The other thing to look at is that there is a global movement right at this moment lead by a Real Madrid star. The head of FIFA, though probably not imagining this circumstance said games should be stopped for racist abuse. There was another game on the same day where this happened.
Individually these actions may stun people into self reflection, but also currently they are part of a more collective move to attempt once more to draw a line in the sand. Hopefully not by VAR though. Jokes, woo.
The hope is that come that WC qualifier, god forbid, the ref knows exactly how to handle the situation as a result of this action here and no players are forced to choose between the WC and allowing their teammates to be abused with impunity.
IIRC though, particularly to Pasty and Smeltzy, Fiji weren’t partial to attacking players verbally…
Individually these actions may stun people into self reflection, but also currently they are part of a more collective move to attempt once more to draw a line in the sand. Hopefully not by VAR though. Jokes, woo.
The hope is that come that WC qualifier, god forbid, the ref knows exactly how to handle the situation as a result of this action here and no players are forced to choose between the WC and allowing their teammates to be abused with impunity.
IIRC though, particularly to Pasty and Smeltzy, Fiji weren’t partial to attacking players verbally…
Kick It Out has been going for 30 years. People have rightfully pointing out racism in football for decades, and there have been many examples of players getting racially abused; for instance Balotelli getting bananas thrown at him and videos of crowds making monkey noises, and an England Bulgaria game was halted twice because of racist chants.
What world do you live in where you are oblivious to this?
Sorry- momentum or attention because of Vinicius is probably a better description. Remember the FIFA racism task force or whatever was disbanded a few years back, concluding ‘job done!’. So not completely inaccurate.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/25/fifa-anti-racism-task-force-russia-2018-world-cup
And the head of FIFA said this and posted it on the FIFA website this month:
https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/president/news/football-must-stop-when-there-is-racism
So these two games are a challenge for FIFA to match words and actions. Let Stamenic’s goal stand! Doubtful, but it was a good ‘un.
Infantino has actually made a lot of unusually strong statements though thinking more of racism by fans:
“It’s a football-related problem and we mustn’t look for excuses like: ‘It’s society’s problem, therefore, it’s fine in football.’ In the world of football, we must act in a very forceful way."
and (again more focused on crowds)
‘The FIFA President said it was imperative that match officials stop a match when players were subject to abuse.
"There is no football if there is racism! So let’s stop the games," he said.
All from the linked article above.
‘The FIFA President said it was imperative that match officials stop a match when players were subject to abuse.
"There is no football if there is racism! So let’s stop the games," he said.
All from the linked article above.