Post by QPR Report on May 5, 2009 7:03:00 GMT
The Times - Football racism could cost clubs points or relegation
Sol Campbell, who has often suffered abuse from fans, added his voice to those calling for the FA to introduce points penalties
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Racist abuse during matches would cost football clubs championship points under proposals drawn up by a Football Association working party.
It will recommend that football tribunals be set up to examine allegations of racist and religious abuse and other “off the pitch issues” at matches at all levels of the game.
Parents and spectators at junior league clubs across Britain are among those who face being questioned by local FA tribunals and called to account for any racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or Islamophobic abuse directed at other parents, players, spectators or referees.
The recommendations will be presented this year in a report by the working party on tackling Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in football. The group is chaired by John Mann, the Labour MP and Leeds supporter.
The aim is to eradicate the kind of abuse that falls below the threshold of criminal prosecution but could merit civil disciplinary measures.
Under Article 58 of its disciplinary code, Fifa, football’s international governing body, already allows national football associations to deduct points for racist abuse. Hungary and France have done so, but the penalty has not been used in Britain in spite of serious incidents of abuse. After one incident last year involving Tottenham fans abusing the Portsmouth player Sol Campbell, a police investigation led to 11 arrests. Campbell, who has often suffered abuse from fans, added his voice to those calling for the FA to introduce points penalties.
Mr Mann told The Times: “We have seen the problem with the English football team getting racist abuse in places such as Spain and Croatia. Points sanctions are one of the options. It could cost clubs a place in the European Championshipm, or relegation.”
He said that the depth of religious and racist discrimination in football was one of the reasons that so few Muslims become involved in the sport or attended matches, even though a majority of Muslims in Britain list football as their favourite sport.
He said that he became aware of the depth of religious and racist abuse when he went to Budapest to hunt for a copy of a rare football programme. “I did a bit of research and found that there is a whole sub-culture of what others call neo-[Nazism] and I call Nazism in Eastern European football going back to the 1920s,” he said.
During a match in Livorno, Italy, in 2006, more than 60 visiting Croatian fans stood in positions to form a “human swastika” and made Nazi salutes. In 2007 about 30 West Ham fans were captured on a phone video that was subsequently posted on a public site making anti-Semitic chants against Tottenham supporters.
Some clubs, such as Millwall, Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest and Southampton, have introduced confidential text messaging for fans to report racist or other abuse on match days. Hull City expels fans from the grounds for being abusive.
Mr Mann said that the problem was just as bad in junior and amateur clubs. “There is some extraordinarily outdated racism at the lower, grassroots levels of football which, if it was in the work place, no employer would tolerate. The issue is abuse from the touchline, especially from parents and spectators. It is not surprising there are virtually no home-grown Jewish or Muslim football players in Britain.”
The working party, whose members include representatives from the Metropolitan Police, the London Jewish Forum, the Muslim Council of Britain and football clubs, visited 30 matches, often incognito, last season.
An FA spokesman said: “It’s already in the FA’s power to deduct points. However, this would only ever happen for discrimination for very serious chants involving a large number of fans and where it’s persistent.”
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6221927.ece
The Times - May 5, 2009
English football chanting: raucous and nasty but seldom racist
Matt Dickinson: analysis
Offensive chanting remains alive and raucously well on the football terraces, but little of it is overtly racist. Indeed, the anti-racist campaign in English football has been one of the successes of our national game, with the situation transformed from the days when John Barnes had to dodge bananas.
This raises the issue of whether the FA Task Force, well intentioned though it undoubtedly is, has come 20 years too late.
Pockets of bigotry remain and there is no place for complacency. But racist abuse is rarely of the scale or persistence that has triggered points deductions on the Continent — the penalty being recommended for England.
The trend is for particularly hateful songs targeted at individuals, rather than at creeds or colours, which is what Sol Campbell was subjected to by Tottenham Hotspur supporters with a ditty that included references to lynching and HIV.
Related Links
This was seen as a matter for the police rather than the football authorities, who deployed the Football Offences Act of 1991 and the charge of indecent chanting.
English football grounds would be far better places to take your children if police would make an example of more offending supporters, such as the Manchester United and Chelsea fans who sing “sit down you paedophile” every time Arsene Wenger visits Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge.
The celebrity status of footballers has led to increasingly personal abuse. “You should have died in the tunnel,” was the response from Chelsea fans to the car crash involving Cristiano Ronaldo. “You’ve let your children down,” thousands of West Ham United fans taunted Frank Lampard after his separation.
In the worst cases, the arrest of individuals rather than the punishing of innocent players, staff and fans by point deductions is surely the fairest and most effective sanction. CCTV makes this possible. The task force should consider the nature of the problem here, which is undoubtedly different from that in Eastern Europe, Italy and Spain.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6221868.ece
Sol Campbell, who has often suffered abuse from fans, added his voice to those calling for the FA to introduce points penalties
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Racist abuse during matches would cost football clubs championship points under proposals drawn up by a Football Association working party.
It will recommend that football tribunals be set up to examine allegations of racist and religious abuse and other “off the pitch issues” at matches at all levels of the game.
Parents and spectators at junior league clubs across Britain are among those who face being questioned by local FA tribunals and called to account for any racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or Islamophobic abuse directed at other parents, players, spectators or referees.
The recommendations will be presented this year in a report by the working party on tackling Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in football. The group is chaired by John Mann, the Labour MP and Leeds supporter.
The aim is to eradicate the kind of abuse that falls below the threshold of criminal prosecution but could merit civil disciplinary measures.
Under Article 58 of its disciplinary code, Fifa, football’s international governing body, already allows national football associations to deduct points for racist abuse. Hungary and France have done so, but the penalty has not been used in Britain in spite of serious incidents of abuse. After one incident last year involving Tottenham fans abusing the Portsmouth player Sol Campbell, a police investigation led to 11 arrests. Campbell, who has often suffered abuse from fans, added his voice to those calling for the FA to introduce points penalties.
Mr Mann told The Times: “We have seen the problem with the English football team getting racist abuse in places such as Spain and Croatia. Points sanctions are one of the options. It could cost clubs a place in the European Championshipm, or relegation.”
He said that the depth of religious and racist discrimination in football was one of the reasons that so few Muslims become involved in the sport or attended matches, even though a majority of Muslims in Britain list football as their favourite sport.
He said that he became aware of the depth of religious and racist abuse when he went to Budapest to hunt for a copy of a rare football programme. “I did a bit of research and found that there is a whole sub-culture of what others call neo-[Nazism] and I call Nazism in Eastern European football going back to the 1920s,” he said.
During a match in Livorno, Italy, in 2006, more than 60 visiting Croatian fans stood in positions to form a “human swastika” and made Nazi salutes. In 2007 about 30 West Ham fans were captured on a phone video that was subsequently posted on a public site making anti-Semitic chants against Tottenham supporters.
Some clubs, such as Millwall, Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest and Southampton, have introduced confidential text messaging for fans to report racist or other abuse on match days. Hull City expels fans from the grounds for being abusive.
Mr Mann said that the problem was just as bad in junior and amateur clubs. “There is some extraordinarily outdated racism at the lower, grassroots levels of football which, if it was in the work place, no employer would tolerate. The issue is abuse from the touchline, especially from parents and spectators. It is not surprising there are virtually no home-grown Jewish or Muslim football players in Britain.”
The working party, whose members include representatives from the Metropolitan Police, the London Jewish Forum, the Muslim Council of Britain and football clubs, visited 30 matches, often incognito, last season.
An FA spokesman said: “It’s already in the FA’s power to deduct points. However, this would only ever happen for discrimination for very serious chants involving a large number of fans and where it’s persistent.”
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6221927.ece
The Times - May 5, 2009
English football chanting: raucous and nasty but seldom racist
Matt Dickinson: analysis
Offensive chanting remains alive and raucously well on the football terraces, but little of it is overtly racist. Indeed, the anti-racist campaign in English football has been one of the successes of our national game, with the situation transformed from the days when John Barnes had to dodge bananas.
This raises the issue of whether the FA Task Force, well intentioned though it undoubtedly is, has come 20 years too late.
Pockets of bigotry remain and there is no place for complacency. But racist abuse is rarely of the scale or persistence that has triggered points deductions on the Continent — the penalty being recommended for England.
The trend is for particularly hateful songs targeted at individuals, rather than at creeds or colours, which is what Sol Campbell was subjected to by Tottenham Hotspur supporters with a ditty that included references to lynching and HIV.
Related Links
This was seen as a matter for the police rather than the football authorities, who deployed the Football Offences Act of 1991 and the charge of indecent chanting.
English football grounds would be far better places to take your children if police would make an example of more offending supporters, such as the Manchester United and Chelsea fans who sing “sit down you paedophile” every time Arsene Wenger visits Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge.
The celebrity status of footballers has led to increasingly personal abuse. “You should have died in the tunnel,” was the response from Chelsea fans to the car crash involving Cristiano Ronaldo. “You’ve let your children down,” thousands of West Ham United fans taunted Frank Lampard after his separation.
In the worst cases, the arrest of individuals rather than the punishing of innocent players, staff and fans by point deductions is surely the fairest and most effective sanction. CCTV makes this possible. The task force should consider the nature of the problem here, which is undoubtedly different from that in Eastern Europe, Italy and Spain.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6221868.ece
