By David Gold
March 6 – A British Select Committee which was due to be held today to look into whether enough is being done to combat racism in football has been postponed, with no future date as yet known.
The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee was due to hear evidence on some of the recent incidents in English football, such as that of Luis Suárez (pictured), the Liverpool forward, was earlier this season banned for eight matches after being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.
The Uruguayan said that in his homeland the words he used had no offensive meaning, but his club’s staunch support for him provoked a storm of controversy.
Former England captain John Terry is also set to face a racism trial for allegedly abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during a game earlier this season, an accusation he vehemently denies.
That led to him being stripped of the national team captaincy, and set in motion a chain of events which saw Fabio Capello quit as manager of the England side.
It was also revealed recently that Braintree Town forward Mark McCammon had launched a claim for race discrimination against his former team Gillingham for what he claims was the different treatment black players received compared to the rest of the squad – a claim denied by the League Two side.
The Select Committee claims it will definitely hear evidence on the issue, insideworldfootball understands, though there is no indication of when it will happen.
Damian Collins, a member of the Select Committee, said when the investigation was announced that they would hope to hear from former and current players and other football figures involved in some of these cases.
“We are interested in finding out if there is a growing problem, an underlying problem, that’s been hidden or if those are one or two isolated events,” he said.
“A huge stride has been taken in the last 20-30 years to improve race relations in the UK…we are surprised this has come back in the way it has.”
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