British football’s thought police need to man up

If you find football fans singing ‘get your tits out’ shocking, then you really need to get out more.

I suppose it had to happen eventually. We’ve had clampdowns on racist, anti-Semitic, sectarian and homophobic chanting at football. Now sexist chanting is in the dock. The Football Association (FA) is urging fans to report sexist abuse at games after the BBC revealed ‘disturbing’ footage of fans chanting ‘get your tits out for the lads’ at Chelsea physio Eva Carneiro.

The appeal to report sexist abuse marks the launch of the She Belongs campaign by advocacy group Women in Football. Is this new initiative against terrace sexism a sign of progress? Don’t be daft. It’s just another nauseating exercise in middle-class self-flattery; another stick with which to beat the knuckle-dragging proles.

Of course there is sexist chanting at football matches. If you find the video of football fans singing ‘get your tits out’ shocking, then you really ought to get out more. Football chants are often abusive, inappropriate, tasteless and obscene. Whatever your decency threshold, it’s highly likely you’ll find a terrace chant that crosses it. If you go looking for offence – and offence-seeking is fast becoming our national pastime – then you’re bound to find it at football. In short, a football match is probably not the ideal team-building activity for an easily-offended campus women’s group.

Personally, I don’t like the ‘get your tits out’ chant. It’s not clever or funny. In fact, it’s downright puerile. But would I report fellow football fans for singing it? Never. As I wrote last week on spiked, Kick It Out’s efforts to encourage fans to report abuse should be steadfastly resisted. There’s no place for Stasi-style snitching in a free society. If you don’t like so-called ‘discriminatory’ chants, then don’t join in. Or have an argument with the pillocks who chant this stuff. Or, better still, stay away from football altogether.

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