Joey Barton is a vile right wing grifter. A person who profits off pure hate and drama. Lowest type of human.
Football gave him social clout with a section of society even dumber than he is sadly.
On the flip side you get an undercover snake oil salesman like Matt Le Tissier who is every bit as much of a grifter.
Appealing to the right wing is always low hanging fruit.
Allows clowns like Barton to stir up drama the old fashioned good ol’ hating on races way without the need for bringing in David Ike to talk about skin crawlers for 5 hours