Of course a youth football coach should be able to teach players how to improve, but one of their most important tasks is setting an example and helping the kids become good people. Peter Beardsley clearly hasn’t understood that brief as some details behind his racism ban have been revealed.
Peter Beardsley will go down as a great player in history, but his reputation will be tarnished forever after he received an eight month ban for racist comments he made while he was a youth coach at Newcastle United.
Rob Harris tweeted to show some of the vile comments Beardsley made, it’s truly shocking how he thought this could be acceptable:
FA: “Beardsley questioned the legitimacy of the age of one or more
persons of black African origin by stating ‘it’s cos you’re not 18’.
FA: “offensive and unacceptable comment and/or negative stereotype that players of black African origin commit fraud as to their true age”— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) September 19, 2019
There’s no way any club can hire him again after this and claim they are on the side that wants to eradicate racism from football. It’s good that the FA has taken steps to ban him, but these fans on Twitter have expressed their fury and questioned why it’s not a lifetime ban:
Why not a lifetime ban and send a message to others in the game/’fans’ that it wont be tolerated?
— Barry Cliffe (@l3azza) September 19, 2019
8 months seems light given a fan would be banned for life
— Steptoe (@Steptoesyard) September 19, 2019
Beardsley banned for less than the full term of a pregnancy ??
— Jay_AFC? (@AFC_addiction) September 19, 2019
Should be a life ban tbh. Show zero tolerance
— ? Ghost ? (@Nathplaydirty) September 19, 2019
It depends where you stand on the whole punishment vs rehabilitation argument when it comes to offenders and trying to ensure it doesn’t happen again if you feel the ban is suitable.
It’s hard enough for young players to try and make it in the game at the moment with the pressure they face, you would hope at least they would be able to get a coach who is on their side and encourages them.
With everything that’s gone on in Italy over the past few months, at least the English FA has taken some action.