The Foul Mouth of the North London Derby

North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have come together with the aim of capturing those involved in offensive chanting, during last weekend's North London derby.

There has been much press coverage of the chants; some aimed at Spurs striker Emmanuel Adebayor were in relation to the gun attack on the Togo national team bus on the way to last years' African Cup of Nations.

Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna was rumoured to have been spat on by the home fans as he waited to be stretchered off the pitch following a collision with the advertising boards, that resulted in a fractured fibula. Along with the usual bile that is aimed at the both managers from the rival fans.

The clubs have now released a joint statement condemning the actions and encouraging others to 'shop a moron' if they know someone who was involved. If the information is confirmed with video footage the clubs will take action that may involve the person being banned for life from both clubs' the stadium.

This is not the first time this season, fans chants have been in the spotlight. Fans of Leeds and Manchester United were also caught on camera singing songs about the Istanbul and Munich tragedies respectively, in the Carling Cup last month.

Racism Still Kicking!

Just like most of you I was watching Barcelona v Real Madrid, enjoying the wonders of Messi and hoping there would be less theatrics than last week. Wondering where the hell Jose was and wondering how many fouls Ricardo Carvalho would make before he got a seccond yellow.

Then in the second half, Emmanual Adebayor replaced Higuin up front for Real Madrid. At first, I thought I was hearing things but after turning up the TV and sitting quietly I knew I wasn't. This wasn't my imagination, I really was hearing monkey chants. In the year 2011 when the United States of America has a black President and some of the World biggest stars are people of colour, the ignorance of some people still continues to shock and disgust me.

As an Arsenal fan, I'm not a lover of Adebayor but I would not wish that kind of bile on my worst enemy. No person should ever have to suffer abuse because of their heritage, sexuality or sex. It is not acceptable and it should not be tolerated.

Luckily in England it happens very rarely and if it does the bigot is usually given a lifetime ban from the club. But in other parts of Europe this continues to be a regular occurance. The problem for me is that when it does occur FIFA and UEFA do too little about it. Either it is brushed under the carpet or the club/country is given a paltry fine. An amount so small it wouldn't even cover a weeks wages of the average player.

If they are supposed to be the masters/ the headteachers of all things football; how can they allow such things to continue?

They preach of their commitment to diversity within this beautiful game yet they ignore events such as this. If Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini feel they deserve their seats at football's top table, this is the time for them to prove it. Create a clear set of rules and punishments - should the club/country allow it to continue - to keep this ignorant hatred from spoiling our games.

The Kick Racism out of Football campaign has been going strong in this country and I am proud to say I have not seen or heard any of this filth while watching football. Maybe that is why there are so many foreign players in the UK compared to other countries. Because we welcome everyone with open arms and judge them by their person, not by their colour.

If other countries did the same, imagine how great our wonderful game would be.

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