Thursday 18 June 2009

Aragonés Racist Fine Ridiculous - Henry



Thierry Henry yesterday called on Fifa, the world game's governing body, to order a greater punishment of Spain's national coach Luis Aragonés after his racist comments directed at the Arsenal striker.

Aragonés was fined 3,000 euros (£2,060) by the Spanish football federation earlier this week, a sum that Henry calls "absolutely ridiculous" after the game's anti-racist movment Kick It Out labelled "a tokenistic gesture".

Henry, who was called "a black shit" by Aragonés at a Spanish training session in October, told the Sun: "It's up to Fifa to step in - they are the only ones who can do something . . . they should look at this fine and make it a proper one. They must also tell the Spanish FA to get real.

"You really have to look at the Spanish authorities and they must take a long look at themselves. They obviously don't care about racism.

"It is laughable. They fined him for the sake of it, not because they felt he did something wrong."
The 66-year-old Aragonés did publicly apologise for any offence caused but later said, before November's friendly with England in Madrid, that his conscience was clear about issues of racism.

Manuel Almunia, a club-mate of Henry, sympathises with Aragonés. Arsenal's Spanish goalkeeper says he cannot see why the coach was fined 3,000 euros.

"All this has been exaggerated," Almunia told the sports daily Mundo Deportivo. "We all know Luis Aragonés. "He is a strong personality who was only trying to motivate his players. But racist, not at all. They've fined him 3,000 euros. Well, I don't understand it."

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