Kerr reveals racists targeted Republic stars

whiskeyman

http://www.rte.ie/sport/2006/0119/ireland.html

I know, and hope, it's probably a tiny tiny group of idiots, but this is still depressing to see.

rte.ie wrote:

Racists sent hate mail to members of the Republic of Ireland team while Brian Kerr was manager, it emerged today.

Former team boss Kerr, who was pushed out of the post last autumn, revealed that a handful of racist letters were sent to some of Ireland's top players.

International stars such as Clinton Morrison, Stephen Reid and coach Chris Hughton were targeted.


The letters have been passed on to gardai.

Speaking ahead of a seminar organised by Sport Against Racism Ireland, Kerr said the hate mail was vile and abusive.

"While I was manager of the Irish team I had to put up with a series of letters, very vile and abusive letters, about the multi-culturalism of the Irish team," Kerr said.

"I had Chris Hughton, a very Irish black man on the staff and I had black players on the team Clinton Morrison and Stephen Reid.

"It was vile stuff, but it was sad really and it just shows you that there are some twisted minds around the place."

Kerr said there was a need for Government agencies, local authorities, the Sports Council and communities to do their utmost to get rid of racism in sport.

"It (the racist letters) also emphasises to me how narrow-minded people can be at times but also the responsibility of people in sport to rid ourselves of that type of thing and the responsibility sports organisations have," Kerr said.

The anti-racism seminar, hosted by SARI aims to improve community cultural and social relations and inform about responsibilities the Government has to combat racism in sport.

Kerr has given his support to the 10th annual inter-cultural football competition involving teams from ethnic communities across Dublin.

"I'm proud to be involved, to be part of this SARI group, the SARI movement, there's a huge amount of work to be done in the future," Kerr said.

The first game in the tournament takes place tonight at Dalymount Park, between teams made up of the Chinese and Polish communities.

Pigman II

Ah god love em. Ireland for the Irish and all that. :rolleyes: I hope they won't feel too bad in a generations time when the Irish squad is half full of blacks, chinese and eastern europeans.

They'll probably have to switch to rugby or something by then to keep their viewing in monotone.

Guy:Incognito

Pigman II wrote:

They'll probably have to switch to rugby or something by then to keep their viewing in monotone.

Yep, cos you can be assured the rugger buggers wont let the peasent immigrants infest their middle class game.

LostinBlanch

Joking aside these knuckledraggers don't realise that it's not the colour of a players skin that's important it's the colour of the shirt he wears! These are probably the kind of ****heads that wanted to deface Phil Lynotts statue outside Bruxelles.


And I wouldn't be too sure about rugby remaining monotone. Remember England had that big Nigerian prince in the scrum a few years back!