No FA action in Holgate-Firmino spat

For the to FA to take 6 weeks to come to this conclusion, they must have thought that RedShite player had a case to be answered... Or maybe I'm just biased.

It is interesting that it's taken 6 weeks for this to be closed off, so maybe the FA did look at this properly...

In this instance, I believe entirely the results of the enquiry.

Yes, he did say that. He said lots of things between the moment he woke up and the point at which Jonjoe walked across shot. Mason didn't react to any of them.

What was said that caused Mason's reaction is completely unknown. Firmino knows. Mason may know or may have misheard. The ref had turned away.

If Mason is satisfied, then fine. Not sure why it took our club 6 weeks to make a statement.

We have once again been made to look like amateurs.

How, and why so?

I don't know what was said by either player, neither it would seem does anybody else apart from the two players involved. I've no doubt that Mason felt he heard something inappropriate but, when it's a "he said / he said" situation, it's difficult for the FA to come to any other decision in the absence of concrete evidence.

It would be best for all parties to move on from this incident and hopefully an awareness of what should or shouldn't be said will be heightened for all footballers.

Mason should now concentrate on getting his place back into the Everton first team and those fans of other clubs who want to see him charged with something should give their heads a wobble.

I think the whole issue should be put to bed now, never to be re-awoken!

As part of the investigation “we also obtained multiple angles of video footage, including broadcast and unseen footage showing the incident, which was assessed by two independent Portuguese speaking lip-reading experts. The evidence obtained from the experts did not support the allegation.”

Appears conclusive to me.

It took our club 6 weeks to make an announcement because it took the FA six weeks to come to a conclusion. Nothing to make a statement about until the FA have made theirs.

The FA, on the other hand, may have seen other footage that wasn't broadcast. Good for them. The fact it took 6 weeks to conclude raises my suspicions but I'm sure we're at the only realistic outcome.

Did Mason make it up? Don't know, couldn't see through Jonjoe's head. Did Firmino racially abuse him? Don't know, couldn't see through Jonjoe's head.

Bias doesn't really matter if you can deal in facts.

Brian, Mason's character was widely questioned after the allegation. In fact, there was a witch hunt against him, and talk of a playing ban. Personally, I thought it was pretty weak of the club to just go quiet while that was happening. If we accept, as the FA have, that the allegation was made in good faith, then the subsequent actions against Mason should concern people much more than the use of a word.

It tells us that, if you dare to report racial abuse, then you'll be attacked. We chose to stay quiet while that happened. I posted something similar at the time and still believe that a show of support was in order.

Sounds like Everton & Holgate are the accused party! Amazing!

Holgate thought he heard him say something racist. Firmino denied it. The case was investigated for weeks. The conclusion was that nothing racist was said. Holgate could easily have misheard him, thought he heard a racist term when Firmino was screaming at him in a raucous Anfield.

It's done now.

For me David @24 puts up the most plausible explanation – That Mason has come up a little short in his grasp of the Portuguese language.

I watched this game a couple of times, taking a real interest in these two, even when the camera was not directly focusing on them; they were at it all game, nothing open and violent, but the niggle was there and unsurprisingly the RS player was getting the benefit of the doubt from the referee.

To be fair, I think it's us who have dodged the bullet; the shove over the wall was not one movement, it was a double shove. The first was the sort you see every week, but Mason clearly had an "ah fuck it" moment and sent him over the wall.

Our boy was reckless here and you only have to look at the hysterical reactions of the usually fair-minded Liverpool fans to see how dangerous and inflammatory it was.

Bang out of order! ... I could have kissed him!!!

No such problem in Turkey when the obnoxious little racist twat got a 2.5-year suspended sentence for racially abusing another player. They must have access to better hearing aids in Turkey.

(The fact that he had compromising photos of FA chiefs with a variety of... er, 'hostesses'... is neither here nor there.)

He's saying something, but he's learned to cover his mouth up, which takes me back to the old saying about the quickest learners are the ones that get on the most.

"You slightly darker/lighter skinned whippersnapper" is the direct translation.

It seems that some people were waiting with bated breath for the RS to be found guilty and would have been pleased to have had this said if only to see a RS player punished.

We should be relieved, not disappointed.

Now that said, Holgate plainly roughed him up, so he can't realistically expect a non-reaction either.

I'd have had a few words with him as well – albeit not racially motivated.

Storm in a teacup.

For the FA to take 6 weeks to make a decision is telling in itself. It should have taken a day or two if it was straightforward. The fact that it took longer would indicate that the FA really diug into this and didn't come to their decision lightly.

Time to move on and luckily nothing came of Holgate's tweets when he was younger (Witch hunt, anyone? Destruction of Claimant's credibility?)

Where, in the quote that you cite, is there any suggestion that EFC / Holgate are the accused parties? And there's nothing in the FA statement to that effect.

He was right to point out that such actions would stop people complaining in the first place as they would in turn become the accused. Funnily enough most of the football writers and commentators are also LFC biased already so it was a no-win before it started.

Pretty sure Allardyce spoke for the club on the 12th of January.

Are you talking about the lack of action against Holgate for that shove?

We don't know that for sure, David; no-one other than Holgate, Firmino and Madley – and maybe not even them – do. That's the whole point. Madley didn't included it in his report and you would think/hope he would have done so had he clearly heard the N-word aimed at another player.

And I can't see the point in going round and round on it with ourselves or those uptight Liverpool fans who are dug in on the opposite side in their trench.

I think we need to allow for the possibility that what Firmino shouted at Holgate in Portuguese was perhaps mis-heard or mis-translated and just leave it at that because we will never know.

Didn't he just say that he wasn't saying anything?

And,

1. Why would you call Holgate a son of a bitch in a language he couldn't understand when you could call him something far more hateful and hurtful in a language he could understand?

2. If the ref reacts slow to it or misheard it slightly, the easy way out is not to send both off and lose control of the game, but to hesitate and let both off and say nothing.

3. Why would you react the way Holgate did to a language you couldn't understand and 'son of a bitch' in Portuguese. It also sounds nothing like the N-word.

4. The FA have come to a decision based on the difficulties of deciding on a "he said, he said" case, with the advantage of protecting the reputation of their ref, the league and Liverpool who could not afford another racist issue.

The timing of this was obvious. It was always going to be released late so the media attention died down. The LFC Mirror ran the LFC PR machine lip-reader nonsense the day after the incident.

Also, at boardroom level, LFC and EFC are partners. Make no mistake. Every big Premier League vote, we are together, with them Man Utd, Arsenal, and Chelsea.

To not see this outcome the day after it happened, is to not put yourself in the shoes of the LFC PR, the Liverpool, Everton and FA board members.

He walks back and says "He called me a nigger."

Liverpool, after Suarez, would have had to sack a £40-50m asset. There's no way he was ever going to be found guilty.

Two of their biggest business partners, the FA and EFC, were not going to force the issue. Everton are wise enough to realise that it might be one of our multi million pound assets in the future.

They're would have been plenty of evidence if it was a fan. And it wouldn't have been 9 games or 12 games ban, it would have been life. And some TW posters would have wanted to beat the racist to death with a barge pole.

We will find out in 10 years if Holgate ends up with a good enough career that warrants an autobiography. So we probably won't.

No, he talked about the incident and then mentioned the historical tweets from Mason blah blah. Usual bullshit really.

That long ago now it seems like last season.

However, we knew all along no action would be taken.

As mentioned, nobody but the two involved really know so it's best left alone.

We all know, when it comes to discipline, there is one law for Liverpool and Man Utd and another for the rest

However, I reckon the instant (at the time) backlash attempt to vindictively dredge up some naively posted crap from Mason's past, to turn the spotlight back on to our man, should not be forgotten! A blatantly snide move by blatantly snide people!!

Nor do I, for one minute, believe that the FA actually took SIX weeks, to come to their conclusion, but looked into it, decided after a couple of days, then clung to whatever their thoughts ALREADY then were, just so they could much later, now, give us this 'And look how long and so thoroughly we looked into the case for!' bullshit. Fuck em.

Spurs players diving yet no MotD pundit points it out. LFC players doing the same – no pundits point it out. Refs scared shitless to tackle them and, when they do, god help them – FA Cup penalty reaction at LFC vs us. City vs Wigan after an over the top reckless challenge. As in life those with respect (undeserved, mind you) get their own way the rest of us minnions don't.

Holgate, according to the FA, should have gone to Spec Savers – they do hearing tests now!

Time to move on, but a mini in comparison to game- and life-changing decisions we've had against the RS over the years. That list is quite a list.

Now to salvage this car crash of a season and to see if the Dubai sun has inspired Everton's first team to a solid finish to the season.