{"id":19871,"date":"2011-12-22T22:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T22:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/former-liverpool-star-john-barnes-hits-out-at-luis-suarez-racism-witch-hunt\/"},"modified":"2011-12-22T22:53:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T22:53:00","slug":"former-liverpool-star-john-barnes-hits-out-at-luis-suarez-racism-witch-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/22\/former-liverpool-star-john-barnes-hits-out-at-luis-suarez-racism-witch-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Liverpool star John Barnes hits out at Luis Suarez racism ‘witch hunt’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Liverpool<\/a> star John Barnes<\/a> has branded the Luis Suarez<\/a> racism case a “witch hunt” after the Uruguayan forward was banned for eight games for using “insulting language”.
<\/span><\/p>\n


The former England international endured racial abuse throughout his time as a player but has defended the Uruguayan insisting that”cultural differences have to be taken into consideration”.<\/p>\n

Barnes told BBC Radio Merseyside<\/em>: “From a cultural point of view, [Suarez] has been backed by people from Uruguay saying the word he used is not deemed as a racist term.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“As much as we will say that ignorance is no excuse, ignorance is an excuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Twenty years ago in England, the same people in England now condemning him were ignorant as to what racism is. Why don’t they condemn themselves?”<\/span><\/p>\n

The 48-year-old went on to say that whilst discrimination of any kind should be punished, there needs to be rules put in place to ensure consistency.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said: “When Manchester United play Liverpool and 10,000 United fans are saying ‘you Scouse thieves’, I’d like them all to be banned.<\/span><\/p>\n

“And Liverpool fans too, when they say ‘you Manc or whatever’. So where are we going to draw the line? Racism has to be zero tolerance but this is now a witch hunt.<\/span><\/p>\n

“By admitting [what he said], he obviously didn’t feel that what he said was that significant.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Because he could easily have gotten away with it by saying ‘I never said a word’.”<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Liverpool star John Barnes has branded the Luis Suarez racism case a “witch hunt” after the Uruguayan forward was banned for eight games for using “insulting language”. The former England international endured racial abuse throughout his time as a player but has defended the Uruguayan insisting that”cultural differences have to be taken into consideration”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Liverpool star John Barnes hits out at Luis Suarez racism 'witch hunt' - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/22\/former-liverpool-star-john-barnes-hits-out-at-luis-suarez-racism-witch-hunt\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Former Liverpool star John Barnes hits out at Luis Suarez racism 'witch hunt' - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Former Liverpool star John Barnes has branded the Luis Suarez racism case a "witch hunt" after the Uruguayan forward was banned for eight games for using "insulting language". 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