Supt Jon Ward said: "This matter is now under investigation by specialist hate crime detectives and we are working with Liverpool Football Club to identify the man in question.

Both Chelsea and QPR decided there would be no customary handshake before the game as John Terry and Anton Ferdinand met for the first time since their controversial racism scandal when last they met. And there was more controversy as referee Mike Dean gave Chelsea a 62nd minute penalty after England striker Daniel Sturridge dived in the area, fooling the official into thinking QPR defender Clint Hill fouled the Chelsea cheat.

Bung! Gong! Bong! Dung!
Five Things We Learned From The Racism Derbies
To find out more visit our new multiverse at
http://footballisfucked.blogspot.com/

What a rough week I have had. My week was similar to Arsenals current form, depressing. Well screw all that, we still had a great week of football. So let me give you a slightly over the top review of the week that wasn't:

Arsenal

It was another dramatic week for the Gunners.

The magic of the FA Cup. The combined furor of two players and thus two clubs and two sets of support groups embroiled in an alleged race row.

And, of course, handshake gate revisited.

Not again

Saturday's FA Cup fixture between visiting Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road is brimmed with subplots.

This'll probably be the end of this site. Who the hell lets a Chelsea fan write on their Spurs blog, anyway? Well put the flaming torches and pitch forks away, folks. This one cometh in peace and he's here to save the world. One person at a time. Trailer Trash's Harry Thompson talks racism...

This being a Spurs site, and I, ahem, being a Chelsea supporter, I understand the absurdity of the task writing for an audience that already hates me.

Mike Phelan has insisted Manchester United would not consider leaving Patrice Evra out of their game against Liverpool if he is fully fit.
United's FA Cup fourth-round tie with Liverpool will be the first time they have faced their old rivals since Evra levelled racism allegations at Luis Suarez that ended with the Uruguay forward landing an eight-match ban.

By Alan Duffy

#gobshite #withoutaclub #sixgrandoutofpocket

Once one of the country's most highly-rated young players, 32-year-old Michael Ball has been punished by The FA for an offensive Tweet he sent to Coronation Street star Anthony Cotton.

By Alan Duffy

Forget the roasting and the racism, the diving and the drinking, sometimes footballers can actually be rather nice. And there seems to be no nicer chap in the world of football right now than Barcelona's Eric Abidal.

The 32-year-old French defender, who recovered from liver cancer himself, recentlyvisited a local hospital in Barcelona and was particularly moved by one patient, 15-year-old Juan Garcia.

By Chris Wright

While his club are urging him to, there is still a fair old wodge of uncertainty as to whether Anton Ferdinand will shake John Terry's hand before QPR's FA Cup tie against Chelsea at Loftus Road on Saturday.

As you will be all-too-well aware by now, Terry is due to attend a hearing at West London magistrates court four days after the match on charges of racially abusing Ferdinand after referring to the QPR centre-half as a 'farting black klutz' or something similar when the two sides met in the Premier League back on October 23rd of last year.

As if today's disappointing result wasn't enough to elicit anger, we now have news that a section of Chelsea supporters were reported to authorities after allegedly making racist remarks about Anton Ferdinand as they were traveling back from Norfolk via train.

Chelsea Football Club is concerned to hear that a small number of fans travelling back by train from Norwich were alleged to be involved in racist chants and comment.

[W]ith the fallout from recent incidents involving Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra, and John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, dominating the back pages, racism in English football is once again a hot topic. An opportune time, then, to ask Stan Horne about (among other things) his experiences as the first ever black player for a trio of current Premier League clubs: Villa, Fulham and his beloved Man City.

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre insists any perception that Liverpool's handling of the Luis Suarez affair means they take a soft stance on racism is "totally and utterly rubbish".
The Reds have come in for criticism in recent weeks for the way they have behaved during Luis Suarez's unsuccessful defence against allegations he racially abused Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho is ready to offer Luis Suarez an escape from his Liverpool nightmare reports the Daily Mail.
According to reports in Spain, the La Liga giants will offer £30million in a bid to bring the Uruguayan international to the Bernabeu this month.
Mourinho is hoping to take advantage of the furore currently surrounding the Liverpool striker, after Suarez was banned for eight games following an alleged race row with Patrice Evra.

Telegraph: Liverpool fans 'should show support for Tom Adeyemi, not Luis Suarez'

Liverpool fans should repair their "damaged" reputations by showing support for Tom Adeyemi, rather than Luis Suarez, according a leading anti-racism campaigner.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2012-01-11 10:54:50 from: The Telegraph

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

The hips don't lie, but he does Not happy with simply annoying almost everyone in football with his views from the dark agaes on racism and women's football, Sepp Blatter did his best to make everyone wretch at the Ballon d'or awards on Monday night. As he entered the stage with Shakira, Blatter wiggled his [.

Telegraph: Luis Suarez wants to repay Liverpool with silverware and Champions League place following racism controversy

Liverpool striker reveals desire to win trophy and Champions League spot when he returns from racism ban.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2012-01-11 10:04:02 from: The Telegraph

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Telegraph: Luis Suarez, Patrice Evra and Kenny Dalglish could get summons to Parliamentary inquiry into racism

Luis Suárez, Patrice Evra and Kenny Dalglish could all be summoned before a Parliamentary inquiry into racism.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2012-01-10 20:55:16 from: The Telegraph

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

By Ulysse Pasquier

Anyone who follows football knows the amount of emotion that the sport can bring in a split second. From total despair to intense euphoria, every fan is ought to have experienced his fair share of hair-raising moments. What happened at the Emirates yesterday however transcended all these feelings.

Mirror: Oldham praise Liverpool over racism probe

Man bailed over verbal attack on Adeyemi

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2012-01-10 11:47:35 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Mail: We don't want racism anywhere near this club, Kenny Dalglish

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish insists the team's show of support for banned striker Luis Suarez had been 'wrongly interpreted' as he defended the club's record on race relations.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2012-01-10 10:35:46 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Goal: Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre calls on club to work with Manchester United to ensure FA Cup match will be 'a great day'

Following further controversy on Friday night, the Anfield boss is after an amicable showing and has reiterated the importance of taking a tough stance on racism

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2012-01-10 08:18:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Goal: Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre calls on club to work with Manchester United to ensure FA Cup match will be 'a great day'

Following further controversy on Friday night, the Anfield boss is after an amicable showing and has reiterated the importance of taking a tough stance on racism

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2012-01-10 08:18:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Guardian: Kenny Dalglish: It's rubbish to say Liverpool are not fighting racism

• Luis Suárez T-shirt stunt was 'interpreted wrongly' • Liverpool 'will always support' battle against racism Kenny Dalglish has said that it is "utterly rubbish" to suggest that defending Luis Suárez against racism accusations showed Liverpool are not interested in fighting racism.

Mirror: Dalglish: We don't want racism anywhere near Liverpool Football Club

People interpreted our support for Suarez wrongly claims boss

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2012-01-09 20:59:56 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.