A COUPLE of years ago, a number of high-profile black footballers including Rio Ferdinand refused to wear T-shirts promoting the 'Kick It Out' anti-racism organisation.
They felt the body, funded largely by the footballing authorities in England, was failing to fulfil its remit and merely paying lip service to the concept of addressing race-related problems within the game.
Ferdinand went further in his autobiography when branding it "useless", claiming a lack of support for his family when his younger brother, Anton, had taken John Terry of Chelsea to court over allegations he had called him a "black c**t".
He accused them of being scared to get involved in high-profile cases, scared of the exposure.
Shay Logan of Aberdeen is the latest player, according to the Judicial Panel of the Scottish Football Association, to have been labelled a "black c**t" on the field of play. Aleksandar Tonev of Celtic was found guilty on appeal of delivering such an appalling insult and is now serving a seven-game suspension.
'Kick It Out', as Mr Ferdinand may not be surprised to hear, want little to do with it. They were approached by this newspaper moments after the SFA had, most commendably, released the Notes of Reasons from the Judicial Panel meeting and Appellate Tribunal and given an open platform to provide their official reaction to events.
Copies of all SFA documentation were sent to them to facilitate a considered and accurate response. After several hours and a handful of telephone calls, which were not returned, an email from a Richard Bates, the media and communications manager, dropped.
"Celtic FC have outlined that they are due to be 'approaching the Scottish FA to seek to address this issue'," wrote Mr Bates. "We will await the outcome of these conversations before looking at making any comment on the matter."
If 'Kick It Out' are not prepared to comment on a player being convicted of calling a opponent a "black c**t" and banned from the sport, it does not seem uncharitable to suggest they would, indeed, gain some benefit from taking a rain check on their raison d'etre.
Staying silent because Celtic planned further discussions with the SFA is a cop-out of the highest order. Mind you, it was exactly the same cop-out used by 'Show Racism The Red Card', an educational charity supported by the Scottish Government and focused largely on schools, who said they "cannot comment on an ongoing process".
It is not ongoing. There may be valid questions about the procedure, but Tonev has been done.
Some time ago, I sought the reaction of a prominent anti-racism campaigner to a pertinent issue. He wanted to know if there would be a payment involved. There wasn't and, therefore, no comment was given.
Fighting racial prejudices has to be about more than seeking funds and subsidies, though. It has to be about more than printing T-shirts and encouraging schoolchildren to draw nice pictures of everyone getting on splendidly.
Uncomfortable as it may be, it has to involve putting your head above the parapet and taking a stand.
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