FIFA President Gianni Infantino renewed his plea for action to combat the rise in racist events in football during his speech at the UEFA Congress on Thursday.
AC Milan’s France goalkeeper Mike Maignan left the field during a game against Udinese last month due to racist shouts from the home crowd, while Coventry City’s Kasey Palmer claimed he was the subject of racist abuse from some Sheffield Wednesday fans.
“This is not acceptable anymore and we have to do whatever we can to stop this.”
Infantino noted again that football has some tools in place, such as the three-step process where the referee can stop a game twice and ultimately abandon it, plus disciplinary measures and education, but said these were not enough.
“What I suggest in addition to all this is that we work all together in the next three months before the FIFA Congress in May in Bangkok,” Infantino said.”And at the Congress we come all together with a strong resolution, united, all 211 countries of FIFA, for the fight against racism.
“Let’s stop racism, let’s stop it now, let’s do it all together in a united way.”
The head of governing body the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) had said that there was no place for discrimination of any kind in the sport or wider society.
“The events that took place in Udine and Sheffield on Saturday are totally abhorrent and completely unacceptable,” he said in a statement.
France captain Kylian Mbappe also offered his backing to his international teammate.
“You are very far from being alone Mike Maignan, we are all with you,” wrote the Paris Saint-Germain star.
“Still the same problems and still NO solution. Enough is enough!!!!! NO TO RACISM” he posted on X.
“We need all the relevant stakeholders to take action, starting with education in schools so that future generations understand that this is not part of football or society,” Infantino said.
“As well as the three-step process (match stopped, match re-stopped, match abandoned), we have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists.
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