18 Nov 2011

Football experts say anti-racism campaign still strong

Sepp Blatter’s comments on racist abuse in football will not undermine efforts to tackle racism at the English grassroots, two experts in the game have told Channel 4 News.

Mr Blatter has now apologised for his comments on racist abuse in football

It follows the Fifa president’s comments on Wednesday, when he said that if racism occurred on the field, the players should settle their differences with a handshake at the end of the match.

Mr Blatter has now apologised for his comments, saying they were “not totally correct”.

But the comments provoked a furious reaction from English footballers including Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand, the players’ union and fans.

Simon Kuper, author of Football Against The Enemy, said Mr Blatter is particularly hated in England.

Mr Kuper, who lives in France, said the comments were unlikely to have the same impact in elsewhere in Europe.

But he played down fears that efforts to stamp out racism in grassroots football in England would be undermined by the comments.

“Sepp Blatter is a negative role model in Britain. He has no credibility at all – anything he calls for is a weakness in English eyes.”

“In Europe, he is not well liked, but people don’t care as much as the English. It became personal when England failed to win the 2018 world cup.”

Howard Holmes, chair of the board of Football Against Racism in Europe, said the English and Welsh FAs have considerable experience of tackling racism within the domestic game, but he said that when the FA tries to take a lead on racism, it is not always seen so positively elsewhere.

“I am quite keen that this is not seen as just an England thing,” he said on the response to Blatter’s comments. “This is causing a stir here and only a ripple elsewhere in the world.”

Mr Holmes said that the English FA should stick by its principles and said other European FAs, such as Italy, are improving their anti-racism initiatives.

He said he had found the reaction in English grassroots football to Mr Blatter’s comments as “quite heartening”, but he added that he was concerned that anti-racism initiatives elsewhere in Europe would be undermined.

“The comments are exceedingly unhelpful,” he said. “I hope they do not lead to the relaxation of efforts to tackle racism or an acceptance that the problem is not as serious as it is.

“I am hoping that his subsequent retraction and apology will lessen the chances of this.”

Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, welcomed Mr Blatter’s apology and praised footballers for their social media campaign, which helped to create the backlash that forced him to retract his original remarks.

“Ironically, if Mr Blatter intends to stay in his post and the other countries are not going to vote him out, he needs to make sure that the rest of the world takes the same action as England to tackle racism in football.

“Fifa is a house that needs to be cleaned up and he has not started in the best way by making such condescending comments.”

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