Brain's Faggots

Something was on my mind in the aftermath of last Thursday's excellent game and then Elbows made the following comment in his brief match report: "Not sure how aware the Accies are about how you come across to other teams? - strange mix of extreme, slightly outmoded politeness combined with incessant abuse..... Three cheers for the f***g grass munching g** p**fs, hip hip hooray! Marvellous."

If I can be serious for a paragraph or two, in general it upsets me when I hear my teammates, all of whom I count as friends, verbally abusing opposition players during matches. Specifically, it upsets me when I hear an Accie referring to an oppo players as a "faggot" or similar.

First and foremost, let me try to describe how totally alien that kind of behaviour is to me. Playing for Effra is something I do in my spare time, for entertainment, for fun, for pleasure. Even the admin side of things is something I do in my own time, in order to facilitate that fun, for myself and for others. I can perhaps understand why in the heat of battle of some Sunday league fixtures, that kind of behaviour might occur. I would not condone it, I would not participate in it myself, but I accept that unfortunately in that climate, it's the sort of thing that regrettably goes on. However, I simply cannot grasp why such behaviour should ever occur in what is a friendly match. They're called friendlies for a reason: they're meant to be friendly! We simply have to treat opposition players with respect and dignity. Matches should be hard-fought in the sense that we give everything, physically and mentally. There is no reason on this planet why that should spill over into homophobic comments or threatening remarks.

What made it even more bizarre last Thursday was that the oppo was a team run by one of OUR players – our Assistant Manager, in fact! We can't even treat Elbows' other team with something approaching respect. Not that I think Phil's team deserve any preferential treatment – ALL teams should be treated with respect. Some of us like friendly banter with oppo players during games, some of us prefer to keep our own counsel. We get upset with players when they hack us down, but I would argue that shouting: "Are you trying to break my leg, you f***ing idiot?" is a world away from the kind of remarks I find so objective.

If any Accies player believes that without the freedom to call someone a faggot or, perhaps, to make idle threats of violence to an opposition player, their own game will somehow be affected; they'll somehow be a worse player, not able to give 110%, then I would suggest that this is not the club for you. Point one of our ethos says we are determined to play football in a "friendly, non-hostile environment".

So, yes, I am aware of how the Accies come across to other teams. And I want us to do something about it, pronto!