Robert Exley
Now, let’s set one thing straight before we go any further with this article; racism certainly wasn’t abolished with an Act of Parliament back in, say 1981, or whenever, as some apologists for racism in society often like to portray. It’s still out there and is often deeply (if only subconsciously) ingrained in the collective psyche of what is, in essence, the aftermath of Britain’s mammoth and, very often in these modern times, under-scrutinised colonial story. Overt racism is very rare in society today and definitely has acquired pariah status, but covertly it’s still very much there and Sol too has definitely been a target of this from those morons in N17, who gleefully sung the line about him ‘hanging from a tree’ - a none too subtle reference to the ‘strange fruit’ of the redneck deep south of America..
Someone at Tottenham Hotspur’s 2008 AGM even came out with this lame defence of that chant, stating that ‘the Sol Campbell song was no worse than what is sung around the rest of the country. Sol has been bleating. This is a national witch hunt. It was not racist. Our fans are being demonised…We made him into a multi-millionaire’. The issue of racism in wider society is obviously one close to Sol’s heart, as seen from this edition of Panorama last May and it certainly is commendable that such a wealthy individual as Sol uses his profile to address the fact that, after all these years, it still very much blights the life chances of so many, rather than simply adopt a ‘pull the ladder up Jack’ attitude that many in his situation may have been tempted to do once they’ve worked their way out of the quagmire.
Sol was also 100% right when last year he addressed the fact that non-white ex-players are under-represented in coaching positions throughout the Premiership and the Football League.. When you consider that most coaching positions seem to go to former players, in comparison to their percentage on the playing staff non-white Brits are shockingly under-represented at this level. There’s not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that, if he was white, somebody like Sol Campbell would have been given more of a crack at football management, as his old Caucasian team mate Tony Adams was given on retiring from the game. TA was a generally a failure at this level, but at least he was given the opportunity to fail; there is only a very tiny percentage of black former players that are even accorded that.
However, just because things often do conspire against you in life, it’s very important to resist the temptation to believe that conspiracy theories are the answer to every problem – if only for the sake of retaining your own credibility. Sadly, with his liberal use of hyperbole, it’s a trap Sol seems to be unaware that he’s falling into. It’s an error he first made nearly two years ago in another Panorama documentary, just prior to Euro 2012, which was held in Poland and Ukraine, in which Sol came out with the sensationalised and, as it turned out, wildly inaccurate warning that England fans risked ‘coming home in coffins’ if they dared to venture to Ukraine to watch England’s games.
Though everyone is aware of the great domestic turmoil that Ukraine is currently experiencing, the risk to the safety of England fans as expressed by Campbell was wildly exaggerated and it’s certainly fair to say that Sol did himself no favours being party to, and complicit in, such a sensationalised Panorama documentary, which is what even those who openly participated in it, such as Jonathan Ornstein, the director of a Jewish Community Centre in Krakow, accused it of being.
Sadly, it seems that with his latest comments Sol hasn’t learned his lesson. In analysing his claim that if he had been born a white man he would have captained the England side for more than ten years, did he actually sit down and ask himself who actually has been accorded that honour for over a decade? If he bothered to do the research he would have found that the only person who had achieved this was former Arsenal manager Billy Wright, who held the captaincy from 1948 to 1959. Two other players have also held this role for nine years – his fellow East-Ender and World Cup-winner Bobby Moore between 1964 and 1973, and Bryan Robson between 1982 and 1991.
It’s fair to say that anyone given the England captaincy for around a decade would have to have been not just a great leader of men, but a truly exceptional one, and with all due respect – remembering his reaction at the West Ham game at Highbury back in 2006 - does Sol really believe he was in this exceptional bracket? If this isn’t what Sol is getting at, then we must assume that he is hinting that during this decade England had a dearth of captaincy material. This too, however, is a ludicrous claim, as during the period in question England had Alan Shearer, Paul Ince, Steven Gerrard and Tony Adams.
In the instance of the latter, despite being one of the most successful club captains of all time, he was only actually given the full-time England captaincy for a brief few months between Alan Shearer’s international retirement and Sven Goran Eriksson’s appointment as England manager. Sol also seems to have forgotten that, in the midst of this competition, he was actually given the England captaincy on three separate occasions, which kind of undermines his own argument. In reality, Tony Adams’s international retirement was the only realistic opportunity that Sol would have had to take up the captaincy – which was eventually given to David Beckham.
Patrick Barclay however, in the Evening Standard gives an alternative view to Campbell’s, stating sarcastically ‘Yes, Sol. Of course it was being black that prevented you from having ten years as England captain. The fact you could barely string together two mumbled words for the public’s benefit had nothing to do with it. It was pure coincidence that David Beckham, quite apart from being as fundamental as you to such successes as the team achieved, was an able, polite and admired ambassador’. In all fairness, Barclay does forget that there too was a time when Becks was not known for his extensive vocabulary either. However, Sol bases his claim to a divine right of captaining England for a decade on being chosen as Tottenham’s skipper during the Christian Gross era, which is kind of like international football’s equivalent of being crowned the world’s tallest midget.
However, rather than Becks, it is Michael Owen for whom Campbell reserves most of his ire, seeing that he had been selected as England captain eight times to Campbell’s three. Campbell, however, was only available for selection on just three of the occasions in which Owen was given the armband. It may be true to say that the ‘star’ factor of both Becks and Owen too played a part on their being selected for the England captaincy on more occasions than Sol. However, it’s odd that he never has raised this as a bugbear for being passed over for the Arsenal captaincy. After all, he had more captaincy experience than both Vieira and Henry when they were each selected as skipper and a huge factor in both of them being given the captaincy was to avoid either of them leaving a club they kind of deep down felt they were getting too big for.
Raising his skin colour in this instance, however, isn’t an option as, like Campbell, Henry and Vieira are both gentlemen of colour themselves. You sadly get the feeling that Sol’s annoyance is rather down to his bruised ego, rather than any great social comment on racism, which more than anything is a rather sad tainting of his own legacy and, ultimately it’s extremely doubtful as to whether he’s done the wider cause of anti-racism any good whatsoever.
So, yes Sol – as you pointed out in your Panorama edition last May, you are 100% right that racism – even in this day and age - is still very much a social ‘wolf at the door’ as it were. I do urge, however, that, as a man of high public profile, you should take the utmost care when crying out that you’ve spotted the wolf’s presence within your midst. Because, if you can only consider those less fortunate than yourself, such as the young disadvantaged black men you met in your Panorama documentary last May, you would understand that the consequences of failing to do so can potentially be disastrous for all concerned.
It can also undermine many years of hard work, carried out by both black and white people, in combatting this great evil. And that, my son, is a far greater tragedy than Sol Campbell not being England captain for over ten years!
*Follow me on Twitter@robert_exley
