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I was there on Tuesday night with my wife and son. I must admit I was in the standing contingent (not behind the goal) and therefore didn't hear any abuse or racism but I wholeheartedly agree with the posters that suggest it was a few minority 'youths' that seem to think they 'look ard'. They should be banned for life.

Admiral wrote: ↑30 Dec 2017, 08:23What a load of rubbish! Hyped up nonsense. I was there and nothing was heard bar the ‘you Polish ****’ comment to Zebroski which the perpetrator was removed at HT for on grounds of ‘racism’. The media have lapped up all this because the keyboard attention seeker many know from Facebook John Walsh has tweeted and commented on every mention on the matter.

Accepting for a minute that this description of an out of context insulting of a player has led to all this ~ and inaccurate reporting by the BBC is no stranger is it ~ I feel it is inapproriate to parenthesise racism on the grounds of the label 'Polish' being used as opposed to 'black' ~ neither is acceptable and (as can be seen) from little acorns do great oaks grow........

Have the intelligence to call him a **** without using the Polish and you'll be seen to be growing up somewhat. Have even more intelligence and don't insult him audibly at all, and you have grown up!

Maybe we have to take this attention to what was (hopefully) an isolated incident as a punch on the nose from a leading jab and not a knock-out blow; the consequence of having amongst us the full 'pie chart' of the human species rather than a select holy few with no stain on their character whatsoever.

Why is there even the need to insult Zebroski?

He was a great player for us and deserves some respect. He has been through some challenging times and has come back to make a living for himself.

The chav element in our fanbase and the remenents of the pathetic ‘Youth Squad’ who fancy themselves as a firm, are just embarrassing. That whole group who think they are hard when they’re in a pack playing someone like a North Ferriby or picking on stewards, yet in the past we’ve seen no sign of them when the club have faced the likes of Exeter or Portsmouth and the pathetic specimens even ran away from a bunch of Bromley teenagers.

I wish they would just crawl back under their stone (island), hang around the arcades or something instead instead of being the stain on Plainmoor that they are.

The very fact that some people on here think it was OK to call Zebrozki a Polish #### proves there is a racism problem regardless of whether or not any monkey noises were made in addition.
There is a problem with this type of racism against people of eastern European ethnicity right across our society that has been exacerbated by the brexit vote.
If you think it is a minor thing then next time you bump into a Polish national living here try calling them a Polish #### and see what the reaction is. I dare say there are those who will say it is nothing Zebroski's ethnicity and all to do with the fact he is a former player but that is bollocks, someone picked on him because of this ethnicity alone.

hector wrote: ↑30 Dec 2017, 09:08 Why is there even the need to insult Zebroski?

He was a great player for us and deserves some respect. He has been through some challenging times and has come back to make a living for himself.

The chav element in our fanbase and the remenents of the pathetic ‘Youth Squad’ who fancy themselves as a firm, are just embarrassing. That whole group who think they are hard when they’re in a pack playing someone like a North Ferriby or picking on stewards, yet in the past we’ve seen no sign of them when the club have faced the likes of Exeter or Portsmouth and the pathetic specimens even ran away from a bunch of Bromley teenagers.

I wish they would just crawl back under their stone (island), hang around the arcades or something instead instead of being the stain on Plainmoor that they are.

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑30 Dec 2017, 09:12The very fact that some people on here think it was OK to call Zebrozki a Polish #### proves there is a racism problem regardless of whether or not any monkey noises were made in addition. There is a problem with this type of racism against people of eastern European ethnicity right across our society that has been exacerbated by the brexit vote.

I live in a neighbourhood where the Polish or less specifically Eastern Europeans make up quite a large percentage of the locality; we have many shops and businesses that illustrate just how resourceful and self supporting they wish to be as opposed to being dis-proportionately reliant on the social safety net.

Poles have historically moved west in time of persecution/extreme poverty and warfare. The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture, thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the Partitions of Poland which began in 1772 and it is my contention that partition, separation and devolution is always at the root cause of racism raising it's ugly head so I would agree that the Brexit process is exacerbating the problem.

It is a FACT that many people who today have Polish ethnicity owe that to the FACT that a significant number of Polish servicemen remained in this country at the ending of the Second World War and made a life here as they were precluded from returning to their homeland by the occupying Communist forces from Russia who labelled them 'traitors' in the most ridiculous act of propaganda possible to imagine...the reason they integrated into the British forces was because their own had been obliterated.

It is also a matter of FACT now that many Poles and East Europeans are now migrating back east due to improving economic prospects here and increasing levels of hostility towards them here such as that perpetrated by the tormentors of Chris Zebroski.

Oh that these thick bigots had a sense of history and knowledge of social devolution; they might even unearth a 'Pole or two' amongst their very own bretheren!

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑30 Dec 2017, 09:12 The very fact that some people on here think it was OK to call Zebrozki a Polish #### proves there is a racism problem regardless of whether or not any monkey noises were made in addition.
There is a problem with this type of racism against people of eastern European ethnicity right across our society that has been exacerbated by the brexit vote.
If you think it is a minor thing then next time you bump into a Polish national living here try calling them a Polish #### and see what the reaction is. I dare say there are those who will say it is nothing Zebroski's ethnicity and all to do with the fact he is a former player but that is bollocks, someone picked on him because of this ethnicity alone.

I don't see one person saying it was OK to call Zebroski Polish. Perhaps you've seen something the rest of us haven't? You make a lot of assumptions, none of which have any basis in fact.

I've seen a lot of football at various levels these past five years and i have noticed a definite increasing trend of bother at games involving the more younger teenage scrotes. Things like the smoke bomb brigade. Dave says that it is difficult to find these on fans when taken into grounds and i agree. There are instances at many clubs nearly every week at all levels involving these things and the only deterrent is a ban for life. Get these morons away from football.

A name does not make you anything regards either nationality or ethnicity for that matter.......

My surname ~ Merson ~ is a Jewish (Ashkenazic) patronymic from a reduced form of Meyer + the German Sohn (or ‘son’)....I am neither Jewish nor German but somewhere along the line my paternal ancestors must have been.

My father's family are Devonian going back three generations and before that migrated down to Devon building Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway from the Iver Heath area in the Middlesex countryside such as it was in those days: west of London.

My mother's family name ~ Bearne ~ is a Huguenot locational name strongly associated with the West Country but originally from Bern, now in Switzerland but in the 17th Century under French influence; hence the French 'a' being added to the more Germanic spelling of today.........needless to say, I am either Swiss nor French but just another 'mongrel' of the English nation!

Exactly Merse. Both my first and surnames are Icelandic but i have Austrian heritage from my immediate family but born and raised in Yorkshire.

We all come from somewhere different i'm sure if we go far back enough.

I would like to see equivalent punishments for people who use the same vitriolic tones of voice for the Scots / Irish / Welsh as there are for people of other nations (Polish in this case apparently) as i also believe this, once classed as banter, is also racist but always goes under the radar.

As regards the racism at Eastleigh, i wasn't there so can't comment on that particular situation.

Having been there and heard the outburst in context I would say it was abuse aimed at a former player with no intention of being racist. It's all too easy to label something racist in this day and age when it's actually nothing of the sort. I'm pretty sure that myself and a fair few other people would have intervened if we'd deemed it racist.

I was approached after the game by the Safety Officer and he said the ejections were to do with bad behaviour and not racist remarks. Make of that what you will.

Just to add my voice into this, I heard neither the comment or any other abuse during the game. I was stood at the back of the stand. In terms of "Polish ####" being racist, I am struggling to see how it is being deemed racist. Racism is discrimination, prejudice or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that ones own race is superior. Given that race is characterised as an ethnic group and no ethnicity was mentioned in the comment, should we be classifying the comment as racist? Xenophobic I could just about understand but racist I disagree. Can of worms being opened I appreciate.

aldershotgull wrote: ↑30 Dec 2017, 12:11Given that race is characterised as an ethnic group and no ethnicity was mentioned in the comment, should we be classifying the comment as racist? Xenophobic I could just about understand but racist I disagree. Can of worms being opened I appreciate.

The meaning of the word ethnicity is a group of people who identity with each other on the basis of a common language, shared ancestry, society, culture or nationality.
You state that race is characterised as an ethnic group. Given these two things then the term Polish was used in an ethnic and racist sense.

Once upon a time, many years ago, probably around 1990, I’m not proud to admit I shouted something at the linesman. It made everyone around me laugh and all I said was something along the lines of “that was rubbish, linesman, you fat bastard!” The reason it got a laugh was because the linesman in question was the skinniest man you could wish to see and it was an attempt at being utterly ironic. I guess the retort was unexpected and was so far from the truth it was a little surreal.

Part of me had wondered if the use of the word Polish, was used ironically because Zebroski isn’t Polish but has an East European sounding name. Was the perpetrator being ironic, or is that crediting them with too much intelligence? However, the manner in which the insult appears to have been delivered and the likely world view of the yob ejected, doesn’t take much to assume it comes from a sort of Brexit stance and the implicit acceptance that seems to be emerging of anti-East European sentiment is a from a racist place.

The Facebook page on which this issue is being discussed by a number of Burberry-clad no marks, has descended into a bit of a witch hunt towards John Walsh and a “meet me on New Years Day, if you want to discuss it” type of comment directed towards another contributor who was attempting to stand up to the bullying that appeared to be taking place.

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑30 Dec 2017, 09:48 You make a lot of assumptions, none of which have any basis in fact.

So there is no racism in society. Nobody has ever been assaulted or murdered because of their nationality or had their homes or property vandalised because of their nationality.
Wish I lived in your dream world.