Kalou And Drogba Getting Political?
Salomon Kalou’s goal celebrations against Middlesbrough last night had me raging when I mistakenly thought he was showing support for John Obi Mikel following his arrest for drink-driving.
However, it actually turns out the gesture is thought to have been of a political nature. Both Kalou and Drogba celebrated by making a ‘handcuff’ gesture and the suggestion is that this was in support of Ivory Coast activist Antoine Assalé Tiémoko. Tiémoko was arrested in December 2007 after the newspaper he contributes to published an article on judicial corruption although, after being convicted of libel and contempt of court, was released from a year’s prison sentence last month.
With the FA now set to investigate, Kalou has denied the celebration was political, with a Chelsea spokesperson stating “Salomon says there was nothing in it. He was just trying out a new celebration and it was a crossing of the arms. He also sometimes puts his hand over his face like a mask.”
Mind you, the fact that Drogba also chose to ‘try out’ this new and rather unusual ‘celebration’ doesn’t make his explanation any more believable.
Filed under: Current Players, Rants
Does the FA have nothing better to do? It doesn’t sound like that activist is of the violent sort. It’s not like Kalou and Drogba saluted Hitler.
Move along, nothing to see here.
But if you allow one political display, you must allow all political displays. If you ban one and allow the other it’s discrimination. So if Kalou isn’t punished for showing the handcuffs, then Abbiati (a well known fascist) could not be punished for giving a Nazi salute after saving a penalty.
i agree with alex; even if a players intentions are good and in support of a morally just cause, it just takes one person to muck things up by offending a group of people.
i’d also like to address all the people who at the beginning of the month were calling for kalou to be sold. granted both of his goals were a bit more luck than skill, no one else in blue was scoring any goals.
Recently Frédéric Kanouté did something similiar by showing his vest on which ‘Pelestine’ was written. I agree with Kanouté’s gesture, but the fact remains acts like these will certainly offend a group of people, which is not good for the game.
Well let’s just hope Kalou scores against Pool and celebrates in the same way. That ought to tell the FA that there’s nothing political in it.
A football pitch is no place for politics imo.