Kicking racism out of the beautiful game

Date: 15/06/06

It may be called the beautiful game but football has, over the years, been witness to some ugly episodes. Crowd violence has been a constant worry for many years: racism is another problem.

Monkey chants at black players, Nazi salutes and offensive banners and chants have marred some matches, damaging the image of the game. With high-profile matches being broadcast around the world, the nasty side of football cannot remain hidden.

The sport's governing body FIFA is determined that the 2006 World Cup in Germany, should, like the last one in Japan and South Korea, be free from such incidents. Fans watching games will have noticed a "Say no to racism" banner covering the centre-circle of the pitches before kick-off. Before each quarter-final, the team captains will read out an anti-racism message to fans. Officials will be checking supporters for any racist banners as they go in to the stadium. Once the game kicks off, security officials and a match co-ordinator will monitor any incidents that do arise. If things get out of hand the referee has the power to stop the game.

But Michael Fanizadeh, co-ordinator with Football Against Racism in Europe, fears that problems may arise not inside the stadiums but outside. Some have expressed fears that non-white fans might run into trouble if they wander into certain parts of the German cities. But Fanizadeh fears that neo-Nazi elements will seek out the fans. "I'm concerned about the possibility of right-wing extremists coming to the city centre where fans are," he said.

Fanizadeh said tackling racism in football by imposing heavy sanctions, or deducting points from offending clubs, was problematic. Organisations such as FIFA and UEFA were constrained because of the big interests which controlled them. "FIFA and UEFA are not so powerful. They can only ask for certain things from clubs but big clubs, like say the Spanish, are too strong within FIFA and it's difficult to put pressure on them."

The EU body, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, advocates an approach on many levels, going right from grass-roots fans and local clubs to the big clubs and governments. John Kellock, spokesman for the centre, said: "You've got to do a comprehensive approach to nail things." Racism was no longer acceptable in the English Football Association, he said, and some English clubs now had equality bodies and full-time equality officers.

Kellock said football could be used as a way of tackling racism in general. He cited the example of English Premier League side Charlton Athletic sending players into schools to talk to children about racism. Conversely, bringing children into the club's ground was a way of teaching them about racism, Kellock said. "The children are brought into a non-threatening environment to talk about these issues. It is out of the context of school and it's a real-life situation."

Fanizadeh said the absence of a pan-European policy approach to racism in sport was sorely lacking. He particularly criticised the European Commission for not financially supporting organisations such as FARE. But a Commission official explained that the rejection of the EU constiution last year in France and the Netherlands meant an important article which would have allowed the Commission competence in sport had not been implemented. "If we try to introduce something in the area of sport it will be rejected by the legal services. It won't pass because we don't have the legal basis," he said.

In the absence of this mandate in the area of sport, the Commission said it could not even target groups such as FARE with funding but must look at all groups seeking funding equally. Down the line, the Commission may achieve this mandate and be able to develop a Europe-wide attempt to address problems like racism in football, said the official. "There is huge agreement among stakeholders for involving sport at the EU level."

Author takes a look at FIFA's fight against racism in football stadiums.
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'The EU and Football'.

FIFA: FIFA Fair Play: FIFA against discrimination http://www.fifa.com/en/fairplay/fairplay/0,1256,1,00.html

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