Sepp Blatter is starting to listen: About time !

Sepp Blatter has remarkably made a couple of suggestions that football teams which make racists offences will be punishable by deduction of points and relegation. This comes as a surprise to many football fans, with his “soft” stance on racism in football during the past few years. Especially his reaction to Kevin Prince Boateng walking off the pitch during the AC Milan match against Pro Patria was rather not surprising.

He said:

‘walking off in protest is not the answer’, answer?

What does he really know about racism? He never makes an effort to understand the cause of racism, just criticise the black football players' way of dealing with extreme racial abuse.

But more recently Blatter has been under  scrutiny from the press,  own governing body and football fans, for his less than supportive stance on racism in football. With repeated calls for him to stand down, there is no certainty whether these methods will be implemented. Moreover, questions as to the motives behind this sudden call for action have certainly been raised, since the FIFA President, who only a year ago declared that racism did not exist in football and could be resolved with a handshake. Has he had a sudden epiphany or is he trying to save his job? Who knows?

The points deduction of a team that has committed a racist offence is a good start, but it won’t on its own solve the problem of racism in football. It merely gives the teams a warning. Some racist incidents in football are isolated thus, bringing justice to those perpetrators is unlikely. When racist incidents are committed by hundreds and even thousands of fans, the clubs they belong to are reluctant to sanction themselves or to even be sanctioned. In 2012 in the U21 World Cup, Serbian players has had racially attacked the English players, which showed just how reluctant teams, associates can be towards fines, bans and warnings.

This reluctance would be the same for teams in relegation battles whose players commit a racist offence. In the past we  have seen players and clubs being given a 'slap on wrist'.  Some countries behave as if they are even tolerant of racism as we have seen in countries such as Ukraine and Poland during the Euro 2012, where racism, especially in football is a significant problem. There is little being done by governing football associations in question.

Sadly for racism to be dealt with effectively, the future does not look bright. If anything it is actually getting worse. However, these recommendations made by Sepp Blatter are small but important steps forward. I think the sanctions ought to be much stronger, that way we’d really show the world that racism in football will not be tolerated.

Daniel Reuel