Socialist Challenge 9 April 1981 I HAVEN'T racism in football.' These words were spoken by Ken Knighton, manager of Sunderland Football Club in an interview on the BBC TV programme Decision Maker: on 20 March It comes as no surprise to a Mid dlesbrough supporter like myself that the Sunderland management can be so short-sighted and incompetent. How else do our local rivals I us in the League despite getting bigger crowds?
But Knighton sums up the attitude of soccer's hierarchy to one of the game's ugliest aspects. seen any form of Front's activities about it.' take grounds, Like one of the three wise monkeys, he professed to have seen no evil. But when pressed by a football correspondent of The Observer, Knighton did ad mit to having heard some racist chanting described 'good-natured banter between two sets of supporters'.
On being asked about the National the terraces, described them as a 'minority who come to cause problems. We can't do anything He could almost have been describing the Middlesbrough midfield.
Racism among supporters appears to forms. There are certail especially in London - West Ham and Millwall, for example — where the fascists attempt to recruit.
Back the members of the