Imagine if it was Alex Ferguson being called a paedophile
429 comments December 10th, 2010
As a medical diagnosis, paedophilia is typically defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents (persons age 16 and older) characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children (generally age 13 years or younger, though onset of puberty may vary).
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), paedophilia is a paraphilia in which a person has intense and recurrent sexual urges towards and fantasies about prepubescent children and on which feelings they have either acted or which cause distress or interpersonal difficulty.
In common usage, a paedophile refers to a person with any sexual interest in children or the act of child sexual abuse, often termed “pedophilic behavior”.
Arsene Wenger is not a paedophile. But still, Alex Ferguson has had to come out this week and ask that Manchester United’s fans to refrain from calling him one.
Good on you, Fergie. Whatever their differences, there is clearly a sufficient degree of respect between the Premier League’s elder statesman for the United manager to step in and defend his French counterpart.
What angered me, then, was reading this article from the usually excellent RepublikofMancunia blog. Give it a read. His main point of contention appears to be that he feels the ‘paedophile’ chants have been somehow equated with chants about the Munich air disaster. He says:
“So, whilst I applaud our manager for speaking out in the press about our fans who sing these songs, as it is rare for a manager to criticise his own fans, I abhor the fact he tries to compare calling Wenger a paedophile with laughing at the deaths of 23 innocent people.”
My first problem is that there is an implicit evaluation as to the degree of offence caused. I have to say, I don’t think it matters if referring to someone’s death in an unkind manner is more offensive than labelling a father and husband a paedophile or not. Neither is acceptable. It’s impossible to gauge the degree to which abuse hurts those it targets.
To try and create some sort of hierarchy of abuse is absurd and archaic, and I think the Republik of Mancunia have gone about it in a particularly cumbersome manner. In the same article in which he expresses horror that the ‘paedophile’ and ‘Munich’ chants should be compared, he also draws parallels between the ‘paedophile’ chants with ones about homosexuality. It doesn’t add up. The only thing you can say with any confidence is that abusive chants belong to a prejudiced and hopefully bygone time.
I wish United fans would admit that. Instead, they seem to be using the fact that they’re victims of Munich chanting to justify their own abusive behaviour. The blog reads like the protests of a child, who upon being caught doing something naughty, points at their classmate and says “they did it too”, or “they did it first”, or as in this case, “they did it worse”.
The strangest thing of all is that Ferguson doesn’t explicitly refer to the Munich chants at all. There’s no direct comparison. No attempt to say that one chant is ‘as bad’ as another. In fact, he hasn’t said anything at all yet. His programme notes are as yet unpublished. In the meantime, all we have is this – a statement from a United spokesman:
“We have gone on the record several times about this disgusting chant. We don’t condone it and have appealed to fans several times in the past but to no avail. There are many chants that opposing fans find objectionable and this is certainly one to which all decent supporters should object.
We will take strong action against people who chant in that way. Season tickets will be revoked and we will remove people from the ground for it.”
That is what was riled the blogger in question. Absurd, isn’t it?
Of course, nobody is whiter than white. Doubtless at some point some clever United fan will appear over here to say that Arsenal fans hiss at Spurs fans to mimic the gas chambers. It’s true, there are a small minority that do. I’ve experienced it myself: leaving the tube station in Tottenham with a group of Spurs mates, I was subjected to the same disgusting behaviour. It’s a disgraceful and sickening thing to do. But when I looked in to the crowd, there were only a handful of perpetrators. Sad, tired old men who were once hooligans just so they could feel that they belonged to something. Most of them probably didn’t have tickets for the game. Most of them probably don’t give a shit about the football. Like the idiots who turned a peaceful student protest in to a riot in London yesterday, they’re a small minority determined to cause problems, purely for the sake of indulging their pathetic prejudices.
I’m not justifying it. It’s appalling. It has to be stamped out. And thankfully, it is being eradicated. Arsenal is a hugely multi-cultural club, with a diverse fanbase that is the envy of the Premier League. The irony of calling it an ‘anti-semitic’ club won’t be lost on our thousands of Jewish supporters. We have a special anonymous text service whereby supporters can alert stewards to any racist behaviour they feel is occurring at a game – and this was introduced at the behest of a group of fans.
Among Arsenal fans, as among any social group, there are idiots. People who will sing distasteful songs, or impersonate aeroplanes. As I’ve said, nobody is whiter than white. But it is undoubtedly true to say it’s a minority. It’s a problem that is coming under control. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Wenger chants.
Think back to Arsene Wenger’s sending off at Old Trafford last season. As he stood among the crowd having been banished to the stands, thousands of fans taunted him with “sit down you paedophile”. Most versions of this video have had ‘funny’ music applied, presumably to cover the shame of the chants. But here’s the footage:
Can anybody tell me, in good conscience, that that is the sound of “a minority”?
I thought not.
Throughout the abuse, Arsene has maintained a remarkably dignified silence. When Alex Ferguson took a bit of stick from the crowd at the Emirates, he compiled a dossier underlining his concerns. And nothing that occurred that day came close to what Wenger has been subjected to.
Imagine, for a moment, that the boot was on the other foot. Imagine that is was Alex Ferguson’s name being tarnished by 70,000 Arsenal fans, being given a label around which there is more stigma than any other in modern society. Can you imagine the uproar? The disgust? A real life British person, with feelings and everything, being treated in that way.
Of course, I’d hate to see that happen. And if Arsenal fans were the perpetrators, I’d feel ashamed. I’d never sing a Munich chant. I’d never hiss at a Spurs fan. And I’d never call Alex Ferguson a paedophile. I can’t separate those out. I can’t draw line between what is acceptable and what isn’t. All I know is that all of those chants are wrong.
Arsene has shown, for over a decade now, that he’s strong enough to rise above it. At Old Trafford, he stood among fans hurling abuse at him with a messianic poise. He didn’t flinch.
His strength, however, is not a justification for the chants to continue. And I’m sorry, but nor is the abuse United fans have suffered about Munich. It’s time to be accountable for your actions. And time to stop.
