England’s last World Cup team — if English bigots had their way.
According to the statement released by FIFA on Thursday, clubs whose supporters commit “acts of racism or discrimination in football” will now face sanctions ranging from match suspensions and the deduction of points to relegation or elimination from competitions.
“This is part of the disciplinary code of FIFA,” Blatter said when asked about possible implementation during the World Cup. “It will be handled by the disciplinary committee — so now they have the instrument and they have to apply it.”
Blatter insisted that stricter anti-racism regulations were long overdue and said there was no excuse for associations to drag their heels.
Even associations like the English FA which has done a damned good job opposing racism at the level of the Premier League needs to pay attention to racist behavior in the lower echelons.
Blatter stated, “I said 20 years ago that we had this problem with hooliganism and at the time the community of football stood there and said we should do something but we had no instrument.
“Now we have given them the instrument and regulations to deal with this problem.
“I do not agree (that more time will be needed). This has been an emergency decision in an emergency situation.”
In recent months, racist incidents in Spain and elsewhere have met with mild wrist-slapping from national football associations. Ongoing fascist resurgence in Italy continues to feed on bigotry — and the Italian association’s response was to order one “educational” gathering between offending players and holocaust survivors.
Taking points away from club standings for the first two offenses and mandating relegation for a third — hits a club where it hurts the most. In the wallet. Hopefully, sufficient motivation for sincere efforts by supporters and clubs to stand up for decency.
Wow!
Your photoshopped picture of the England team drives home a very strong message! English biggots want to see the likes of David Seaman and Danny Mills back in the England squad. This can mean only ONE THING: English biggots want to see shite football.
Oh, and evidently that want England’s #7, David Beckham to be more white than he already is.
Political-correctness, multi-cultralism, collective punishment – I think you’ve earned your brownie points for the day.
EVERY football club in Europe has a loyal group of white supremacist fans, these clubs turn a blind eye because these racist pigs are the ones who yell the most during the games.
It amazes me that with all this knowledge and all these white athletes the Americans hasn’t embraced this game as I have expected to.
Beckham gets included by the neo-Nazis because he’s 1/4 Jewish. Especially those who oppose “multi-cultralism” — whatever that might be.
These clubs are nationalistic, and their supporters want what’s best for their nations. Does race matter for a nation? The FDA’s recent heart-drug for African-Americans shows that race matters for health, but does it matter for behavior? Crime statistics can be skewed by racist police focusing on minorities, or they can be right. So who or what do we believe? The media? Or what’s in our hearts? The fans are obviously going with what’s in their hearts, and in the final analysis, that’s all you really can go on.
So, Doug — are we to presume you’d rather have football run by laissez-faire, lily-white “gentlemen”? Does it offend you to have athletes and officials deal with bigotry?
First the NCAA wants to suspend to teams for Indian mascots, and now they want to punish teams for what the fans are doing.
Chuckle — it really is hilarious to see some ignorant American who feels duty-bound to defend racist and fascist behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated by most American sports fans — because of some mistaken sense of conservative kinship.
ABCD — perhaps it was acceptable to tolerate race-baiting in the US 50 years ago — it isn’t, now. Do you miss the days when Black athletes could be threatened for entering a playing field?
And what would be your reaction, say, if your baseball favorites insisted upon giving the Nazi salute to the crowd after a match? Or if the NY Yankees gave free office space to their fan club — even though they decorated the walls with posters of Mussolini — as does Lazio?
You really haven’t a clue what this issue is about.
Moss, I suggest you not insult people if you want them to answer your questions. Of course we both know that you don’t even really care what my answers would have been. You could have saved yourself some time by just repeatedly screaming “Nazi!”.
ABCD, Politically correct people think it should be illegal to offend others, these people are for Censorship and are against Free Speech. Speech that does not offend anyone does not need to be protected. Words and ideas that people do not want to hear are what need to be protected. Thats why Moss is saying what is and is not acceptable speech. Socrates was forced to drink hemlock, Jesus was nailed to a cross, and Galileo was forced to recant by such politically correct people.
OT is still off topic. You blather on about free speech — when anyone involved with sport and/or politics around the world recognizes the physical threat of racism and fascism. The regulation is about financial support — or sanctions — for the clubs who derive their income from sport.
That is why the governing body of football worldwide has decided to act. The range of attacks upon non-white athletes, especially in Spain and Italy in recent years is something decried by supporters around the world. National associations have had ample opportunity to act — and have not. It was overdue for the world body to step in and they finally did. Welcomed, I might add, by most of the clubs in the sport.
There’s really nothing new about reactionaries and racists invoking one or another set of rights as a defense. It used to be States Rights and “tradition”. Bruting about the names of individuals who opposed reactionary politics of church and state as heroes is mere sophistry on your part.
There’s a significant number of Americans who risked more than words in the fight against racism. One of the reasons we haven’t suffered racist confrontation at sports events in the US in decades. I wouldn’t consider your hurt feelings any good reason to bring back the days when racism ruled athletics here — either.
Everything you blather about is based on races being equal in all ways, which I already pointed out – is known to be false. How people feel about the differences in races determines if they are a “racist” or not. Rather than work through how others feel about things, people like you simply tell them how they must feel. That works only as long as you carry a big stick, and it’s a big stick indeed that the forces of multi-cultralism carry. It will interesting to see what happens when the US dollar collapses via currency devaluation caused by 8 trillion dollars of debt, not to mention personal debt.
Folks, try to stick on topic. We’re not only reaching the level of non sequitar, I can hear the neo-con black helicopters just over the horizon.