Lineker: “End this hatred!”
Gary Lineker
In a series of messages posted to his 1.2million followers on Twitter, the former England captain said: ‘Come on football fans everywhere; it’s time to take the hatred out of your love for the game.
'The violence around football has depressed me my entire sporting life. Love don’t loathe, humour don’t hate, spectate don’t spoil.’
Lineker is concerned by the growing amount of violence and anger which has become increasingly prevalent in English football in the last twelve months, with a series of incidents of racism dominating the headlines.
More recently, West Ham fans have been guilty of singing sickening anti-sematic chants about the Holocaust against Tottenham Hotspurs fans, who are recognised as having a strong Jewish following.
On Sunday, events took another damaging turn as Manchester United players celebrating Robin van Persie’s injury time winner in the Manchester derby were pelted with coins by City fans, with Rio Ferdinand receiving a nasty cut to his face, which left him with blood streaming down from above his eye.
Ferdinand has since allegedly received tweets containing racist abuse, and a 15 year old boy has today been arrested for sending the messages.
And Lineker, who scored 48 goals for England, is desperate for English football to clean up its act, comparing the disease spreading through our national game to the nasty stomach bug called ‘Norovirus’ which is particularly potent at this time of year, saying: ‘There’s actually more bile induced by football than the norovirus!'
Lineker was, however, at pains to stress that it is very much a minority of football fans who are to blame for the distressing episodes that have taken place recently.
He stated: 'Important to point out that the vast majority of football fans are sensible, passionate, law abiding citizens.'
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