It still amazes that with all the modern day media training football figures receive, that they are still capable of routinely fucking up when it comes to race issues.
On Saturday, the Daily Mail (who else?) tweeted a provocative picture suggesting that the England Under 21 squad was as racially divided as the country itself. The irony of course being that the Daily Mail pretty much spends all it’s time dividing the country by race and/or religion.
Anyway, the divisive claim prompted England U21 coach Gareth Southgate in to making a statement and instead of briskly rejecting the picture, midway through, he evoked the names of old buddies John Solako and Chris Powell which is one step away from the much heralded “we can’t be racist as some of our friends are black” line, that only further makes you look like an ignorant dick.
I have a dream, and that dream is that I never again want to hear the “some of my friends are black” line, or anything closely resembling it be uttered again in defence of a race issue.
You can watch Southgate’s rejection of a race divide in the England Under 21 camp in the video above.
