FIFA to stamp down on Racism

[TFU]

About time.....

 

Fifa is to use match suspensions, points deductions and disqualification from competitions as possible punishments against acts of racism.

Clubs face being deducted three points for a first offence, six for a second and relegation for further offences.

 

Member associations failing to implement them face being banned from international football for two years.

 

"Recent events have demonstrated there is a need for concerted action," said Fifa president Sepp Blatter.

 

"I have repeatedly stressed Fifa's and my firm personal stance against racism and discrimination."

 

And he pledged "more severe measures to be adopted in order to kick this evil out of the beautiful game".

 

Cameroon international and Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o has been a victim of persistent racial abuse in La Liga.

 

He recently had to be stopped from walking off the pitch after receiving abuse during a game against Real Zaragoza.

 

Manchester United striker Rio Ferdinand also recently stated football's authorities had to take a tougher stance against the problem.

 

French international Lilian Thuram gave a testimony to the Fifa meeting on Thursday.

 

Fifa spokesman Andreas Herren said: "The new rules take effect essentially as soon as we can notify the associations by way of a letter.

 

"It's not going to take a long time. It applies to all competitions throughout the world at any level. All matches of all types are covered."

 

 

 

Think this has been far too long in coming, hopefully no more pathetic £4000 fines

Edited March 16, 2006 by boybutleruk

[ManxRed]

So, its down to FIFA to implement something after UEFA have done their utmost to ignore it.

 

Let's hope this has an effect.

[MikeK88]

Im all for the idea and it shows that racism really doesn't have a place in football. However i fear it won't solve all the problems and it will be a case of the minority ruining it for the rest.

[R A Softlad]

Ticketing policy needs to be watertight for this to really work though.

 

Spot on, without it rival fans could just go in an effort to get their 'enemies' relegated.

[Scally the Wag]

Interesting thought that: a hard core who follow one particular team everywhere and keep trying to get points docked for them.

[Guest DanTheDaggerman]

Listening to FiveLive this morning, they had a FIFA bloke on it. He mentioned that there would be investigations into each incident to check for who was actually making the abuse.

[Paul B]

Everton on fast track to non-league football, shocker!

[Guest TanMan]

Ticketing policy needs to be watertight for this to really work though.

 

Like having a ballot for CL final tickets.....

 

D'oh

[boohog]

This looks way over the top to me. Realistically, how can the likes of Lazio et al be expected to stop racism from their crowd in what could amount to 3 games before getting relegated.

 

The sentiment is right, but there has to be some realism involved. Some of these 'supporters' probably don't even care about the implications of being relegated, so its unlikely that the threat will be enough to stop the supporters and it will be left up to the club. I just can't see any club being able to act quickly enough to weed out all the horrible little feckers (particularly for those clubs where they are the majority rather than the minority).

 

And as mentioned above, this really is liable to cause rival fans to get in amongst the home fans and get them in trouble. Only recently for example:

• Steve Finnan accused of racism
  
• The Millwall 'riot' where most of the leaders of it were Hammers fans
  

It seems to me if people will get up to this sort of behaviour, now we are giving them an actual goal - to get teams relegated, rather than just to tarnish their reputation.

 

Its quite scary actuallly when you think about it.

[Spoone]

The way i see it is that it should be up to the stewards to pounce as soon as any racist chanting/comments are heard, this will mean the club are seen to be acting as quickly and effectively as possible to get rid of the perpetrators and will therefore avoid any punishment. Therefore whether it is a genuine fan or a rival fan as long as the stewards stop the abuse and the idiot(s) is/are banned from the ground no further action will be taken by the FA/UEFA/FIFA..

Edited March 17, 2006 by atoone

[SkippyjonJones]

the bit I read wasn;t as detailed but apparently when as when it would come into effect the FIFA spokesman said that it would be as soon as they could get a letter out to everyone.

 

they sound a fearsome bunch that FIFA.

[Woodsyla]

About time.....

 

Fifa is to use match suspensions, points deductions and disqualification from competitions as possible punishments against acts of racism.

Clubs face being deducted three points for a first offence, six for a second and relegation for further offences.

 

The Spanish Premira Liga 15th October 2007

 

-----------Pl W D L Pts

Osasuna 9 2 2 5 8

Edited March 17, 2006 by Woodsyla

[Leo No.8]

I'm sure the Spanish authorities will follow suit, by increasing their punishments for serious racist abuse to a 10 second finger wagging and 30 Euro 'on the spot' fine...

[Guest Scot]

It's like in school where your mates get punished if you misbehave. If a club faced points deduction for racist chanting, you know that supporters are going to clamp down on fellow 'fans' making monkey noises and whatever.