Comments on: UEFA and Racism in Europe http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2007/08/12/uefa-and-racism-in-europe/ A soccer blog featuring essays, news and photography exploring soccer around the world Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:48:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ursus arctos http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2007/08/12/uefa-and-racism-in-europe/comment-page-1/#comment-328 ursus arctos Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:34:52 +0000 http://pitchinvasion.net/2007/08/12/uefa-and-racism-in-europe/#comment-328 It is a very difficult issue that doesn't lend itself to simple solutions, particularly given the misguided, yet still very strong, sense of victimisation in many of the communities exhibiting such behaviour. I would agree with Gaillard's general assessment of the situation, and suggest that UEFA needs to be measured in its response. Their goal here should be to send a clear message that chants of the sort are completely unacceptable, and that clubs will be held responsible should they not take any action to stop it once it starts. I didn't see the Zeta-Rangers match and don't know how widespread the chanting was, but it seems to me that expulsion from the competition is a sanction that should be reserved for very serious offences, along the lines of what happened with Partizan (or Feyenoord last year). Unless this particular incident was especially horrific, I would think a ground suspension for one or two games and fine would be more proportional. Of course, if someone in the director's box really did throw a bottle on the pitch, then that is a completely separate grounds for banning Zeta. One also hopes that UEFA will start talking to its individual federations about taking this problem seriously, now that Platini has rightly made it a clear priority. They can start with Spain. It is a very difficult issue that doesn’t lend itself to simple solutions, particularly given the misguided, yet still very strong, sense of victimisation in many of the communities exhibiting such behaviour.

I would agree with Gaillard’s general assessment of the situation, and suggest that UEFA needs to be measured in its response. Their goal here should be to send a clear message that chants of the sort are completely unacceptable, and that clubs will be held responsible should they not take any action to stop it once it starts.

I didn’t see the Zeta-Rangers match and don’t know how widespread the chanting was, but it seems to me that expulsion from the competition is a sanction that should be reserved for very serious offences, along the lines of what happened with Partizan (or Feyenoord last year). Unless this particular incident was especially horrific, I would think a ground suspension for one or two games and fine would be more proportional. Of course, if someone in the director’s box really did throw a bottle on the pitch, then that is a completely separate grounds for banning Zeta.

One also hopes that UEFA will start talking to its individual federations about taking this problem seriously, now that Platini has rightly made it a clear priority. They can start with Spain.

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