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Marching · 18th December 2001, 20:24

It comes as no suprise that the case involving Bowyer and Woodgate has generated a lot of talk on here and in the newspapers. What has suprised me is the witchunt and refusal by people to accept the jurys verdict - I suppose in hindsight I can see it was never going to please everybody. Football is an emotive subject and we all have are favourites - having said that I have really tried to be as unbiased as possible throughout the trial and still feel I am not letting the fact I follow Leeds United to unfairly influence my thoughts on the subject.
The main issue here is somebody was badly beaten and put in hospital. It really does not matter, or it shouldn't, whether he or his attackers were black, white, Asian, Chinese or any other colour or creed - it should also not matter whether either party was rich and famous or poor and unknown.
Sadly the newspapers would have us believe it does matter. I question their motives - are they in the business of reporting impartially and fairly or are they here to make as much money by selling as many newspapers as possible? I go for the second option - the only people that have had access to all the evidence and heard every word spoken about the trial are the 12 members of the jury. It has to be remembered also they are ordinary members of the public with no connection to the victim or the accused, they do not have stories to sell and in no way can make money from acting as jury members.
They sat for 22 weeks and then took 4 days to decide the verdicts - I tend to believe their version rather than the fanciful versions the newspapers have told in order to make money.
There will probably be no agreement on here of what happened or what didn't and I suppose really we don't care - what I do care about is this does not get blown out of all proportion.
Yesterday Lee Fleet, a white 14 yr old schoolboy was beaten senseless and his head kicked like a football by 5 to 7 Asians. They have not been caught as yet and police are treating it as a racially motivated attack. I wonder how many people will remember this event in even a weeks time and I wonder what compensation Lee will get.

The Najeib lawyers are advising him to sue and will obviously take their cut for their services - I hope Safraz continues to recover and spends his money wisely - it has cost him a lot to get it.

As far as Woodgate is concerned he is moving to live in Leeds and will do his community service with his £100,000+ fine going to the innercity community too. He will get on and resume his career having learned a very hard lesson.
Bowyer should stop being an arse and pay his fine, get fit and get playing...for Leeds!

If I have offended anybody with my views on this subject I apologise.

18th December 2001, 20:24	#165 (permalink)
Marching Active Admin Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 27,513	It comes as no suprise that the case involving Bowyer and Woodgate has generated a lot of talk on here and in the newspapers. What has suprised me is the witchunt and refusal by people to accept the jurys verdict - I suppose in hindsight I can see it was never going to please everybody. Football is an emotive subject and we all have are favourites - having said that I have really tried to be as unbiased as possible throughout the trial and still feel I am not letting the fact I follow Leeds United to unfairly influence my thoughts on the subject. The main issue here is somebody was badly beaten and put in hospital. It really does not matter, or it shouldn't, whether he or his attackers were black, white, Asian, Chinese or any other colour or creed - it should also not matter whether either party was rich and famous or poor and unknown. Sadly the newspapers would have us believe it does matter. I question their motives - are they in the business of reporting impartially and fairly or are they here to make as much money by selling as many newspapers as possible? I go for the second option - the only people that have had access to all the evidence and heard every word spoken about the trial are the 12 members of the jury. It has to be remembered also they are ordinary members of the public with no connection to the victim or the accused, they do not have stories to sell and in no way can make money from acting as jury members. They sat for 22 weeks and then took 4 days to decide the verdicts - I tend to believe their version rather than the fanciful versions the newspapers have told in order to make money. There will probably be no agreement on here of what happened or what didn't and I suppose really we don't care - what I do care about is this does not get blown out of all proportion. Yesterday Lee Fleet, a white 14 yr old schoolboy was beaten senseless and his head kicked like a football by 5 to 7 Asians. They have not been caught as yet and police are treating it as a racially motivated attack. I wonder how many people will remember this event in even a weeks time and I wonder what compensation Lee will get. The Najeib lawyers are advising him to sue and will obviously take their cut for their services - I hope Safraz continues to recover and spends his money wisely - it has cost him a lot to get it. As far as Woodgate is concerned he is moving to live in Leeds and will do his community service with his £100,000+ fine going to the innercity community too. He will get on and resume his career having learned a very hard lesson. Bowyer should stop being an arse and pay his fine, get fit and get playing...for Leeds! If I have offended anybody with my views on this subject I apologise.