You don't have to come over all macho and say you wanted to punch the guy in the face. A quiet word with a steward or copper pointing the guy out would have almost certainly seen him arrested...I think that might be more likely to make him think twice about what he did than reading your rant on here (if he does).
A few people are going on about this, so I'll address it.
I saw the guy quite clearly so had no need to seek him out, as PeterNdolvu puts it. However, I had two French friends with me who were getting their first taste of English lower league football and my first priority was getting out of the ground with them, with no bother. I heard the idiot shout his rant, it annoyed me quite a bit and then I instantly got a tap on the shoulder from one of the friends I was with saying it would be easier to get out of the ground using another gangway, so I turned and walked out with them.
I then went to the pub, got very drunk and basically forgot about it until I got home, at which point I remembered and got annoyed again, and presumably decided to rant on here. I don't think the colourful language was a particularly "macho" display, rather than a passionate display, which was obviously exaggerated by drink. I'm not especially "macho". I was within swinging distance of the guy, so were I of the macho persuasion, I could have acted accordingly.
If I had been on my own, I may well have thought it through rationally and collared a steward. I can clearly see now that's what I should have done, but for whatever reason, I didn't. I have never reported anyone to anyone else and I'm not in the habit of doing that sort of thing. Plus I'm not entirely sure how that would have gone down, because it's a Blade ratting on another Blade. Maybe I'd have got a hiding off his mates outside, I don't really know.
All that aside, he shouted it pretty loudly. I'd be amazed if there weren't at least 50 other people who heard that and I wonder how many of them went straight to a steward to report it?
Anyway, I emailed SUFC on Sunday for some advice and I've since been in touch with SYP's "Police Football Planning Unit", who have in turn contacted the relevant people and I've been told that they'll chase it up if they haven't heard anything in five days time.
---------- Post added at 03:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:15 PM ----------
just on a philosophical level, who are the arbiters of this unacceptability.. on a personal level i don't find swear words offensive.. they are merely words..
I do very much agree with this. There are hundreds, nay thousands of swear words and euphemisms. Swearing is a huge part of language. The first words you teach your foreign friends are swear words and I just don't see the point in their existence if we're not allowed to use them. The more they are used, the more desensitised we become to them.
I'm not easily offended. Words are never going to upset me.
