UEFA action not strong enough to stamp out racism

It is easy to criticise Michel Platini and UEFA. They have made some very strange statements and decisions over the past few years and they have shown a real unwillingness to tackle the cancer of racist abuse across the football grounds of Europe.

Tackle

Now, they have announced new measures to tackle the problem. They do not go nearly far enough but at least it is an attempt to do something and they should be congratulated for that.

“Our policy on racism is one of zero tolerance,” said Platini. That simply isn’t true and the one game played behind closed doors by Juventus after their fans racially abused Inter’s Mario Balotelli and the paltry fine handed out to Spain after several of England’s black players were abused by large sections of Spanish fans suggest that Platini’s definition of ‘zero tolerance’ is very different to mine.

Now, Uefa has given referees the power to abandon matches if there is continual racist chanting or shouting. To abandon the game would be the third phase of the process.

Demand

Phase one will see the referee first demand over the public address system that fans’ racist behaviour should stop.

Phase two is to suspend the match for up to 10 minutes with the teams sent to the dressing room.

If that does not work, phase three is for the game to be abandoned.

Uefa president Michel Platini said there would be no compromise in his organisation’s stance against racism in football.

“It was necessary to give the pitch people the means to do something, and we have determined the parameters and lines of conduct, whereby in important cases of racist behaviour in a stadium, a referee must stop the match. There are people of authority such as the referee and match delegate who can consult before deciding to temporarily suspend a match for five or 10 minutes, in agreement with officials responsible for security, and from then, if the atmosphere remains negative, the match must be stopped.”

Although I congratulate UEFA on trying to take some action, I totally fail to see how this situation is best dealt with by the match referee. Surely there are always FIFA and UEFA delegates at international matches and other officials from the various leagues at club games.

Abusive

Surely the police and stewards should be dealing with unruly, unpleasant and abusive shouting and chanting? Certainly I have never seen the police hesitate to step in and deal with English fans in Italy or Spain. Shouldn’t they be treating fans from their own country in a similar way if they step out of line?

I’m afraid the reaction to this announcement will be that it is just another flimsy and pathetic rule from the so called governing body of European Football.

Banning

Whilst it is a start, it seems to be poorly thought through. UEFA simply must introduce much stricter measures than the one they are talking about here. It is time to hit clubs where it hurts. Bigger fines, points deductions and banning from competitions. Clubs would soon find a way of dealing with the racist scum if they were heavily losing out because of them.

Back in the eighties, English clubs were banned from all European competition due to hooliganism. In 2009, shouldn’t clubs with supporters who abuse people simply because of the colour of their skin be banned too?