So, a month and a half after Bobby Firmino was shoved into the stands by Mason Holgate, swore at him in response, and was accused of being racist by the young English defender, the FA has eventually decided that Firmino did not racially abuse Holgate. This, of course, is great news for Liverpool and Firmino – who released a wonderfully classy statement immediately after. It is not, however, great news for football in general.
The FA is an absolute farce. Every single racial accusation absolutely has to be taken with the utmost severity and examined properly in order to get a fair and impartial result that reflects on what actually happened. That said, to take 47 days to reach a conclusion that really could have been reached in as many hours is an absolutely damning indictment on the FA’s racism policy.
This is an organisation still blighted by the Mark Sampson debacle, whose reputation with regards to racism is effectively in the toilet, and now makes an absolute mess of what should have been a relatively straightforward verdict.
And this works both ways. If it had taken 47 days to find Firmino guilty, we would have been wondering why it had taken so long, and why Firmino had been allowed to play so many games under the shadow of an inevitable suspension. Instead, we’re asking why he was forced to play under the shadow of a possible, but always unlikely suspension, that never bore fruit.
As I said at the start, this is not to suggest that the FA shouldn’t have taken Holgate’s allegation seriously. But taking it seriously does not equate to taking a long time to deal with it. If anything, resolving Holgate’s solution quicker would have shown more respect to the seriousness of the allegation.
So why did it take so long for the FA to make the decision? Well if we look at their statement, it outlines the process that they took, collecting statements from players and match officials, reviewing the match footage and getting Portuguese linguists to assess that same footage.
None of this, of course, suggests any reason that the review should have taken longer than a week or so. I’m sure both sets of players would have been keen to resolve it sooner rather than later, and they had the official’s report the day after the match. Reviewing the footage should not have taken more than a few hours, and obtaining the opinion of independent Portuguese lip-readers surely couldn’t have taken a whole month, given even before half-time independent Portuguese lip-readers had informed social media of exactly what Bobby had said.
So what was the hold-up? Did a particular player refuse to give evidence? Did BT or some other broadcaster purposefully withhold footage? Was every single lip-reader in Portugal extremely busy for the entire month of January? Did one of the people reviewing the footage mysteriously disappear? Could it be that the FA couldn’t be bothered to actually deal with a serious racism allegation? Or were they simply too busy trying to draw straight lines on VAR graphs on Microsoft Paint?
If that last paragraph sounds ludicrous, it’s intentional, because there seems to be no logical or sensible reason why the FA couldn’t have swiftly and decisively resolved this issue whilst still paying due respect to both parties involved.
If you want my opinion on what really took them so long, I would have to say that they were quietly hoping it would go away. To be honest I had reached the point where I was expecting the FA to never reveal the outcome of the case, just allowing everyone to assume that no charges were being brought.
The FA’s statement itself lends a keynote to this, as it’s clearly absolutely straining at every sinew to make it seem like it’s taken this allegation seriously. The wording desperately tries to make it sound like they wanted to charge Firmino, but simply couldn’t no matter how hard they tried.
And to be honest, this speaks volumes about the FA. They saw this investigation as a problem because all of the evidence indicated that Firmino did nothing wrong. And if a few days after a serious racial allegation they told everyone that it was false, they would perhaps have been expecting negative press, suggesting that if they didn’t charge Firmino, they were somehow letting down victims of racism.
To be crystal clear, this absolutely isn’t the case, nor should anyone think that way. Clearing up racism charges, no matter how controversial or hot-button should fundamentally be based on the truth and nothing else. To suggest that anyone would or should be annoyed by a lack of a charge where clearly there was no evidence to support one is absolutely wrong.
That said, I don’t put it past the FA to incorrectly assume that that was what might happen. Fresh off the back of the Sampson incident, a wholly different but ultimately linked investigation, it’s clear that they were desperate to appear to have done this properly.
And that’s what it comes down to. In this case, the FA appear to have put their own reputation and the appearance of doing the right thing above actually doing the right thing – resolving a potentially damaging incident in a timely manner.
And frankly, it’s not good enough.
The only thing that’s farcical was not taking Holgate to task!
That Firmino did not RACIALLY ABUSED Holgate and the allegation WAS NOT MADE IN BAD FAITH, are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
This is more damaging for the kick it out campaign as it probes that it’s nothing more than a token gesture by the FA to provide the illusion of a hard line stance.
It was only a good few seconds after the verbal exchange and as the Everton players where berating Holgate that he realised his mistake and decided to cry wolf, this(a false accusation to avoid reprimand) does as much damage to the kick it out campaign as anything and the FA’s unwillingness to take action against Holgate, even retrospective to punish the push, proves how racist they actually are
47 days…really..to say what we all saw when the incident happened..I thought holgate was going to sent off..and bobby firmino was going to do something out of character…instead he swore and insulted his mum and his sanity..as much as I don’t condone insulting of mothers..to believe mason holgate is crazy..actions speak louder than words…the “FA”..need to better..FArcical…at best..c.o.y reds
At least I now know I can always pull the race card in a match to avoid being punished myself. This is a prime example of the flip side of the racism coin, when players now use it as a tool to gain advantage on the field of play. Im a person of colour, I watched that match, I knew instantly and instinctively that Holgate heard nothing and pulled the race card in extreme malice, pushing him into the stands was unprofessional and very dangerous, not only to Firmino, but the fans in the stands. The joke is, its so obvious and embarrassing, only Liverpool and the Firmino have retained their reputations and honour, the rest, including the accuser, who cant tell the difference between a word starting with ‘N’ and anything else, are an absolute disgrace, and have inadvertantly opened the eyes of the world, and put a nail in the coffin, to the potentially career killing foul play and false use of lies and race cards
It appears to me that the handling of the remainder of the incident is being completely ignored- the initial catalyst of Holgate shoving Firmino over the hoarding, then him pulling at the officials shoulder were disgraceful. Any contact with the referee should be a ban!!
Absolutely
Absolutely spot on, The FA have made themselves look like they have no teeth by not:
Fining Holgate for endangering a player, and the watching fans.
Fining Holgate for lying in the most despicable of manners.
Pray tell where Holgate has been proven to be a liar, and where Firmino has been exhonorated? The FA’s decision was that there was insufficient evidence not that they had found anyone guilty or not. Firminos statement after the verdict was as expected, he’s hardly going to admit any wrongdoing.
As for punishing Holgate for his part in the affair, would that really be fitting? Surely the FA’s verdict applies to him too, so nothing is proven. Personally I think Holgates reaction a little too strong for there not to have been something said, what exactly that was we will probably never know. What I do know is that even as a blue Holgates action could have had serious reprocussions for Firmino and the supporters he landed on and should have resulted in a red card.
Am I the only person who is wondering why Holgate didn’t get a red card for the clearly aggressive, dangerous and unnecessary attack on Firmino? Not even a caution, terrible refereeing.
Where is the red card and suspension for Holgate
Any danger that 1, Holgate apologises to Bobby and LFC for “mistakingly hearing”what he “thought” was a racist comment and 2 gets a retrospective red card for shoving Bobby head first into the main stand!!!