While admittedly the McCammon story isn't exactly good publicity for the club, the general opinion is that the way McCammon was treated was in no way because of his race, it was purely because he was absolute shite and a waste of fucking space
Whether he's been treated unfairly/illegally or not is another matter, but that doesn't make it racist. You can certainly pick holes in most of his arguments:
- having to drive to the ground in snowy conditions while white players were told they weren't required - guess that would've depended on his level of fitness at the time, maybe the physio needed to check him out, maybe he needed treatment, who knows, but would assume the club would be able to justify their decision without too many problems. Vaguely remember reading somewhere (probably on a forum, so may be bullshit) that McCammon had a 4x4 jeep so could easily come in despite the snow, unlike some of the other players who weren't required to go in. Also worth noting that one of the other black players affected by that same incident, Curtis Weston, was released at the end of last season, but is reportedly still interested in coming back to the club, so presumably he wasn't too bothered by this "racist" treatment.
- the club refused to pay his private medical bills, while another (white) player was flown to Dubai for treatment - on the basis that we're fucking skint, it's a question of priorities. I'd assume (although I've not seen it specifically mentioned anywhere) that the white player would have been Simon King, twice voted our player of the year, and also included in the PFA team of the year one year, I believe. Suffered a potentially career threatening injury and needed the best treatment possible. McCammon was no longer a part of the club's plans, and so there was no way to justify spending a large amount on his medical treatment.
- had his wages reduced by 15% when it wasn't in his contract - now on this one I'd assume he'd be in the right, if Scally "forgot" to include a 15% relegation pay cut clause in his contract and then tried to enforce it anyway, presumably there's not much defence for that, even if it was agreed verbally. You'd assume though that most other players would have had a similar clause in their contracts, in which case McCammon would be hard-pushed to prove it was a racist act.
I guess it is a cloud hanging over the club until the verdict is returned (which I read today may be as much as 8 weeks away), but I'd be quite surprised if McCammon won the case. Of far greater concern IMO is the fact the players are due back any day now for preseason training (in fact they may even be back now, not sure) and we've still not appointed a bloody manager. Already seems to have cost us one potential signing, with Gavin Tomlin, who impressed last year on loan to us, and who was apparently keen to join us, having ended up going to Southend.
Looked earlier today like Martin Allen was going to be the new manager, but the odds are all over the place. He was down to 1/3 on the 21st June, back out to 4/1 a couple of days later, then earlier today came all the way in to 1/10. Now drifted back out again to 1/3. Wouldn't be overly keen on him myself, but then the appointment of Tony Pulis didn't really seem all that great to me at the time, and look what happened there.