By Andrew Warshaw
October 24 – After a period of relative calm with so much media focus on the tournament in Qatar four years later, organisers of the 2018 World Cup in Russia have suddenly found themselves back in the spotlight over the festering issue of racism which still shows no sign of being eradicated.
Manchester City’s Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure has demanded strong action from UEFA after being the object of monkey chants and other abuse by CSKA fans in Moscow during Wednesday’s Champions League clash.
UEFA have had declared this week as ‘Football Against Racism in Europe Action Week’ with all captains wearing anti-racism armbands and exchanging of pennants reading ‘No To Racism’.
It could not have had a worse start as CSKA fans ignored the messages while the referee took no action despite new UEFA rules allowing for public address warnings and giving officials the right to halt matches.
Toure, who used to play in Ukraine and apparently speaks Russian, told Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan what was happening 10 minutes into the second half of City’s 2-1 win.
“I am not just disappointed,” he said. “I’m furious about what those fans have done and UEFA have to take some action because players with the same colour of skin will always be in the same position.
“I told the referee. We are always talking about the same thing – having no racism and it was unbelievable and very, very sad for my part. I think it’s not just in Eastern Europe either. I don’t know why it doesn’t happen in other sports. UEFA has to take action otherwise it will continue happening.”
Last May, UEFA announced an unprecedented crackdown on racism involving 10-match bans and stadium closures. They have since imposed full stadium bans on three clubs – GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Legia Warszawa and Budapest Honvéd FC – while five other clubs – KKS Lech Poznań, GKS Piast Gliwice, SS Lazio APOEL FC and HNK Rijeka – have had partial stadium closures imposed.
The bans, however, seem to have done little to change the culture of racism in certain countries and Toure urged European football’s governing body to clamp down even harder on CSKA in terms of time length.
“As captain, I was wearing an armband which says ‘no to racism’ and I want to see UEFA do something,” he was quoted as saying. “We have to be as strong as possible otherwise they will continue like that. Maybe they could ban the stadium, I don’t know for a couple of years or a couple of months.”
CSKA are currently playing at the Khimki Arena while the Luzhniki Stadium, their regular home, is being rebuilt ahead of the World Cup.
Despite plenty of well-publicised examples, Russian authorities have consistently downplayed the issue of racism, saying there are only isolated incidents. Prosecutions are rare but Toure went as far as to suggest that racism in Russian football was bad enough to justify a boycott of the 2018 World Cup. “If we aren’t confident at the World Cup, coming to Russia, we don’t come,” he said.
Britain’s FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce said he was “absolutely appalled” at what happened on Wednesday.
“I have always been very outspoken about any form of racism in sport,” he told BBC Radio. “FIFA and UEFA are absolutely united in making sure these events will become a thing of the past. I have always said fining clubs is not a solution to this problem because they can’t stop some of these idiots. In terms of education, I don’t know how long it’s going to take, to educate fans like we’ve seen at CSKA. We need governments to intervene.”
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