When we see a female referee , do most men really believe she is as capable as a male ref , or do we keep our mouths shut , or try to convince society that we truly believe she is as capable ?
If we understood that we have been conditioned by society to think that way , and due to the media , we continue to feel superior to other groups who we are told are inferior to us , we can ' t help the way we feel !
So the solution is for us to understand that we ALL discriminate , own it , and try to change , rather than just point the finger at the ones who get caught , convince ourselves that we are NOTHING like them , pat ourselves on the back for being a ' good person ' and never address our own bias ’ s .
We assume that because we would never overtly racially abuse a black person , sexually abuse a woman , beat up a gay person , we are not racially biased , biased against women or gays IN ANY WAY .
The truth is we ALL are biased in some way on a sliding scale , due to unconscious conditioning over many decades as a society , and until we own and address it without judgement and have an open and honest conversation , rather than cancelling the ones who get caught , we will not find the solution .
How was growing up as a kid in Jamaica ? and later moving to London age 12 ? It was normal … kids growing up in Liverpool ; kids growing up in South America . It was an outdoor environment because of course the Caribbean is hot - so I was always outside . My dad was a Colonel in the Army so we grew up on the Army base ; the Army base is probably a 200 acre site where you got the barracks , but you got houses - and if your dad ’ s an army officer , which my dad was , we lived in a house with two acres and we had horses and swimming pools . The schools were off the base so we had to go to school off the base but I grew up in a very free environment , because of course Jamaica may not be the safest place in the world for a 7,8,9 year old boy to be out till 11:00 o ' clock ; but if you ' re on the Army base your safe . So , my dad played football for Jamaica ; when he came to Sandhurst in the 50s , he was a heavyweight boxing champion at Sandhurst ; he played rugby at Sandhurst , he was a real sportsman . As well as playing football for Jamaica - not professionally because there ' s no professional football - but being an army officer , he was the captain of the Jamaican national team . So , I grew up playing football , cricket , all sports - swimming – my sister swam for Jamaica , so it was a real sporting upbringing .
… and later moving to London ? When I came to England as a 12 / 13 year old the first thing we had to do was find a football club because the school I went to only played rugby ; so I played rugby at school . I found a local [ football ] club and obviously played for that local club . I was excited to come to England because as far as I ' m concerned it is the home of football . I was loving football growing up in Jamaica ; coming to England I knew was only going to be there 4 years , because my dad got a diplomatic post for four years , so I was looking forward to my four year adventure which turned out to be 44 years - so far !
Maracana , Brazil , 1984 ; One of the greatest goals ever scored in an England shirt . What was going through your mind ? I wanted to pass to somebody ! When you score a goal like that no one means to do that when they first get the ball on the halfway line with five or six players in front of them – you look to pass , if you can ' t find the pass you keep running , and the fact is I went past the first player then I looked up to pass to somebody - couldn ' t see anybody so kept going . What actually made the goal was a run that Tony Woodcock actually made , so if you look at the video again you ' ll actually see what he actually did : As I ' m about to shoot he comes running across me , if I shoot I ' m going to hit him as he is literally right in front of me , so he jumps up thinking I ' m going to shoot ; I then can ’ t shoot because I ' m going to hit him . I then pull the ball inside , and as I pull the ball inside , obviously all Brazilians thought I was going to shoot as well - I thought I was going to shoot ! And then all of a sudden , I went past two more and then there was the goalkeeper !
So when you score a goal like that , you don ’ t really know what you are doing , you are not thinking about it … you can ’ t pre-empt what you are going to do as you ’ ve got to do the opposite of what the defender does . You ’ re just reacting ; you ’ re not consciously thinking about what you are doing .
You played under some great managers – Taylor , Dalglish , Robson – How different were they and who do you feel had the greatest influence on you career ? Graham Taylor had the greatest influence on my career . Of course ,
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