Pompey Statement on Sol abuse

What a cry baby!

Sol Campbell was asking for some trouble when he moved for FREE to ARSENAL!! However as a Spurs fan I do not support the chants that I have read about, for me they go too far and they make me cringe with embarrassment !

ABOUT TIME TOO! All the time Pompey are selling tickets to young children, it has a responsibility to try and police what happens inside the stadium. I took a 7 year old Moslem boy to the match on Sunday, and although we could not make out hardly anything of what Spurs were chanting, I bet after what his parents have read (and I don't know them very well) they are not happy. How embarrassing! Hotspurdude, you should be ashamed of yourself coming on here, you sound like a child. Grow up!

Players move on whether there is a fee or not is irrelevant, who they go to is irrelevant. What can never be irrelevant is homophobic or racist abuse. If a significant number can't be punished then surely Spurs are open to a charge of failing to control their fans. Not usually a charge i'd support but in cases like this something has to be done. My view is that for a first offence a points deduction and for repeated offences ban their fans from away games and, or play home games behind closed doors. When their club has been punished in this way which would amount to a financial burden as well as threaten their league position, the Decent vast majority of fans would make their feelings known to the mindless ones that feel they're doing nothing wrong. There is no place in modern society for abusing someone because of Race, Colour or sexual orientation. That said i would hate to see the end of banter between fans and players, i remember Mathew LeTissier playing at a testimonial at FP, his every touch was booed and accompanied by the usual chants, when he scored he whipped of his shirt to display a Southampton one underneath. This obviously met with the usual response. That though was banter going both ways and most people laughed about it, he certainly went up in my estimation after that response. Banter has it's place vile abuse doesn't.

Park there is friendly cbanter with players which I am sure they learn to except as part of their job, but ranting on about someones sexuality is going a bit far!

I can't understand why anyone would want to reference lynching. This has dragged out a bit but the club have no choice. Well done Hampshire police for not letting this go by without some kind of action.

And I suppose HIV is a plague sent by God to rid the world of sinners

The wit in football chants is what makes them special, there was nothing witty about the chants on sunday. Although i talk about clubs being punished i feel thats harsh, just probably the only option left open now. I would like to see racism and sexual prejudices stamped out of society as a whole.

Little bit hypocritical with the things we shout at Southampton players and the like.

One more point - You say "What sanctions could the FA invoke against Spurs for failing to control their fans?" - Spurs' record in the fight to kick out racism over the years has been exemplory - the problem occurred at Pompey where it is the responsibility of Pompey officials and the police to control both home and away fans. This is not like an FA charge of failing to control players, it is about controlling fan behaviour. If there was a failure, then it is the Pompey officials and the police who should be criticised for not nipping it in the bud. By all means, deal with the individual fans if they can be identified, but it is nonsense to say that sanctions should be made against Spurs.

a dangerous thing to be chased up here - granted some of the abuse is well beyond what anyone should put up with, and our 'anti scum' stuff isnt half as bad as some of the stuff spurs came out with...as i say a dangerous thing to do here, and not quite sure how it will be enforced?

GANDOR. ru wenger in disguise!!!!!!

Whilst i in no way condone the abuse that Sol got last Sunday. It's never nice to hear that sort of filth, especially in front of kids. A dangerous precedent could be set here and exactly how would this be enforced? Lets not turn football into another version of the Nanny State. I don't really fancy just sitting there sedately applauding at a game when we score. Also feel slightly hypocritical as i seem to remember some of our fans singing "'Arry's a c***, and so is Jim" back in 2006 at FP when 'Arry was in charge of that lot down the road. Not quite as strong as the abuse directed at Sol though, but still not pleasant.

The problem is that Spurs fans have pushed it too far. This has gone beyond football, into the realms of "the state this nation is in". People have to take responsibility for their own actions, whether they fully understood the consequences of their actions at the time or not. Whatever the result of this episode I doubt it will be positive. It's another sad day for football in this country.

As individuals we usually behave, some more than others. However most blokes, do let their steam off at a match & will say & chant things they may not say anywhere else. Your team is your passion & you get carried away. This is not a blue print for life of agreeing or not with what the spurs have said. I doubt if it's not the first time Sol has heard since that move away from Spurs. Heaven only knows what we have called ex-scum players, when Harry when there & numerous other disliked players over the decades. I believe the whole thing is being blown out of proportion. If it wasn't our player we wouldn't give it much thought. This country's problems are not going to be solved by shutting up football fans or by blaming Spurs. If Delap plays for Stoke tomorrow, a few thousand will remind him of his past. Are we not just as guilty? Calling Welsh players sheep sh4ggers? German players like Ballack had WW11 type songs? All good fun maybe but who says it is?

Perhaps Sol is making a stand precisely because he knows he's nearing the end of his playing days but there could be loads of younger players who could benefit if there is some sense of where to draw a line. Personally I felt that with the extra support Sol got from us at Fratton pk on Sunday, he answered Spuds in the best way possible by having a good game and helping to get three points off them. The anti-Sol stuff last week just FELT all wrong and just FELT worse than the more generic Scummer/Sheepshagger stuff..can't really justify that statement, it's all subjective but it just felt all wrong... Mind you, if you had a time machine and went back to the first match I ever saw at the Park 30 years ago and said that the Fratton end would be defending a black player from homophobic chants, I would have called for the blokes from St James' to bring the straight jackets.

'I was a Spurs fan as a boy it would be hard for me to leave...I would never join ars*nal, the fans wouldn't forgive me' Sol Campbell, May 2000.'

It is easy to forget that some of Vital Pompeys most valuable and knowledgeable writers no longer contribute due to fallings out instigated by differences of feeling over Vital comments about Southampton supporters. Terrace banter in my day was magic, at present it is a disgusting measure of our existing society.