Tweet-Happy Gunner Frimpong-ed By FA, Charged With Improper Conduct Over ‘Yid’ Comment

Alan Duffy

24th, July 2012

13 Comments

By Alan Duffy

Me and my cousin Lethal Bizzle have a new rap – ‘My boss is French, he don’t think I’m Dench’

Young Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong has been charged by the FA over Tweets he recently made referring to the Gunners’ north London rivals, Tottenham. The 20-year-old, who is currently recovering from a cruciate ligament injury, received abuse from a Spurs fan on Twitter before responding by calling the fan “Scum Yid”.

Much has already been said about the use of the word ‘Yid’, whether it is a racist term of abuse or whether, in the context of English football, it is a word which has transcended its racist meaning, with many Tottenham fans themselves calling themselves ‘Yids’.

Frimpong doesn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the Twitterverse and has found himself in hot water over his Tweeting before. However, I’m not sure the young eejit meant his offending Tweet to be a racist slur. Still, maybe its time for all fans to drop the word from their vocabulary for good.

Anyway, the Ghana-born star will have to answer to the powers-that-be at Wembley. Here’s the FA’s statement…

“Arsenal’s Emmanuel Frimpong has been charged under FA Rule E3 for improper conduct in relation to recent comments made on Twitter.

“The allegation is that Frimpong posted comments amounting to improper conduct and/or which brought the game into disrepute, which included a reference to ethnic origin, faith or race.

“The player has until 4pm on 27 July 2012 to respond to the charge.”

Personally, if I was a football manager, I think I’d ban my players from all social networks full stop. Seems more hassle than its worth.

Posted in Arsenal, Media, Tottenham Hotspur

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13 Comments

  1. allan says:

    The idiots that troll famous people on twitter are going to ruin what could actually be a good thing. For years before twitter and other social network sites I lamented that a major problem with football was that the players lost touch with the fans.

    Now twitter is around I can’t really blame them. I’ve never once thought of going around looking players/people I dislike and giving them abuse. seems like a waste of time and don’t know whats wrong with folk that do it.

    To me what the spurs fan said to frimpong was worse.

  2. Herman says:

    Yid can’t be racist since the Jews are not a race.

  3. Graham says:

    @Herman, don’t tell that to their lawyers — I mean, them.

  4. plops says:

    I suppose this is a bit like rappers calling themselves niggaz (Spurs fans calling themselves yids). I’ve got a can of worms here but I can’t find my can opener.

    But yes, I agree, if I was a manager I’d ban them or at the very least make sure they’re vetted before being posted.

  5. Jason says:

    You can’t be mad and be politically correct at the same time. This Spurs fan wrote something along the lines of “I prayed you broke your arms and legs”, and then obviously Frimpong reacted to that.

    People say stuff when provoked, it doesn’t make them a racist, if the whole story behind John Terry is true then it’s clear the bloke was provoked and then reacted. I’m not saying it’s right, but I understand people saying things in anger which they normally would not say

  6. twitteroo says:

    Funny how you jump in his defence while others were slaughtered for equally trivial non-issues. Of course nothing to do with skin color though…

  7. KKK says:

    FA charges Suarez. FA charges Frimpong (it wasn’t even on the pitch or during the season???). FA DOESN’T charge Terry. Pretty clear who the racists are.

  8. Batnas says:

    …the FA did charge Terry.

  9. plops says:

    @KKK and Batnas. You’re both wrong – Terry will find out by the weekend whether the FA will charge him or not http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jul/24/john-terry-fa-anton-ferdinand-charge?newsfeed=true

  10. John C says:

    Yeah, John Terry was charged but it was put on hold while the legal case went through the courts.

  11. Alex says:

    “which included a reference to ethnic origin, faith or race”

    is that all it takes now? a reference?

  12. dave says:

    why does the fa bother getting involved in all this bullshit, its totally insignifiant

  13. Ian AFC says:

    Herman-arguably Jews may not be a race, but they certainly fit the description of a ethnic group. Frimpong stupid comment aside the origin of taunting Spurs fans for being ‘Yids’ comes from A) denigrating Spurs Jewish fans for being Jewish who are Jewish or B) denigrating Spurs non-Jewish fans for ‘being Jews.’ Either way using the label/name of an ethnic group as a term of degradation is inherently racist/discriminatory/sectarian.
    The fact that Spurs fans themselves have co-opted the term is irrelevant, especially since they only did so after years of being abused, being taunted as Yids, Auschwitz references and hissing gas noises. Most people who use the term I doubt are card carrying anti Semites, but the fact is the term is meant to cause offense and we all know it. What I find the most disappointing is that people who feel that the term has a place in football don’t have the ‘balls’ to stand up and say ‘Yes, it’s bad behavior and I don’t care.’ Instead they try to justify their behavior as if there bad internal logic makes any kind of sense.

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