The most belated apology in football arrived today as Luis Suarez and Kenny Dalglish both apologised for their conduct in the game which was meant to be Man Utd against Liverpool.
Suarez's apology reeks of involvement from principal owner John Henry and was subsequently followed with a statement from managing director, Ian Ayre, the first to publicly criticise the Uruguyan since the whole race saga developed. Ayre stated that "It has been made absolutely clear to Luis Suarez that his behaviour was not acceptable."
The three carefully crafted apologies offered their regret after Suarez turned down Patrice Evra's offer of his hand in the pre-match handshake that ironically was introduced as part of the FA's Respect campaign. Pointedly, the apologies stopped short of personally apologising to Patrice Evra for any wrong-doing and still leave the response of Liverpool to the initial eight game ban, the Suarez t-shirts and Dalglish's opinion last week that he should never have been banned unanswered.
That Liverpool today came out and made these statements was inevitable. As admitted in the three comments issued, the unpalatable actions at Old Trafford had seriously damaged the reputation of Liverpool Football Club and their manager who enjoys hero status amongst their fans.
Kenny Dalglish's response to the Sky cameras yesterday were a microcosm of his handling of the whole Suarez affair; a blinding loyalty which has seen the club attacking everyone outside the club with a refusal to look inwards for blame. Anfield seems to be enveloped in a state of paranoia at present, with everyone from the media, the FA and other Premier League clubs being accused of persecuting Liverpool.
This lack of balance may, in some part, be down to the current manager. The cult status that Dalglish enjoys at Liverpool seems to be beginning to cloud his judgement. His passion for the club and desire to avoid criticising it or any of their players has led to a completely rigid refusal of criticism, which is what landed Liverpool in their current situation.
A more impartial or less Liverpool tinted man might have reacted differently to Geoff Shreeves questioning yesterday. A manager other then Kenny Dalglish might have been less partisan when attacking Evra's reputation and the FA for finding Suarez guilty of using racist language.
The apologies were the least that Liverpool could muster today. Unfortunately they don't make all the tension and anger from Old Trafford disappear. Suarez could, and should, have started a very long road towards English football finally eradicating imbued racism in our game with a simple handshake. That he didn't was an idiotic decision and it means that rather than simply 'moving on' from issues of racism in our game it will continue to be a talking point for many months.
Some pundits and commentators have stated a wish to move on from the rearing head of racism, instead 'talking about the football'. However, such optimistic thinking does nothing to tackle any issues of racism that obviously still linger in our game. Liverpool and Suarez have apologised, but it remains to be seen whether these are enough to repair the damage done to their reputation and indeed the reputation of the English Premier League.
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