FIFA President Gianni Infantino has called for a “zero tolerance” policy against racism in football, ordering referees at all levels to stop games if racist events occur. Vinicius Junior, a Brazilian international who plays for Real Madrid, met with Infantino last month to address racism in sports after speaking out after being racially abused by a crowd in Spain. Football officials “should shoulder responsibility,” according to FIFA’s president, who called the bigots “criminals.” Referees and football authorities in Spain have done little to stop racist chants and chanting directed towards Vinicius, who is Black, throughout the season.
When Real Madrid’s Vinicius was singled out for racial slurs during their La Liga loss at Valencia, the club took the matter to the office of the Spanish state’s attorney general last month. After seeing Vinicius and the rest of the Brazil squad in Barcelona, Infantino stated, “It’s very important not just to talk about racism and discrimination, but to take action in a decisive and convincing manner – zero tolerance.” Let’s call off the games because racism has no place in sport. We have this mechanism for halting the game, and the referees have this chance in FIFA competitions, and steps need to be done at every level, at the national level as well,” Infantino added. You can’t say things like, ‘It’s society’s problem, therefore it’s fine in football,’ because it’s a problem in football and it’s not fine in society. Infantino has stated, “In the world of football, we must act very forcefully.” We hope to track out racists online and at sporting events. They’re bad people. They need to be barred from playing in stadiums across the world. We will tell everyone of them that the authorities must bring them to justice. He also said, “Racism is a crime.” Infantino announced the formation of a FIFA task force, with Vinicius playing a key role. After the infamous attack on Black AC Milan footballer Kevin-Prince Boateng in Italy in 2013, FIFA established an anti-racism task team. Boateng was part of the FIFA task team that was disbanded in 2016, a few months after Infantino took office.
The task team “completely fulfilled its temporary mission,” FIFA announced at the time. British-Nigerian journalist Osasu Obayiuwana called the decision to disband the anti-racism panel “a monumental mistake” on Twitter. Is this some kind of sick joke? The FIFA anti-racism task team I served on from 2013 to 2016 was disbanded at Gianni Infantino’s urging in July 2016, despite my advice to the contrary. FIFA declared that it had “succeeded” in its goals. They just realised after seven years that racism exists in football?
