LATE LAST YEAR, I wrote about the Ched Evans case. Quite expectedly, I received messages from those that had read the piece. One note was well-composed, calm and sensitive. It painted a picture of Evans as a victim. It suggested that he deserved a second chance. That he was just trying to get his life back together after his release from prison.
And maybe that’s what’s most worrying. The lunatics that spew bile and vitriol in various online spaces are easily swept to one side and ignored. But there are well-educated and intelligent people who are caught in those tidal waves that engulf football from time to time. And in the murky waters, they fight for their lives to stay afloat.
Sometimes it can be marked under tribalism – when passionate fans can’t see past their own players’ misdemeanours. Sometimes it seeps into more social issues like racism or sexism or homophobia and there remains a substantial part of the football community that will genuinely mull over such questions as ‘Was it really that racist?’ The same people easily dismiss important social ills as political correctness gone mad. And what many within football circles regularly do (and this is certainly a wider reflection on society also) is forget about the victim.
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So much attention is paid to the aggressor. We’re fascinated by them. We desperately seek to define what they did and sometimes we try to make excuses. When it comes to the victim, we’re instantly cynical. We look to poke holes in the story. We look for the ulterior motive.
In 2014, guys like Ched Evans and Malky Mackay made the headlines. Column inches were devoted to their falls from grace and subsequent recoveries. Yet, lost in the haze of headlines was the fact that Evans’ rape of a 19 year-old and Mackay’s ‘alleged’ (it’s incredible that we have to tip-toe around this until such time as the ridiculous FA pantomime/investigation comes to conclusion) racism, sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism has been glamorised owing to the celebrity status of the offenders. Photographers and TV crews followed Evans’ every day. Even on his way to court, he was the superstar.
Martin Rickett / PA Archive/Press Association Images
Martin Rickett / PA Archive/Press Association Images / PA Archive/Press Association Images
In Evans’ case, the victim was named online by Evans’ supporters and forced to leave her family and her support network. Emotionally and physically vulnerable, she was forced to try to rebuild her life in a different part of the UK. She was forced to change her name 3 times. Why? Because of the abuse she received. She received abuse for being raped.
Meanwhile, Sheffield United’s co-chairman Jim Phipps condemned the ‘mob-like behaviour’ of those who didn’t want Evans training at the club after his release from prison. Phipps argued that Evans, the convicted rapist, would struggle to rebuild his career.
My sporting wish for 2015: football's murky underworld is eradicated
LATE LAST YEAR, I wrote about the Ched Evans case. Quite expectedly, I received messages from those that had read the piece. One note was well-composed, calm and sensitive. It painted a picture of Evans as a victim. It suggested that he deserved a second chance. That he was just trying to get his life back together after his release from prison.
And maybe that’s what’s most worrying. The lunatics that spew bile and vitriol in various online spaces are easily swept to one side and ignored. But there are well-educated and intelligent people who are caught in those tidal waves that engulf football from time to time. And in the murky waters, they fight for their lives to stay afloat.
Sometimes it can be marked under tribalism – when passionate fans can’t see past their own players’ misdemeanours. Sometimes it seeps into more social issues like racism or sexism or homophobia and there remains a substantial part of the football community that will genuinely mull over such questions as ‘Was it really that racist?’ The same people easily dismiss important social ills as political correctness gone mad. And what many within football circles regularly do (and this is certainly a wider reflection on society also) is forget about the victim.
So much attention is paid to the aggressor. We’re fascinated by them. We desperately seek to define what they did and sometimes we try to make excuses. When it comes to the victim, we’re instantly cynical. We look to poke holes in the story. We look for the ulterior motive.
In 2014, guys like Ched Evans and Malky Mackay made the headlines. Column inches were devoted to their falls from grace and subsequent recoveries. Yet, lost in the haze of headlines was the fact that Evans’ rape of a 19 year-old and Mackay’s ‘alleged’ (it’s incredible that we have to tip-toe around this until such time as the ridiculous FA pantomime/investigation comes to conclusion) racism, sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism has been glamorised owing to the celebrity status of the offenders. Photographers and TV crews followed Evans’ every day. Even on his way to court, he was the superstar.
In Evans’ case, the victim was named online by Evans’ supporters and forced to leave her family and her support network. Emotionally and physically vulnerable, she was forced to try to rebuild her life in a different part of the UK. She was forced to change her name 3 times. Why? Because of the abuse she received. She received abuse for being raped.
Meanwhile, Sheffield United’s co-chairman Jim Phipps condemned the ‘mob-like behaviour’ of those who didn’t want Evans training at the club after his release from prison. Phipps argued that Evans, the convicted rapist, would struggle to rebuild his career.
It spoke volumes.
Originally published at 07.30
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