http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18338838 Uefa president Michel Platini says that any players who walk off the pitch at Euro 2012 due to racial abuse will be booked. A BBC Panorama programme highlighted racism incidents at grounds in Poland and Ukraine, who co-host Euro 2012. Manchester City and Italy striker Mario Balotelli threatened to walk off the pitch if he believed he was a victim. But Platini said: "It's a yellow card. It's not a player - Mr Balotelli - who's in charge of refereeing." He added: "It's the referee who takes these decisions. Referees can finish the game. They have this power in case of racism," Platini told the BBC's David Bond. "That is, I think, the best way to protect the game against racism. "The referee has been given advice and he can stop the game if there are problems." Platini dismissed suggestions that his reputation would be tarnished if there was racial abuse at Euro 2012. "My reputation because there are racists in Poland and Ukraine - are you joking? You think I am responsible for the racists in the rest of Europe or in England or in France?" he said. Asked about the footage shown in Panorama's documentary, he said: "We are shocked about racists but we are trying to do something; we have to fight against that. I feel bad. Of course I feel bad because I am not a racist." "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. You have more nationalists in many, many countries in east of Europe - that is true."
well, that is the rules of the game. but surely they must do more to protect the players. fifa and uefa are terrible at handling racist abuse. i will remind u all of porto's penalty for their fans singing racist abuse: 20,000 Euro fine.
Is it me or does he not sound very sympathetic, almost sounding arrogant? Agreed, they should come down harder on all this racial abuse. I think they should link every chair in the stadium to the national grid, if anyone is caught severely abusing players, no matter what it is, they should FRY!
Platini is incredibly arrogant, but that is the last problem I have with the quotes seen above. By saying "It happens everywhere..." he is trivialising the issue. "It is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated..." is what he should be saying. Where is the defiance? What sanctions will he impose? He has the power to ban National Federations from competing, get them to sort their own house out. Useless ****.
Exactly! He should be putting his foot down and sending a message to the Polish and Ukrainian authorities that this should not be tolerated.
I was going to write an article about this. Platini is a muppet. So too is Mark Perryman of the London England Fans Group who says the stories in recent weeks are "unhelpful" and they are angry about the negative media coverage. I am guessing Perryman is white and so therefore has not a bloody clue how much more dangerous it will be for black and asian fans travelling abroad which is the main issue being highlighted. But as long as Perryman and other "white" supporters are safe we shouldn't be making a noise about this, we should keep quiet and "complain when it happens" - as he says in the paper
Outrageous inaction from platini - as head of UEFA he should be setting a zero tolerance policy for racism or any other form of hate crime.
How many games have referees called to a halt because of racism so far ?? I can't think of a single game.
from recent things he's said and done (or not), i'm starting to think platini himself might be racist. i mean, he does come from a generation when racism was a lot more prominent than now...
He is completely out of touch with not only modern day football, but the modern day world. He is unbelievably naive.
Drudeboy, i don't think he's racist, more out of touch as Bobby says. He's stuck in the early 80s when racist abuse was rife from the stands. He's from the "just ignore it" brigade...
he should watch the panorama programme of a couple of weeks ago about the problems,then he would see how dangerous it is for non whites,even when they support the same team,as the thugs
The problem is he did - Asked about the footage shown in Panorama's documentary, Platini said: "We are shocked about racists but we are trying to do something; we have to fight against that."
He said he doesn't think there is more racism in Poland and Ukraine than England. Really ?? When was the last time fans racially abused players let alone being caught on camera (single idiots shouting abuse not counted) ???
Platini is very out of touch with the modern world. To say he'll book players who walk off due to racist abuse is not a good solution and it would be a brave/stupid ref who actually books a player for this action. Poland and Ukraine as a nation may not be racist but I can assure you that the domestic fans who attend games are very much vile. It will be interesting to see what happens when Ukraine and Poland play a team with black players in the squad. People who say oh the world will be watching and this will be a deterrent are missing the point. When the world is watching the racists are likely to use it as a platform. Until the Polish and Ukrainian football authorities actually acknowledge the problem then it will continue before, during and after Euro 2012.
Euro 2012: Netherlands 'subjected to racist chants while training' http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18363736 Netherlands' black players were allegedly subjected to racist abuse during their open training session in the Polish city of Krakow. Dutch captain Mark van Bommel branded the monkey chants as "a real disgrace". Van Bommel said: "You need to open your ears. If you did hear it, and don't want to hear it, that is even worse." Van Bommel said: "It is a real disgrace, especially after getting back from Auschwitz, that you are confronted with this. We will take it up with Uefa and if it happens at a match we will talk to the referee and ask him to take us off the field." Martin Lipton, from the Daily Mirror, is in Krakow and suggested there was a large number of Polish fans involved in the abuse. He told BBC Radio 5 live: "As they were doing a lap on the pitch around 500 of the local fans started doing monkey chants at the black players. "It became worse on the second lap, at which point Van Bommel took the players to the other side of the stadium. It's the only story in the Dutch press today." So Mr Platini, is there still no problem? A frigging football match hasn't started yet and racial abuse has kicked off around a training ground session!
if matches are halted because of racial abuse, the tournament will be a farce, because they can't really reschedule games within the timeframe. plus the same would happen there as well. i can see the whole tournament being called off if this continues during the matches, or teams will just go home
Can't remember another international tournament where racism has taken priority over the game itself. What a crying shame.
It is, but to be honest. This is becoming more of a problem because of UEFA's inaction on the issue. Platini's comments the other day, basically brushing it under the carpet were negligent at best and at worst it sent a green light to the racist abusers to ramp it up, because no action is being taken. UEFA should have come out with a zero tolerance policy from day one on this.
it's because most eastern european countries haven't solved that problem yet. until they do, they shouldn't be allowed to host large international tournaments. it should really be a requirement. just out of interest,, which other countries were running to host this tournament? EDIT: found them - Croatia and Hungary, Italy, Turkey and Greece were the original bidders alongside Poland and Ukraine. The final shortlist of three was: Poland/Ukraine, Italy, Croatia/Hungary. Its sort of strange, because in the original vote to decide the shortlist, Italy got the most votes, followed Croatia/Hungary, with Poland/Ukraine only making it with 1 more vote than Turkey. However in the final vote, Ukraine/Poland got 8, Italy 4 and Croatia/Hungary 0.
