The THST, a self-appointed organization that nobody remembers voting for, has struck again. In fairness, it must have been a tough call on how you come back from a demand for the board of the football club that you’re liaising with to step down.
The latest inventive suggestion thrown down by the Trust was after our recent trip to Anfield. This time around, they have decided that away fans ought to be more politically correct and sensitive when participating in-stadia chanting.
The points of concern from the Trust include the mocking of joblessness, and the distraction that this causes from the good deeds undertaken by Spurs supporters, such as support for foodbank and community initiatives in Haringey.
The core issue here – and it appears to be a common refrain these days – is that the Trust is clearly incapable of holding two thoughts in its head at the same time.
Just because a fan mocks an opponent’s fans, why on earth would this mean that person held a callous attitude to poverty, outside a football setting? Sometimes, indeed frequently, light-heartedness can include a victim. But that’s the point, it’s a joke.
When someone starts telling a joke about a Rabbi, an Irishman, and a Scotsman are marooned on a desert island, your mind is pretty messed up if your immediate reaction is to begin fretting about their safety or who their immediate family are feeling.
This is just another example of unsolicited interference in football. Please don’t.
[…] which they decided was bad. I covered the patronizing and deeply flawed thinking of that stunt here, […]
It’s not exclusively ‘the internet’ that is causing this phenomenon. I think the schools, colleges and universities have experienced a type of atheist coup d’etat.
I sent my son to Catholic primary and secondary schools. Now I know religion is not for everyone but what it does put in place is a moral code of sorts. Be tolerant of people, remember the disadvantaged, forgive people if you expect to be forgiven, admit when you are wrong, treat others as you expect to be treated, don’t kill anyone, don’t steal anything, be faithful to your spouse. You get the picture.
Clearly not all these institutions were well run in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s but what institutions were? When I was growing up the only meals or self discipline some of the kids at my school got was when they attended. Because of the failure at some religious schools the whole thing has been canned and replaced by the rainbow crowd. I think we should give people a choice how they want their kids educated. Rainbow secular or Roman Catholic in my case.
Obviously family also plays a huge part and I can confirm that I brought him up on James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Motown, Soul, Northern, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Punk, New Wave, The Jam, The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, Trade Unionism and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. A very thorough grounding.
After three years at Manchester Metropolitan University all my hard work was undone. They sent home a confused vegetarian who doesn’t want a real job.
We need to burn it down. Here we go, here we go, here we go…….
This is the next step isn’t it? It’s coming.
Terrace humour was part and parcel of football’s working class heritage. It was once possible for 40,000 plus to attend football matches and for a couple of hours treat the whole thing as a bit of a pantomime. It wasn’t real or personal abuse; it was an escape from reality where the frustration of the working week, probably in a factory or a foundry, could be vented against the referee who liked to masturbate, the opposition striker who had eaten all the pies or, in the case of Peter Shilton, the opposition goalkeeper who had very publicly been exposed as having an affair by the red top rags.
At best it was pure genius. Spontaneous wit ruthlessly executed. The victim left totally humiliated in the bear pit. Somehow everyone managed to leave the stadium after the final whistle and forget it all very quickly. Not anymore.
For what it is worth there are many many things I have heard sung at football matches which I would rather not have. To our credit I believe Spurs have always been a crowd that have never sung racist chants. However; The songs about Busby and the boys, Wenger and the cheeky smile, Adebayor and the elephants, Ian Wright’s wife, Shaun Wright Phillips’ mum and Barrymore’s pool make the ‘sign on’ song look tame.
I never sang any of these songs but I respect the rights of those who chose too.
This is the start of something for sure. Freedom of speech is in decline; along with democracy. Welcome to the Brave New World.
“Antonio Conte’s Y-WORD ARMEEEE!!”
Does anyone take these clowns seriously? I’d wager the majority of Spurs fans don’t even know who they are.
I wonder what Dennis Waterman would have made of all this nonsense. I have never been the slightest bit interested in anything that the THST have ever said written. They were apologists for Levy for twenty years and they are a complete irrelevance to most Spurs fans. Back to the real world, spare a thought for Graham Thorpe, a great English batsman, yes batsman not a batter, who is critically ill with causes unknown at the grand old age of 52.
Unfortunately they ain’t millennials. If only it was so easy. Gen X isn’t cool anymore, I’m going to shed a tear
walob
back in the day there was a long song about “in your Liverpool slums”
they didn’t moan about it they just threw more sharpened pennies and made sure the blades on their Stanley knives weren’t blunt.
Cheeky scallies
Forgive the Righteous ..for they are the biggest hypocrites of..
Well said Mike ,
The world has changed between breaths and is now on some sort of unstoppable juggernaut to hell.
I suspect that “the internet” is playing a significant role in the way it so easily destroys long-held perceptions of the ‘older’ generations , the inability of the young to understand tradition or previously held beliefs is staggering .
Football and the supporting of , is a place to unwind , express thought and engage when possible in ‘ harmless banter’ . It occasioally oversteps the mark , but on a good day is there any better place to be than on the terraces ?
Should we look to never have this opportunity for comedy , drama , sporting excellence , free speech [ in its gentlest tribal form ?] and sheer joy and despair and treat those impostors ……………………
Not exactly old but you could be right on the other.
Rivalry or what could also be deemed as jealousy, is a human trait whether it is in football or village fetes, people live that way, in this case chants are nowhere near as cynical or insulting as years gone by, not that that is ok.
Interestingly, I read somewhere yesterday that the unemployment figures in north London were worse than the N. West of England and crime including murders were higher.
I digress here but in the ever so delicate society of today, there has been huge changes in what is regarded right and wrong in absolutely everything we do in our lives.
It seems everything from the distant past right up to recent years is now seen as wrong and completely inappropriate, whether it’s laws, behaviour or attitudes in the way everyday people of this country (UK) have lived for so long.
Maybe it’s an age thing, I can only speak for myself but the amount of change and the speed in which these things have been carried out has been a shock to the system, I don’t recognise so much of what is going on and considered correct, but al least football retains some level of normality thank goodness.
Football is tribal by nature, the banter and sweeping generalisations that go with it are balanced by most fans with actual intent.
I may call the scum scum but does that mean i treat family members at gatherings any different to what club they support, of course not.
But in this world there are people who try to make out they’re highly evolved cerebral beings and the THST seems to be full off them and their meetings must be just like a curry and beer night with champagne socialists.
Its the same tendency that rationalises that because we have the stadium it might facilitate winning in 50 years because it wasn’t dirty money so would tarnish winning today.
When they come out with some of the stuff they do, I just want to wind a Tappa type up and put them in their meeting and relish what happens.
THST are just as bad and idiotic as the baldy man in charge.. Jesus no wonder we are in this mess.
What a surprise that the THST is now run by wokey millennials! Only wokey millennials can understand the reason for its existence…
Unemployment based banter and chants involving the Y word – naughty naughty! Makes you wonder if these people have ever actually been to a game, because your archetypal football fan has never struck me as an individual open to being told what to do by a bunch of old farts!