I am no fan of Joey Barton, he is a complete fool and he plays for QPR (which I'm still fuming about considering I was at Wembley last weekend supporting the Rams). Last night he featured on Question Time for the first time as a panellist along with Piers Morgan, Margaret Curran (Scottish Labour), David Willets (Conservatives) and Louise Bours (UKIP) to debate the new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport.Barton has been made to apologise for comments he made to newly elected MEP, Louise Bours on UKIP's success in the recent election. He said: 'If I'm somewhere and there was four really ugly girls, I'm thinking... well, she's not the worst - that's all you [UKIP] are.' which of course is not the best metaphor to be making to a female politician about her beloved party. Of course as the comment comes across as extremely sexist and was clearly offensive to Ms Bours, Barton should apologise for what he said but is Louise Bours getting away with her retaliation free of charge? To Barton's comment, Bours replied 'The ignorance here -it basically fulfils the mission that footballers' brains are in their feet.'. To me that is by far a more ignorant comment to be making as it plays on a horrible stereotype (UKIP's favourite thing) in order to demoralise and humiliate their rivals.
My younger brother is 14, he started playing football at 6, was signed to a development academy at 7 and then was signed by his first professional academy at 10. I have grown up surrounded by the football industry and by the people in it and I can tell you now, footballers are not stupid. My brother has just finished his year 9 SATs and got top grades in all of them. He is way more academic than I was at my age and is set to do very well in his GCSEs, which he starts in September. He does all of this despite having to train 3 times a week and play a match on Sundays (one of his training sessions causes him to have to leave school at lunch and doesn't finish until 7pm). His grades are assessed by the academy and poor school performance does affect whether or not he is kept on in the academy the following year, fact. The academy run sessions where 'day-release' players (meaning they are out of school to train) have to do homework and my brother is expected to catch-up on the work he misses at school in his own time. Next year, he will be expected to miss a whole day of school and remain on top of his studies which he will do. Does that sound like someone who is stupid? The coaches, many of them being former academy players themselves, are mainly university educated or the equivalent and have a massive influence on the boy's attitude towards school. If my brother does not get a scholarship at 16 he will take A-Levels and will go to university. Footballers are not stupid.
How come Barton is accused of ignorance yet Bours gross use of stereotypes is ignored?
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