Vidyoyo
The bad "V"
You raise a good point by mentioning Cantona because I think how bad the abuse is depends on how personal and close to home (mentally or physically) it is.I'm sure some of you matchgoers on here have at one point or another shouted something you wouldn't have if not for context of being at a match. The guy Cantona kung-fued, anyone know how he's doing today? I'm not saying he's not doing fantastic, and being kicked by Cantona even contributed positively to the rest of his life. But celebrities going after random people can have negative consequences for the random person. Of course, for all I know, the random person should be in a mental hospital, or prison. Who knows
The Cantona thing was pretty mental because of the amount of vitriol sent his way by that fan (hooligan). Something about 'being sent back to France' IIRC. Basically racism.
Imagine two scenarios:
- One in which some of the crowd are shouting, 'you wanker, you wanker' in unison. Like when we affectionately talk about the referee.
- Another where one of the crowd is yelling 'you're a fecking useless cnut, you're shit, get the feck out of my team' right to a player who can definitely hear it.
I'm not saying either of these are okay but I think we'd all agree the second is worse because of how much more personal it is. Also the proximity in some cases.
Understandably nobody knows exactly what happened here, but assuming it was personal abuse, I think it happening straight in Dier's brother face puts it firmly in that second territory.
Fans need to be curbed because some of the abuse they give out is way OTT. And some of it is less bad - especially when it's diluted (however you wish to define that).