Pose 4 thought? Kids can end Racism!!! On the eve of the tournament, Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, campaigned for this to be the “anti-racism” World Cup. Sadly, Mexican fans chanted “puto” (“faggot”) at opposing keepers, although Sulser argued that it was not clear who they were targeting so no action could be taken. “They used rude words,” said Sulser, “but not directed at a specific player.” Bizarre. No action was also taken against Germany supporters who blacked up their faces at the game with Ghana. No action was taken against Croatia fans who waved neo-Nazi flags. Sulser argued that the specific offences were not covered by the disciplinary code. Fifa might have confronted the problem if the task force’s proposal to introduce anti-discrimination officers at the World Cup had been accepted in March. “The anti-discrimination officers were proposed by the task force and then the discussion was started with Fifa, subsequently outlining in detail and in writing the proposal in March,” Webb said. “We identified it as a top priority. It was unfortunate that we could not achieve this. There is absolutely no reason why at this World Cup we don’t have anti-discrimination officers here doing proper investigations, proper reporting. Really, this is one of the key parts of fighting against racism and discrimination.” A Fifa official rather lamely explained that it would have taken too long to train up these officers. Yet there are experienced individuals who are fully trained anyway and could have travelled; it was such an issue that Fifa should have addressed this a year ago. “Of course the World Cup is a huge operation and we have had a number of issues here and leading up to the World Cup,” Webb said, “and I can only assume that because of all those difficulties, not implementing the officers was one of the things Fifa was unable to implement.” Even without the anti-discrimination officers, Fifa could have used sound and vision to pick out the offensive chants and banners. Sulser’s committee had access to 32 cameras to provide the footage with which they found Luis Suárez guilty of biting Giorgio Chiellini...
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 10:39:13 +0000
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