This week has seen Newcastle United fans castigated left, right and centre, courtesy of the media, following chants directed towards Middlesbrough’s Egyptian forward, Mido during the game at the Riverside last Sunday. We take a look back, and comment upon some of the criticisms that have been thrown our way.

The newspapers that dropped through our letterboxes on Monday morning showed that the national press were happy to infer that the entire travelling contingent of over 3,000 Newcastle fans were a bunch of mindless racist yobs, none more so than Louise Taylor of ‘The Guardian’. To be fair to Taylor and her colleagues, they weren’t the only ones. Boro manager, Gareth Southgate said much the same in his post-match press conference.

Let’s get something straight. Racism, of any kind is unwelcome and abhorrent amongst the vast majority of football fans in England – Newcastle United fans included. Regarding the abuse directed at Mido, there are two separate and very different issues, which the press and others have been only too eager to merge together and portray as Racism/Islamophobia on the part of all, or at least most of Newcastle’s away support.

One lot of abuse which was directed Mido’s way came in the form of ‘Mido is a Paedo’, the latest in a long line of songs and chants aimed at Boro and their supporters for over twenty years following the Cleveland child-abuse scandal of the mid-1980s. In an article which appeared on ‘Football 365′ on Wednesday, Jeff Winter refered to the chant as the kind of thing done “when you were six and you used to run around the schoolyard calling people names, usually in rhymes”. I can see where Jeff is coming from, and, he’s right – it is infantile, but then Jeff isn’t adverse to his own childish comments, as he brands us as ‘Geordie Dickheads’. As a former referee, he has surely been around football long enough to know that ninety per cent of football songs and chants are childish. But in what way was the song sung any worse than songs branding Liverpool and Everton as thieves or work-shy? In what way was it worse than the stuff which portrays us Geordies as fat, and the women of Tyneside as slappers? It could be argued, that it was wrong to single out one person, but again this is also part and parcel of football, and players themselves expect it. Can Winter really say that Middlesbrough fans, or any other fans for that matter don’t single out certain players? Of course he can’t. The important thing to remember here is that although this abuse was audible on television, it was NOT racist abuse. It had nothing to do with Mido’s background, his religion or where he comes from. It had everything to do with the team that he plays for.

The second lot of abuse that Mido was on the receiving end of, was racist, and of course far worse. Racism is NEVER an excuse – and explanations likening Mido’s appearance to the shoe-bomber Richard Reid don’t wash. However, watching the game on television, it is evident that no racist chants or taunts were audible, and must have been an extremely small minority of our away support, a view that those Newcastle fans present seem to concur with. Indeed, yesterday’s ‘Evening Chronicle’ (August 30) carried an article in which Ged Grebby, founder of the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign said: “The reports that 3,000 Newcastle supporters were chanting is not fair and untrue”. What a pity that neither the sensationalist journalists, nor the ridiculously biased views of Jeff Winter care to mention this. Instead it suits them to paint a picture in which 3,000 Newcastle fans screamed racist hate towards Mido. Winter makes full use of the opportunity:

“Thankfully, times have moved on now. We live in a multi-racial society where every colour and creed display their skills in the Premiership, but not for the space-travelling Geordies. Their behaviour on Sunday at once dispelled the myth that they are the loveable army but instead put them near the bottom of the ‘Scumbag’ fans league table. They are now on a par with those who sing about ‘ice on runways’ and the like.”

Aside from the fact that if there were such a thing as a ‘Scumbag’ fans league table, then logically the worst offenders would surely be topping the table as opposed to residing near the bottom, Winter’s ‘holier than thou’ attitude is extremely naïve if he is suggesting even for one second that we are alone in having racist idiots amongst our support. Perhaps Jeff doesn’t recall reports of racist jibes from a small minority of Middlesbrough fans towards Titus Bramble at St James’ Park last season?

Fortunately, I believe that the racists are now a very small minority at Newcastle, just as they are a small minority at most clubs in England. The events of last Sunday are perhaps a reminder that everyone in English football, that despite coming a long way on this issue, we should not become complacent regarding the problem of racism in football. It is clear there is still work to be done and room for improvement. However, for certain journalists, and the likes of Jeff Winter to suggest that thousands of Newcastle fans are openly racist towards players, or that we are any worse than any other team is disappointing, but unfortunately entirely predictable.

After all, they can’t allow the truth get in the way of a good story can they?

Jeff Winter’s article ‘Ban The Brown Ale-Addled Geordies’: https://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8742_2693032,00.html

Louise Taylor’s article ‘Arca gives Boro spark to silence bigoted Geordie fans’:
https://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,,2156856,00.html