Racism in football: Referees to stop games

On Tuesday, Juventus’ Italian teenage forward Moise Kean suffered racist abuse from the stands during Tuesday’s Serie A match at Cagliari.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says he will ask referees to be “brave” and stop matches where there is racial abuse from fans.

Chelsea and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, 18, was subjected to abuse in games against Dynamo Kiev and Montenegro last month.

“The moment a match is stopped, or it’s not played, I think that 90% of normal people in the stadium would kick the asses of those idiots,” said Ceferin.

“It’s 2019, it’s not 100 years ago.”

Manchester City and England forward Raheem Sterling suffered alleged racist abuse from Chelsea fans in a Premier League game at Stamford Bridge in December, while a study published in November found that half of football supporters in the UK have witnessed racism while watching matches.

Sterling has called on football’s authorities to take “a proper stance” and crack down on racist abuse.

Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino are among the managers to say they would be prepared to take their players off the pitch to combat racist chanting.

“We will speak to the referees again, and tell them to be confident, not to be afraid to act,” said Ceferin, the head of European football’s governing body.

“This is a huge problem. Not just the Balkans, all eastern Europe. There’s not much immigration there because everybody wanted to go to western Europe because of economic reasons, jobs, a better life.

“So it takes some time. But of course you see Italy, one of the biggest problems with racism, sexism and homophobia. You have England, where you have problems.

“It’s a problem of intolerant people, not a problem of nations.”

Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said last week that “it’s time for Uefa to take strong, decisive action – fines won’t do”, adding: “Extended stadium bans or tournament expulsion are what’s needed.”

Ceferin does not believe Uefa’s punishments need to be tougher.

“I don’t see any tougher sanction than forbidding the fans, matches played in front of empty stadiums, which has happened in Croatia a few times, and the money sanctions,” he said.

“If it’s chronic, we could throw out a club team or a national team from a competition. Everything is possible. But that is a last resort.”

‘Racism is racism’

England’s Raheem Sterling has been vocal on how he feels racism should be dealt with.

Football Association chairman Greg Clarke says it must take a default position of believing those reporting racism or discrimination.

“One of the first rules is to listen to the person who has been affected and believe them,” said Clarke at the Uefa Equal Game conference at Wembley where Ceferin was also speaking.

“I worry that there is an undue burden on the player to report incidents themselves. I would like to see a review of on-field incidents too.

“I understand completely that when two people are involved in an exchange it is often the word of one person against another. But actually that’s not the case anymore. The grounds that competitions are played in are full of cameras, recording every angle.

“We should go that extra mile. We owe it to our players.”

Clarke believes it is time to examine Uefa’s three-step process for halting matches.

“The protocol asks the referee to stop the match if ‘racist behaviour is of a strong magnitude and intensity’. I don’t now think that is good enough and we should take this opportunity to revisit these thresholds,” said Clarke.

“There should be no judgement call on whether something is of a strong magnitude. Racism is racism.”

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Juventus’ Italian teenage forward Moise Kean suffered racist abuse from the stands during Tuesday’s Serie A match at Cagliari.

The 19-year-old held his arms aloft after scoring Juve’s second in the 2-0 win, seemingly in response to chants, and was subjected to further abuse.

Afterwards he wrote on Instagram: “The best way to respond to racism.”

Boss Massimiliano Allegri and defender Leonardo Bonucci said Kean should take some of the blame for his celebration.

“He shouldn’t have celebrated in that manner,” said Allegri. “He is a young man and he has to learn, but certain things from the crowd also shouldn’t be heard.”

Italy international Bonucci – who scored the opening goal – told Sky Sport Italia: “You celebrate goals with your team-mates. He could have done it differently.

“I think the blame is 50-50. Moise should not have done that and the Curva [fans] should not have reacted in that way.” However, in his post-match interview Allegri called the fans directing abuse at Kean “idiots who do stupid things and ruin it for everyone else” and said the authorities “don’t really want to” tackle the problem.

“You need great intelligence to deal with these situations and should not go to provoke people. That, of course, does not mean the idiots in the crowd and the way they reacted should be justified,” he said.

“I don’t think talking about it all the time helps. I don’t think halting play helps, because not everyone in the stadium did that.

“We need to use the cameras, find those who are doing it and punish them. It’s very simple, identify them and not one-year ban or two, just give them a lifetime ban.

“We’ve got the technology, it can be done if the authorities want to. The problem is, they don’t really want to.”

–bbc.com