Former West Ham hero Leroy Rosenior tonight claimed that Mikey Antonio had got it all wrong in comparing animal abuse to racism.
Mikey asked a reporter if what Kurt Zouma had done was worse than racism in an interview widely seen on Twitter and various media outlets including ours.
But Lee – who is also involved in the anti racism group Kick it Out declared in an exclusive ClaretandHugh interview: “Both issues are utterly disgusting but let’s not compare one to the other – that really doesn’t work of make sense. Mike was wrong to make the comparison.
Leroy as an Iron back in 1988
“The club should have dealt with this very firmly from the start, made their position clear and wrapped the whole thing up there and then.
“Instead of dealing with it at the time they have let it go on and on and it has got completely out of hand with the media having several field days – and that’s because it wasn’t closed down by the club’s chief executive officer or whoever!
“Then came the decision to play him against Watford and that reignited the whole thing again. I couldn’t believe that and it will all start again if he plays against Leicester. He must not play.
“This isn’t a football matter and it can’t be treated as one. Somebody inside in the club has to say No More.
“He can’t play, they must decide how much to fine him and how many games they must suspend him for, create a pause and stop the media coverage.
“It can’t be left to the manager – that’s not right. The club will be acting far too late but they have to do something to stop this. They have themselves to blame for the fall out into the media.”
“We have seen some people draw comparisons between animal cruelty and discriminatory abuse. Both are wrong and it is not helpful – victims are not in competition with each other.
“With any incident of abuse, there should be a fair process and those actions should have consequences. But consequences should not mean complete cancellation. For some people, no punishment is ever enough and comparing incidents will always divide opinion.”
Lee was talking to CandH editor Hughie Southon
Forget Antonio or anyone now from media against West ham or moyes as nothing more to add been fined cats taken away and cost him money wages and sponsorship now move on and let’s get behind our team for every game. Everyone deserves a second chance no murders been committed like alonso or allegedly beating up girlfriend regularly or these animal lovers that eat meat but that’s OK. Look at yourselves and your life before condoning others yes done wrong yes needs to be educated especially dumb brother filming it with laughter and yes let’s move on .
Completely agree. I also agree with Tony Burnett that there should be no completion between victims. However, Antonio is completely right to introduce some perspective.
Giving Zouma an extended holiday is not punishing him. It only punishes the club, the fans and his team mates.
Leroy is totally right.
Dropping him for the Watford game made total sense for every reason.
Surely playing against Watford we would of won with Alese,Baptiste or even Diop.
Now Moyes has created a problem.
He will be banned at some point, probably against Leicester and Newcastle. Far harder games.
Could see this outcome a million miles off.
Moyes reluctance to play Alese before is coming back to haunt him but that was obvious.
Can’t agree with that whatsoever.
Let him.be booed as see and hear the error of his actions.
Every other suggestion just allows him off the hook.
And Antonio wasn’t comparing. He simply highlighted that different offenses occur and are treated differently, for some unfathomable reason.
Leroy says “This isn’t a football matter and it can’t be treated as one.” – So why should the punishment be a footballing one by not playing him against Leicester? Absolutely Mr. Zouma deserves punishment, public condemnation and most importantly, education. But the rest of the team, club and fans, who have roundly, and rightly, condemned Zouma for his actions, do not…
Context required Dan: “Then came the decision to play him against Watford and that reignited the whole thing again. I couldn’t believe that and it will all start again if he plays against Leicester. He must not play.
“This isn’t a football matter and it can’t be treated as one. Somebody inside in the club has to say No More.