April 22 – Big Ron Bites The Bullet

HE was one of the old school, a perma-tanned sheepskin-jacketed relic in the dugout. Unfortunately, today in 2004 Ron Atkinson proved that his views were also stuck in the past as he had to abandon his many media commitments following his racist comments over Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly.

Big Ron was one of the country’s favourite pundits, with his mixture of insider knowledge and “Ronglish” talk of lollipops, spotters’ badges and Hollywood balls. But the consummate professional he was not – rule one of broadcasting is surely watch what you say near a live mic.

Chelsea had just lost 3-1 to Monaco in a Champions League semi-final first leg, much to the frustration of Big Ron. Having assumed ITV’s coverage was over, he began to wax lyrical about the performance of Chelsea’s centre-half. However, he was still on air to several countries in the Middles East, including Dubai and Egypt when he uttered the phrase: “He’s what is known in some schools as a f***ing lazy n***er.”

A day later came the apologies and the resignations from ITV and the Guardian. “I made a stupid mistake which I regret. It left me no option but to resign. At the moment I can’t believe I did it,” he grovelled.

The reaction to Atkinson’s comments was far reaching, as the story was all over the press, and he was condemned from everyone from football’s anti-racism campaign Kick It Out to the Commission for Racial Equality.

There were endless debates as to whether Big Ron was a bone fide racist or not. His West Brom team in the late ’70s and early ’80s were the first to field three black players simultaneously, as Brendon Batson, Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis became known as the ‘Three Degrees’.

This argument looks a bit silly though, when you look at some of Atkinson’s other comments. He called Roma forward Francesco Totti a ‘little twat’ live on German TV and later in 2004 he made remarks about Chinese women being the ugliest in the world before making a joke about how they didn’t understand contraception.

Needless to say, this incident was the death-knell for Big Ron’s high-profile media career. The closet he’s got to those ITV Champions League nights is a spot in Dictionary Corner on Countdown and a documentary on Sky called ‘Big Ron Manager’ where he attempted to troubleshoot at Peterborough United, which was, to be honest, rubbish.

See him attempting to rebuild his career on Irish TV (and doing very badly) below and head over here for more reminiscing tomorrow.