Blatter told turn words into action on racism

Anti-racism campaigners say Fifa president Sepp Blatter needs to turn his words into actions after he insisted points should be deducted for racist abuse.

Blatter responded to last week’s protest by AC Milan midfielder Kevin Prince-Boateng by saying players should not walk off the pitch, but that administrators should use harsh sanctions to deal with racism.

Piara Powar, executive director of the European anti-discrimination organisation FARE, said Fifa itself had failed to implement tough action at any time in the past.

Powar said: “How many times has Fifa sanctioned any team with a points deduction for racism in its competitions such as World Cup qualifiers?

“When have you ever seen Fifa take tough action over racism in an international friendly?

“The answer is never. That’s the frustration — these are people who have the ability to make those things happen but are not delivering this action. People will judge you on your actions not your words.”

Blatter had appeared to suggest players could use racism as an excuse to walk off during a game if they were losing.

He said: “Walk off? No. I don’t think that is the solution. I don’t think you can run away, because eventually you can run away if you lose a match.

“The only solution is to be very harsh with the sanctions — and the sanctions must be a deduction of points or something similar.”

Powar criticised Blatter for that stance and said the Fifa president appeared not to know what was in the rules. He added: “The issue is that players should be allowed to walk off as a protest as a last resort. In the case of Boating and Samuel Eto’o with Barcelona they walked off after they had already brought it to the attention of the referee and nothing had happened.

“We disagree entirely with the idea that Kevin-Prince Boateng ran away from the Milan match in which he was subjected to racial abuse. It’s a nonsensical suggestion.

“The fact that the president of Fifa himself doesn’t seem to be aware of the rules which have taken a lot of time to get on to the statute books is really disappointing.”