Blatter tough stance on 'evil' racism

Thursday, 16, Mar 2006 10:06

Fifa will attempt to end racism in football by docking points from clubs with offending fans and even threatening them with relegation.

Sepp Blatter announced that the new rules will come into force immediately. Clubs will be docked three points after their first offence, six points if they re-offend and will be eliminated from the competition after a third guilty verdict.

Blatter was appalled by recent incidents of racist abuse, most prominently in Spain, where the FA has consistently responded to racist crowd chanting with derisory fines.

Real Zaragoza were fined ?600 (£400) last year when their fans abused Samuel Eto'o in their match with Barcelona. They were given the same financial penalty in January, when fans turned on Real Betis players.

Despite these two incidents the club's fans greeted Eto'o with a similar wall of racist abuse in last month's game against Barcelona. The monkey chanting was so intense that Eto'o attempted to walk off the field, before Frank Rijkaard convinced him to play on.

Blatter said: "Recent events have demonstrated there is a need for concerted action. I have repeatedly stressed Fifa's and my firm personal stance against racism and discrimination."

The Fifa president promised: "More severe measures to be adopted in order to kick this evil out of the beautiful game."

The problem has been most obvious in Spain after their national manager Luis Aragones, who himself made a racist remark about Arsenal's Thierry Henry, has suggested the outcry over recent events has been 'exaggerated'.

Spain is not the only culprit, a referee was forced to take the teams off in a game in Holland last year after the racist abuse became so virulent, and several eastern European clubs have been fined by Uefa.