Sol Campbell: I wasn't captain because I wasn't white

Jed

Sol Campbell makes England captaincy race allegation

Sol Campbell has claimed he would have been "England captain for more than 10 years" if he had been born white.

The former England defender makes the claims in an authorised biography serialised by the Sunday Times.

"I believe if I was white, I would have been England captain for more than 10 years - it's as simple as that," said the 39-year-old, who won 73 full caps, including three as captain.

The Football Association is aware of the claims but declined to comment.

Campbell, who made 646 senior appearances for Tottenham, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United before retiring in 2012, claimed: "I think the FA wished I was white. I had the credibility, performance-wise to be captain.

"I was consistently in the heart of the defence and I was a club captain early in my career."

He added: "I don't think it will change because they don't want it to and probably the majority of fans don't want it either.

"It's alright to have black captains and mixed race in the Under-18s and Under-21s but not for the full national side - there is a ceiling and although no one has ever said it, I believe it's made of glass."

Campbell's three games as England captain were in three friendlies - against Belgium and the Czech Republic in 1998 under Glenn Hoddle's management, and against the United States in 2005 under Sven-Goran Eriksson.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26383249

Outrageous comments from Sol. The guy is getting more and more paranoid. Not the first time he's made a race allegation in recent times.

Qwiss

In fairness making Michael Owen captain ahead of him was ridiculous. TBH he probably has a point.

kamikaze

there's some truth to what he says, but he's come across as bitter and delusional since retiring. didn't he say it was outrageous that no one's handed him a managerial position?

Meatwad

what did he expect.

ebouefan

Never the sharpest, our Sol.

Tony Montana

I can see where he's coming from.

Bold Tone

He felt he had earned it but captaincy is the manager's choice and campaigning for it would have been counter productive.
He has nothing to gain by bringing that stuff out and will open him up to pillory but if that's what he believed, he has to say it.

Captain

In the end, it will sell some books.

goon

It's utter nonsense, Sol seems to love playing the race card.

Irishgunner

Load of bollocks tbh, guys like Ferdinand and Lampard would have been equally deserving of the armband yet never got it on a permanent basis either.

Qwiss

Irish gunner wrote:
Load of bollocks tbh, guys like Ferdinand and Lampard would have been equally deserving of the armband yet never got it on a permanent basis either.

I'd be surprised if Ferdinand didn't at least partly agree with Sol.

Klaus

Ferdinand was suspended for 8 months for avoiding a doping test to be fair. He was done after that mistake.

Irishgunner

Klaus wrote:
Ferdinand was suspended for 8 months for avoiding a doping test to be fair. He was done after that mistake.

I'd forgotten about that.

ebouefan

Ferdinand did get permanent captaincy in 2009 or 2010. Short lived but he wasn't a stand-in for anyone.

Sol's controversial move between fierce rivals was probably what worked against him. Also the 2006 meltdown doesn't reflect too well on him, while looking for captaincy material.

Qwiss

ebouefan wrote:
Sol's controversial move between fierce rivals was probably what worked against him.

That doesn't matter a shite.

Burnwinter

Jed wrote:
Outrageous comments from Sol. The guy is getting more and more paranoid. Not the first time he's made a race allegation in recent times.

kamikaze wrote:
there's some truth to what he says, but he's come across as bitter and delusional since retiring. didn't he say it was outrageous that no one's handed him a managerial position?

Think we don't know enough to say the claims are outrageous. We'd have to have some insight into the private views of the managers and other officials during Campbell's international career.

Campbell seems to have a few psychological tics. He really needs to back this allegation up with detail if he wants it to stick.

Claudius

Thing is, Qs, it's hard to back this up. And it takes a lot to come up with these allegations, if indeed they're true and you're serious. My gf, for example, works for a large company which doesn't promote it's talented blacks. They get passed by clearly less qualified white workers. The young black talent eventually leaves and does really well elsewhere. But how do you prove that there is an institution listed racism in the company without an admission from senior management? I've worked as black guy in black and white countries and in mainly white companies in black countries. There are often barriers you perceive and it's hard to make definitive claims, but it's hard to ignore. It's subtle. Not an overt '12 years' racism. More about whether you're part of the family or not.

Burnwinter

It would be an exceptional case if racism didn't to some extent affect the selection of the England captain. Remember that Harvard implicit racism test we talked about a while back?

Thing is if you don't have a smoking gun, you can't efficiently convert this kind of protest into a result.

Claudius

just took the test. apparently, i have a bias towards the white man. meh.
but speaking of harvard and race, this was released recently. some of these resonate
http://itooamharvard.tumblr.com/
hopefully, Pep doesn't ban me for posting here, but i'm not that far off topic

speedy

The guys on the football ramble were talking about sol. They were saying he's a type of character that goes into himself. He wants to be alone before games. And doesn't let players sit beside him on the team bus. He likes to be in his own head. Some managers won't like that in a captain.

I think Sol might struggle getting on in his career now as clubs will be afraid he'll shout racism again.