Sofia racism was a disaster waiting to happen
The racism which scarred England’s
visit to Bulgaria was an indirect product
of complacency within international
football by those who do care and
carelessness by those who do not.
Coded admissions emerged in
responsive statements from presidents
Aleksander Ceferin of UEFA and
Gianni Infantino of FIFA. Both urged
governments and society in general
to do more in terms of anti-racism
education, but in the current nationalist
and austerity climates that is a wish
beyond fulfilment.
But that does not exonerate football
from accepting its own responsibilities- which is easier said than done as the
experiences of FIFA and UEFA prove.
History demonstrates that football’s
governing bodies were notoriously slow
to address the issue of racism in the
first place. Back in 2003, Patrick Vieira
was infamously fined by UEFA after
criticising Europe’s governing body
for not being tough enough on racism.
The then-Arsenal captain had spoken
out after a Champions League tie
in Valencia. He was fined £2,
and Valencia £9,250 – and
UEFA’s reputation in terms of anti-
discriminatory behaviour has yet to
recover from that disciplinary idiocy.
To be fair to Ceferin, in August
2017 one of his first major campaign
launches after becoming president was
a revamped anti-racism project entitled
“#EqualGame”. This built on the 2008
“Prevent” promotion and the 2013 “No
to Racism” expansion. UEFA described it
as “the most ambitious version created
and promoted by any international
sports federation” and the development
was welcomed at a time when FIFA
had dropped its own anti-racism baton
amid its own internal crisis.
Ceferin enrolled high-profile leadKeir
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ambassadors such as Cristiano Ronaldo,
Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba and Ada
Hegerberg. But now he and those
ExCo colleagues who care may reflect
that EqualGame’s focus was too wide-
ranging. The anti-racism message was
watered down in a campaign that also
encompassed support of walking
football, the grass-roots women’s game
and players with physical impairments.
As Ceferin acknowledged after theevents in Sofia: “There were times,
not long ago, when the football family
thought that the scourge of racism was
a distant memory. The last couple of
years have taught us that such thinking
was, at best, complacent.
“The rise of nationalism across the
continent has fuelled some unacceptable
behaviour and some have taken it upon
themselves to think that a football
crowd is the right place to give voiceto their appalling views.”
Ceferin complained that “some of
the views expressed about UEFA’s
approach to fighting racism have been
a long way off the mark”. He cited a
failure to credit the co-operation with
Football Against Racism Europe and the
three-stage protocol activated in Sofia.
He also proclaimed UEFA’s sanctions as
“among the toughest in sport for clubs
and associations whose supporters are
racist at our matches”.
Ceferin’s examples of UEFA’s
commitment to “doing everything to
eliminate this disease from football”
include the partial closures of stadia
“which costs the hosts at least hundreds
of thousands in lost revenue”.
UEFA’s disciplinary commission deals
regularly with racist behaviour in all the
European competitions but partial or
total closures and perfunctory fines
have clearly had little effect. And why
should they? After all, it’s not the
hooligans who pay up but the national
associations and the clubs.
A quick check of UEFA’s sanctions
for racist behaviour in the past five
months reveals eight closures, six
partial closures, one away-ticketsSign...Bulgaria
players display
a “#EqualGame”
message before
facing England“There were times, not long ago, when the
football family thought that the scourge
of racism was a distant memory”
UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin
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