Most football fans will have noticed the English Premier League (EPL), and other leagues though-out Europe open support for Black Lives Matter. I found this quite perplexing, as the rules on wearing items of political support during a football match by FIFA are very strict.
According to the Laws of the Game, Law 4, Section 5 states:
“Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans,
statements or images…statements or images related to the following are not
permitted…any local, regional, national or international political party/organisation/
group, etc…any organisation whose aims/actions are likely to offend a notable
number of people.”
Now according to this article, the aims of BLM are as follows:
- de-funding the police
- dismantling capitalism and the patriarchal system
- disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure
- seeking reparations from slavery to redistribute wealth and via various offshoot appeals
- to raise money to bail black prisoners awaiting trial.
Now, I am not an expert on the football regulations, but I would certainly argue that all of the aims of BLM breach Law 4. Quite simply, most of these aims would require major political change to be enacted. If those aims are not political, exactly what is? Compare this to the ban on teams wearing the poppy. The Royal British Legion were not, nor are not demanding any political change, unlike BLM.
The behaviour of some BLM protestors did offend many people, remember this incident?
Despite all of the above, why did the FA and EPL give the green light to actively support this organisation without researching its aims? One can only surmise that the FA received authorisation from FIFA for this to go ahead. Otherwise, FIFA would have levied a fine against the FA and respective clubs involved for promoting political slogans. As no penalties occurred, it is fair to assume the authorisation must have come from the very top. Additionally, there were no major concerns raised by the clubs themselves.
This is very dangerous grounds for the clubs and the companies who televise the football. For a commercial business, involving yourself in politics is a sure-fire way of losing customers, neutrality is very important. Personally, I cancelled my Sky subscription; I suspect I may not be the only one. I no longer want my money going to the clubs (nor any organisation) that support a violent Marxist takeover. As a (former) customer, I had the power to do that.
As far as I’m aware, no footballer refused to ‘take the knee’; if any readers know otherwise, please share this. Matthew Le Tissier, the former Southampton footballer, turned pundit admitted being asked him to wear a BLM badge. Le Tissier bravely refused, Karl Henry also labelled BLM as ‘divisive’.
As for the current crop of professional footballers, none publicly questioned BLM’s motives (I doubt most of the players actually really care). They were only concerned with keeping their sponsors and lying low. Perhaps they may be more concerned in the future if BLM manages to redistribute their wealth or seize their multi-million-pound mansions in Cheshire? Compare this to the backlash against Jake Hepple by Burnley.
As I said earlier, this woke charade was an ill-considered venture by the EPL. The clubs will already be losing money due to social distancing and going forward, those 50,000 seater stadia will no longer be able to hold that amount of people. Stadium capacity may be cut substantially, and many season ticket holders will think twice about returning for fear of a ‘second wave’. What also of the public who have witnessed, and been outraged by the scenes of carnage throughout the UK? Will they continue to financially support football?
With reduced revenue, many players will find themselves expensive luxuries, and some clubs will go under. The EPL will need every penny it gets, especially if a major recession occurs and people can no longer afford to watch subscription television. The situation has all the ingredients of a perfect storm.
The ‘capital’ that finds its way into the clubs’ coffers and players’ paycheques will dry up. The irony here is that without capitalism, they would have no money to begin with. Lets see how quickly they agree with the BLM’s aim of ‘dismantling capitalism’ when that happens.
Perhaps though, money is starting to dry up, and the EPL realise they may have gone too far. It was reported here that they are now trying to distance themselves from the ‘political movement’ of BLM. A bit late gents to say the least, as that horse has already bolted.
On a final note, history repeats, and we have witnessed football become political before. The England team in 1938 did the equivalent of ‘taking the knee’ for a despotic, evil regime; and history, quite rightly, never forgave them for it.
The England team got a Yellow card for wearing poppies in case it offended the Germans .
As for the rules of the game…
Good for you John Lock. I have no interest in football but you have written a well researched and thought through article. The Clubs, players and fans will see the light I’m sure.
Pauline Your faith in the commonsense of the football fraternity is may be misplaced.
The braindead kickers could not risk being left out of any virtue signaling going. Nor could Starmer. He’ll be haunted by ‘that’ photo like Milliband eating.
Why are people arguing the finer subtle points around the BLM movement?
The movement is an American marxist political organisation created around a decade ago with a very,very clever title. Something that they knew damn well no person of good conscience could argue against, ergo they only have to show up to make everyone who’s anyone want to throw money and fealty (ie virtue signals) at them. The movement has been primed and waiting for a trigger to jump into action – and along comes Mr Floyd.
The Black Lives Matter movement is being used as a campaign fund recruiting tool by the Democrats to get Joe Biden elected in this Presidential year. It has NOTHING to do with actually helping black people in the US, let alone the UK. Witness the great and the good in this country after their initial fawning suddenly and furiously backpedalling upon reading the BLM movements mission statement, beyond their title. What a fantastic coincidence that the Democratic National Committee’s election war chest has happened to swell greatly, after the death of the above mentioned Mr Floyd.
Follow the money.
To be precise, the BLM programme is not Marxist, but a combination of neo-Marxism (ie. Cultural Marxism – a more pernicious, mind-bending revision of classical Marxism that has been adopted by big capitalism as a means of destroying nation states in order to facilitate the easy movement of capital and labour on a global scale) and anarchism. Taking this into account, BLM is nothing more than a Trojan Horse with which to leap further forward into that corporatist no-borders scenario.
Ian Bateson. Yes you are right in your comment. It’s surprising to the point of almost unbelievable that (neo) marxism/anarchism can team up with extreme (global) capitalism but that is undoubtedly what has happened there. As you say the purpose is to destroy nation states.
Overall the intention is to get World Government. Worldwide Control of All Means of Production. (So back to original Marxist Theory.) Anarchy is just a tool along the road. Humanity providing Labour of whatever ‘colour’ is just another tool to be used.
Hopefully the Demo_rats will get Trumped; not just for the sake of the US but the rest of the civilised world.
Football Crazy?
Certainly not, I have avoided it like the plague since being taken to a match by my father in my early teens.
However the important point here is the indisputable fact that the aims of BLM make it clear, along with the action of several supporters, that it is a terrorist organisation and should be treated as such.
The capitulation to it and support of it is way beyond acceptable. Government and its law enforcement agencies need to take action.
The problem is that Western governments – most particularly those in the Anglosphere – are willingly complicit. Even the fake-Conservative Party has long fallen to the ‘long march through the institutions’ that was called for by old communist Rudi Dutschke.
“many season ticket holders will think twice about returning for fear of a ‘second wave’.”
Not only that. A lot of them simply won’t have the dosh.
No taypayers’ money for pro-sport anyway; that’s my view.
Very measured and sensible article. Premier League, in their woke desperation, decided to jump on a bandwagon that a few minutes Internet BLM checking would have told them would be disastrous.
‘Joe Public’ discussions I’ve been having suggest that many people are hopping mad about every aspect, including ‘taking the knee’. They see spineless players who don’t want to risk their careers by showing courage. Especially gutless considering most could retire today and still live a life of luxury well beyond the dreams of most people.
The MSM is so left wing that it won’t run anything that interferes with its pro-black, pro-Labour, anti-Brexit woke agenda. Whatever next? The banning of negro spiritual songs?
IMO we HAVE to remember the historical context of what went on in the slave trade in order to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Doesn’t mean we have to agree with it but we can’t just wipe the history from our culture or we’ll be condemned to repeat it in the future.
Agreed. Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest of Americans, was a slave-owner. The Greek philosopher Plato could find no argument against slavery. Should we be tearing down their statues ?
And we mustn’t forget that when slavery was abolished in the USA, the newly free found themselves wage-slaves due to land monopoly.
We should remember that slavery was well established long before any Europeans got in on the act. I believe that Zanzibar was a virtual slave supermarket for the Arab world that had a constant demand for slaves from Africa.
Slavery was an unfortunate but inevitable requirement in pre-mechanised societies. It was the onset of the Industrial Revolution – which began in Great Britain – that made slavery redundant.
It is noticeable that none of the mainstream media outlets have picked up on this most valid point.