Judas

I do not have time for Sol Campbell. In any shape or form. Apart from this blog entry. Everyone knows what type of person he is – in a football sense, relating to loyalty and honour. He lied, and lied and lied. Then left. And then had the audacity to believe he did nothing wrong. All this from the self-named Mr Tottenham.

Let’s not go over old ground. He did what he did. Football fans don’t tend to forget. And although the abuse the likes of Lampard gets from West Ham fans is more tongue in cheek, believe it or not – Spurs fans sing what they do because they know it annoys the hell out of Campbell. I’ve seen more venom for the Chelsea players than I’ve seen for this man.

I don’t think the lunacy song that is sang is particularly clever. It’s distasteful and without any class. It’s not racist. To suggest it is because of the word ‘hanging’ (yeah, I’m aware of its historical context with regards to lynching) is trying to make this an altogether bigger deal than it is. But I do agree it’s an embarrassment of a chant sang by a minority. Much like the Adebayor song, which is, by the way, is racist. Even Ian Wright (Arsenal legend) said that all the abuse Campbell gets is directly because of the impact of the decision he made when he left White Hart Lane.

The Lunacy song is far from new. It’s just been updated to cover off a couple of things about his personal life. The colour of his skin has nothing to do with anything. To suggest so is just as bad as the song itself.

The homophobic chants are the main crux of the issue here. For the record, homophobic chants are common place in football. I don’t condone them, but let’s not lie to each other. It happens. And singing ‘Does your boyfriend know your here?’ to Brighton fans, raises a laugh with everyone, even though technically, it’s homophobic. But there’s a difference between that chant and one wishing AIDS on someone. Again, Liverpool and Utd are infamous for one or two chants also. The football terrace is the birthplace of many amusing songs and songs of bad taste.

I think we do ourselves injustice by singing this particular one.

Now maybe, Spurs fans think that if they stopped chanting, then Campbell might think this is in some way forgiveness. I personally think, be done with it, and ignore him.

But if any Lilywhite out there wants to scream and shout at him, I won’t be raising an eyebrow. But stick with ‘Judas’. It has a certain ring about it.