Conference against racism
Putting words into action
Kicking racism out of football
(FIFA.com) 30 Aug 2001

Speaker at the FIFA Conference against Racism and a 1998 world champion with France: professional footballer, Lilian Thuram.

If the old principle holds true that a problem can only be solved once it has been properly recognised, then the problem of racism in football took a major step towards some form of solution when it came in for intensive analysis at the FIFA conference in Buenos Aires on the eve of the Extraordinary Congress.
The conference hall in the Buenos Aires Hilton was gratifying full with several hundred delegates to hear a heartfelt written appeal from Pelé denouncing the cowardice of racial discrimination, followed by a recorded message from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan applauding FIFA's initiative in hosting such an unprecedented event.

The two world personalities, with their own very clear and authoritative views of the utter unacceptability of racism in football, or indeed in any walk of life, set the tone from the start of what transpired to be a historic occasion.

They were followed by a series of speakers, led by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, conference chairman Antonio Matarrese and CAF President Issa Hayatou, who left the audience in no doubt about its responsibilities not only towards the players and fans and others who are made the butt of racist vitriol but towards the reputation of the game itself, and towards its place in a better society.

Before the clamour to take the floor with pressing demands and declarations of their own, the conference delegates heard presentations from the national associations such as those of Italy, Argentina, Mauritius, South Africa and Norway. These were supplemented by exposés by representatives of the FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) action group, who were able to refer to concrete examples of the practical measures that can be and have been taken in a number of countries to sensitise the football community and join forces with the football authorities.

The speakers told of the atrocities committed by racist extremists in a football context, including Per Omdal's recounting of the fatal stabbing of a young fan in Norway and a horrific image of a gallowed figure suspended from a grandstand in an Italian stadium.

But there were also contributions that included encouraging news of how new alliances and understanding could be created by concerted and thoughtful action between focussed action-groups working closely with fan-based initiatives and national associations.

No doubt the narrative that left the deepest impression was that told by Danny Jordaan of South Africa about his country's tortured path from apartheid football to exclusion from FIFA and the country's eventual re-admittance in 1992, a story that demonstrated vividly the potential dimensions of racial intolerance but also the capacity of the human spirit to restore justice and equality.

His talk made the deepest impression: Danny Jordaan (South Africa). Ricardo Alfieri

From one speaker to another - including, notably, France's international defender Lilian Thuram, reluctant to speak of his own negative personal experiences in Italy at the hands of racist fans but rousing in his call for united action - it became ever clearer that the will was there to respond.

As Antonio Matarrese said in his opening remarks, the responsibility is a joint one, not only between countries but between the different elements of the football community.

This common will was summarised in a closing resolution that was adopted by acclamation and went, equally successfully, to the Congress the following day for endorsement. "This resolution is one of the most important products of this entire Congress," stressed President Blatter.

Annual anti-racism day
The document was directed at each group in the football family to deliver their own specific contribution to kicking racism out of football : not only fans and players but also coaches and officials, referees and stadium stewards, police forces and governments.

It called, for example, for clubs to punish their own players for racist acts on or off the field of play, for referees to be firmer in dealing with racial abuse, for fans to unite in denouncing racists in their midst, and for the media to be more condemning of discrimination.

It also emphasised that the dilemma exists not only at the professional upper end of the football scale, but just as urgently at the grass-roots level, where the danger exists of young people becoming tainted early in their playing careers.

But Blatter was quick to stress that the problem was not solved simply by agreeing to a declaration of intent. "Now we have to put our words into action," he said in closing the conference, "now we have to prove that we mean what we say. It is up to each one of us, individually and collectively, to make a difference." And as an annual reminder of that intent to make action out of words, he successfully encouraged the assembly to endorse Issa Hayatou's suggestion that the day of the conference resolution, 7 July (the seventh day of the seventh month), should be perpetuated as an annual anti-racism day in world football, to serve as an annual reminder of the spirit of Buenos Aires.Requested Component not found (pub/mag/end)