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source: toffeeweb.com
Everton's Alan Stubbs has voiced the thoughts of England's army of xenophobes by complaining about what foreigners have done to the British game. Speaking after the card-heavy Merseyside derby Stubbs said:
"The foreign players have brought a lot of good things to the Premiership but a lot of the other side too. If Kevin Kilbane had rolled around on the Floor after Gerrard had fouled him, there would have been even more action taken. Kevin just got straight up. He's an honest player."
Leaving aside the fact that Kilbane isn't British (and probably wouldn't take kindly to being labelled as such) this is a typical little Englander quote. I've seen enough British players take dives (Owen against Argentina in France '98 for example) to believe that this isn't some disease that the evil foreign legion have brought to England.
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9 Responses
ashley krotosky on 27-03-2006 at 4:56 am
cheating isn’t monopolised by imports, but Stubbs isn’t entirely wrong. this is part of a bigger debate about the decaying morality of our country in which anyone putting their heads above the parapet comes under scrutiny for consideration as a hypocrite -which sadly these days seems to have become the only crime receiving universal condemnation.
Stevie G on 27-03-2006 at 5:25 am
I believe this headline to be exceptionally awful journalism. The definition if a xenophobe is ‘A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples’. Alan Stubbs does not fall into this category. Articles like this simply stirs up racism, something that is attempting to be stamped out of British football. Daryl – you are a disgrace to your profession.
JOhn EFC on 27-03-2006 at 6:42 am
Response from: Stevie G posted on March 27, 2006 05:25 AM
I believe this headline to be exceptionally awful journalism. The definition if a xenophobe is ‘A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples’. Alan Stubbs does not fall into this category. Articles like this simply stirs up racism, something that is attempting to be stamped out of British football. Daryl – you are a disgrace to your profession.
i wholeheartedly agree..
Everton G on 27-03-2006 at 8:12 am
Terrible selective, lazy, journalism.
Stubbs made a few interesting points, some are decent some are generalisations. Also, his comments were specifically about card waving players, trying to get others booked, not about diving.
It doesn’t make him a Racist any more than this article makes you a journalist.
Kevin Kilbane is from Preston, by the way.
daryl on 27-03-2006 at 10:07 am
This is a blog, not The Independent on Sunday. Blogs are intended to provoke debate and draw comments.
I prefer intelligent comments like ashley krotosky’s, which address the issue.
To “Stevie G” and “JOhn EFC”; the dictionary definition of xenophobia is exactly the point I wanted to make about Stubbs. By suggesting foreigners are exclusively to blame for diving he is “unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.”
Would ‘Stevie G’ care to explain how me calling Stubbs a xenophobe “stirs up racism”?
daryl on 27-03-2006 at 10:45 am
And to clear up the Kevin Kilbane thing, “Everton G” is right to point out that Kilbane was born in Preston. However, both his parents are Irish (from Mayo and Longford) and Kilbane considers himself Irish. So much so that he rejected an England youth call up to make sure he could wear green.
Mike Baldwin's Brain on 27-03-2006 at 12:34 pm
Kilbane has lived his entire life in little England, as you so hilariously put it.
Stubbs is correct, anyhow. He was talking about the action of waving an imaginary card so as to influence the referee, which is a purely foreign phenomenon.
daryl on 27-03-2006 at 1:47 pm
Fair enough that Kilbane has lived and played all his lfie in England so he is a product of English football, and I admit that making a distinction between Stubbs’ complaint about foreign players and Kilbane’s Irishness/Britishness is unnecessarily didactic, so let’s not get bogged down in that.
But I’m still not happy that the Premiership’s ills can so easily be blamed on foreigners and they certainly can’t be solved by xenophobic comments like Stubbs’.
The reason I find it xenophobic is that it fosters the belief that foreigners are cheats while British players are all as honest as the day is long.
Quoten on 22-01-2007 at 7:07 am
the diving should be punished with a 10minute penalty imo. A few goals conceded in the 78. minute, when only 10 players of one team are facing 11 and the coaches would put an end to it really quickly.