The inflated piety which has lost England's second-class team a first-class manager (Redknapp next? Capello quits England, 9 February) exemplifies preoccupation with purity in word and deed about race. About which, received standard opinion now shows a mirror image of the Victorian view of all sexual acts, not marital, heterosexual or hidden – an itch to punish. Offensive and abusive language about race is odious indeed – as odious as offensive and abusive language about anything else not the object of trial and imprisonment. Both concern words; and, as the Spanish say, "words are feathers". Football frequently involves violent play, and England's outstanding defensive player has on occasion been sent off and suspended for violent acts. How is racial abuse (without violent acts) so very much graver than an elbow in the eye, or a crunch on the metatarsals? It would have been right to send off and suspend Terry for cruel, stupid, racist language, were that to have been the case. But no more than the well-aimed elbow or crunching heel does racial abuse warrant M'Learned Friend or His Lordship and a week of fees. Nor does it need intrusions into a manager's realm of authority by a non-playing committee frightened of newspapers and politicians.
Edward Pearce
Thormanby, Yorkshire
• Since Wolves' heyday in the 50s, when 90% of the players came from within walking distance of their clubs, a conjuring trick has been pulled off in British sport (In praise of ... foreign managers, 10 February). We have been persuaded that winning takes priority over whether or not we do it with British contributors. In tennis, athletics, football, rugby, cricket and many other sports at international level, we have so tinkered with qualifying criteria that many of our representatives have the most tenuous links with Britain. In premier football sides, teams representing some of our historic cities are on the pitch without any British players. The trick has been to have fans screaming for more money to be spent on foreign stars. However, I and many others have been permanently turned off supporting this charade.
Ken Cordingley
Williton, Somerset
• How depressing that you have joined the xenophobic, tabloid pack: decrying Fabio Capello's role as England coach and championing the superior virtues of the self-confessed falsehood teller and functional illiterate, Harry Redknapp. You also contrast Capello's deficiencies in English and culture with Redknapp's ability to communicate easily in the same idiom used by our boys, thus motivating them to "be better players". But isn't Capello's real sin that, unlike 'Arry, he isn't willing or able to talk easily and readily with sports journalists? A more telling contrast would be between other previous, popular and motivational England managers such as Kevin Keegan and Alf Ramsay. Alf was aloof and distant with media and players alike. He spoke a stilted English more akin to an overseas 1930s languages school than footballers' argot. But while the motivational communicators all failed, Alf is the only England manager to win an international tournament, the 1966 World Cup.
Bryn Jones
Bath
• Richard Williams's article exemplifies so many things wrong with English football. 1966? Sure, always define yourself by past achievements. Not speaking English? In a country where an essential quality is to be monolinguistic, Williams complains that a foreigner doesn't speak more than one and a half. How many languages does Redknapp speak, or Rooney? Not understanding English football? Probably right. Because few foreign, high-class professionals understand that in English football form still overrides substance. In comparison, Bert van Marwijk and Joachim Loew, coaches of the Netherlands and Germany, have created two pretty good football teams without having had impressive careers as players. Hopes of winning a major international tournament? These two would tell you that you have to come in the top four a few times before making it all the way. Success comes with ability built up over time, not with reputation, quick fixes or popular sentiment.
Jan Erik Wetzel
London