FIFA Tells Referees to Stop Match When Racism Occurs

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Facts

  • FIFA Pres. Gianni Infantino announced a new “zero-tolerance” anti-racism campaign that will involve a committee composed of players, headlined by Brazil and Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior, whom Infantino met with after he was verbally abused last month.1
  • Vinicius will be a prominent member of the new task force that will make recommendations for stronger punishments for discriminatory behavior. Infantino also added that referees must stop any match when racism occurs.2
  • Infantino defiantly asserted that “There will be no more football with racism in it”, adding that FIFA will take legal action against those who commit racism during matches in addition to disciplinary and competition punishments.3
  • He asked Vinicius to lead the task force after the star player was abused by Valencia fans last month, which sparked public outrage. Vinicius has reported 10 incidents of racism against him since 2021 but says La Liga has taken little to no action.4
  • Valencia was fined €45K ($49K) for the incident and was subject to a partial ban from the stadium for five matches after monkey chants were heard. Infantino called such racists “criminals” who must be banned from all global stadiums.5
  • FIFA created an anti-racism task force in 2013 after Black AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng was subjected to racial attacks. However, it disbanded in 2016, months after Infantino became FIFA’s president.6

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2Reuters, 3BBC News, 4DW, 5Sky News, and 6Associated Press.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by FIFA. Under Gianni Infantino’s leadership, FIFA is taking the bold and moral stand to stomp out racism from football by any means necessary. The FIFA president knows the injustice and abuse Black players endure, which is why he asked Vinicius Junior and other players to collaborate on the new zero-tolerance task force. While FIFA hasn’t been perfect in protecting players from abuse, it is 100% committed to eliminating racism from the game completely.
  • Narrative B, as provided by SportsNet. FIFA may act like it deeply cares about ending racism in soccer, but the fact is that the last anti-racism task force was dismantled almost immediately after Infantino was elected as FIFA’s president. That enabled the past seven years of rampant abuse that has been a scourge on the sport. There is so much work that needs to be done, and a lot of it involves undoing the damage Infantino has done since disbanding the last anti-racism campaign.