Much ado about nothing

In a week where England lost its manager, you would think that the narrative dominating the media over the weekend would've focused on the country's prospects for this summer's EURO in Poland and Ukraine.

Instead, a handshake - or the lack of one - seems to have sent the English media in a frenzy. One only wonders what they would do with themselves without a sensational non-issue to blowup.

Seriously, a handshake? In case you're from a different planet, here's what happened. Liverpool's Luis Suarez, who had just served an eight-match ban for racial abuse - one that he still denies was intended to be racial but we'll get back to that later - refused to shake hands with Man Utd's Patrice Evra, who accused him of said crime prior to the kickoff of Saturday night's league encounter between the two sides.

That handshake snub has now rocked the very foundations of English football if you believe what's been written in the media over the last 48 hours.

Was Suarez acting immaturely and perhaps a little stupid by snubbing Evra who extended his hand? Sure. If anything, the Suarez-Evra saga's gone on too long and it's time (for everyone) to move on.

But surely, one can see why Suarez wouldn't have wanted to shake hands with Evra. After all, Suarez still insists he wasn't trying to racially abuse Evra during the Premier League encounter between both sides at Anfield earlier in the season.

Nonetheless, in spite of the many protests on his behalf by his manager and the club and a lack of witnesses or video footage to the alleged crime, the Uruguayan forward still ended up serving an eight-match suspension and was fined GBP40,000. So, yeah, he might've been holding a grudge.

Still, it's odd that all this fuss is surrounding the refusal of a Liverpool player to shake the hand of a Manchester United player. Gary Neville, are you serious? There's very little love lost between the two sides and pretending otherwise is plain stupid. Don't forget there are players on both teams who have professed their desire at obliterating the other on many an occasion.

No prizes for guessing correctly but for the uninitiated, you want to check Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney.

But as trivial as this episode has been, I can only hope it doesn't deteriorate into a fiasco similar to the one unraveling at the English FA. In case you missed it, Fabio Capello resigned last week due to his disagreements with the FA's manner in handling another racial abuse allegation concerning John Terry.

The FA, in an unprecedented move, stripped Terry of his captain armband following allegations of racial abuse by the Chelsea defender at QPR's Anton Ferdinand. Unlike the Suarez case, this one's landed in court and could have harsher consequences on the Blues' captain if he's found guilty. But that's still an if. Nonetheless, the FA decided to take it upon themselves to preempt any court decision by stripping the England captaincy from Terry.

Capello was right to have come out and defended his man. Italian wasn't condoning racism but merely asking the FA to grant Terry the same rights meted out to individuals who have carried out crimes that are far graver: innocent until proven guilty.

But more than that, Capello was right to go public with his views when the FA decided to override his authority in the dressing room by making a unilateral decision on Terry. Even if Terry is found guilty, Capello, as England manager, should have had the responsibility in deciding the best course of action for his club.

And while we are on the subject of racist English footballers, does the Terry decision mean footballers who have been convicted of a crime will never play football for England again? As I recall, Johnathan Woodgate, who was found guilty of attacking an Asian student in Leeds in 2000, has featured several times for the Lions in recent years.


Speaking of Terry, the FA canceled a pre-match handshake between Chelsea and QPR when the two sides met recently to avoid what happened at Old Trafford on Saturday. Ironic huh?