Michel Platini UEFA President has said that players that react to racism will be booked. Platini goes on to say that "referees will take these decisions" In my opinion the problem is that those that run the game are weak in their response to racism and referees are not up to the task of sorting it out. Mario Balotelli says he will walk off if racially abused.......is he right to do that.....or is he just attention seeking as usual. What are your views on the suject.
He also said apparently that "If you want to have a programme on racism you can go everywhere now because there is an increase in the nationalists in many, many countries. It is not just a fact only in Poland and Ukraine. You can go in France, United States, in England and you will find the problem of racism." Now I don't know what planet he's on but I'd have thought that quite rightly there's been a fairly effective campaign against racism in this country, with fans arrested for shouting racist taunts and top-name players receiving lengthy bans for inappropriate on-pitch remarks and even being brought before the courts. It's true that it's impossible to achieve 100% success but compared with the scenes we've witnessed in the Ukraine and probably will see in Russia when the World Cup goes there, we've had a pretty substantial improvement compared to how things used to be.
There is not one possibility of stamping out racism in anything let alone football. You can legislate as much as you want but you will never change a persons inner views even if they don't express them out aloud or act on them. I say I don't much care for Americans generally. I don't hate them or dislike them individually as human beings I just find their attitude not my cup of tea. Is that racist? I suppose it must be to some extent. Nationalism rears it's head more and more in times of financial meltdown and high unemployment and it is there to see throughout history. Some Countries use the "N" word as a term for black people. Not necessarily as a racist comment but just in the way they speak normally and see nothing wrong in it. It is often all about context rather than word usage. Here that word is taboo and seen as the worst thing you can call somebody. The problem you have in football is that if a team is losing then some sections of the croud might just start chanting in the hope the opposition will leave the field. If it worked then it would probably become the norm. Plattini is a bit of a pillock if you ask me. He has supposedly championed the anti racism stance in football yet tells Referees to book players if they react to racism. What is a Referee supposed to do if he hasn't witnessed a racist comment between players on the pitch. You can't have him being judge and jury and just taking one word against another or again, loads of players will claim it if they are losing. It would become an extension of diving. The principal of acting to curb racism is spot on, the act of punishing it and stamping it out is a different kettle of fish altogether.
Platini is another tosser like Sepp Bladder! We have cleaned up our act in this country and why can't uefa or fifa sort out the other countries. We would pay a heavy penalty if it happened here but these countries seem to get away with it.
Dutch players complained of their black players being racially abused during training in Krakow Poland by watching spectators.......Van Bommel moved to the opposite side of the pitch to continue their training session.
The main problem is that UEFA like FIFA chose countries that have a problem with racism and then do nothing to help those countries crackdown on the problem. The response is weak but it was written into all referee handbooks that they can abandon the match if there is evidence of abuse. Based on the response of the ref at the Liverpool vs Oldham game where that poor lad went off in tears though I would not be surprised if we saw a walk off at some point. Platini can tell you to blame the Ukraine all he wants but like FIFA they could have chosen somewhere without the deep-rooted racism. I just hope our fans at the matches act appropriately.
