Wenger backs Campbell's cause

Terrace abuse must be stamped out

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 2nd October 2008

sol campbell portsmouth

Campbell: Terrace target

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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has called for abuse of all kinds to be eradicated from the game.

With former Gunners defender Sol Campbell enduring a torrent of racial and homophobic taunts during Portsmouth's clash with Tottenham on Sunday, the issue of terrace control has resurfaced.

Hampshire Police, the authority present at Fratton Park, claimed the sheer number of those involved made it impossible to carry out arrests.

However, an investigation in conjunction with the Football Association is now set to be carried out into the incident.

Campbell has been a hate figure for some Spurs supporters since swapping life at White Hart Lane for that at arch-rivals Arsenal in 2001.

Wenger, the man who persuaded Campbell to make that switch, admits he has suffered abuse from the stands and insists these actions have no place in modern football.

Stupidity

"My reaction is that abuse cannot be tolerated from anybody towards anybody in the world," said the French coach.

"How can you fight against it? You can single out people who do it.

"You can punish them individually by not letting them in, then maybe single out a group of people who go from game to game and do it.

"Sometimes stupidity is contagious as well and sometimes in the crowd there is a competition to see who can be more stupid.

"That is why you should not let these people be together."

Wenger continued: "There is, though, a big tolerance and the abuse only becomes singled out when it is racism.

"That is not the only abuse which you get in the stadium, but maybe people only get touched by it when it is racism.

"Insults of any way should not be tolerated either."

Tolerate

The recent racist heckling of England's Emile Heskey during a World Cup qualifier in Croatia has also highlighted the ongoing problem facing football authorities.

Wenger added: "The racist abuse is much worse in some other countries than in England.

"I believe that England has shown the right direction and the right way by not tolerating it and has done much more than any other country maybe in the game.

"That's why the problem we saw comes up again because people don't accept it. In this country I find they are a model to copy in the (other) countries."