In response to racist incidents at club matches in Italy and England, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has called for global stadium bans for fans and “automatic forfeits” for teams whose supporters hurl “abhorrent” abuse.
The head of FIFA, the body that oversees football, declared on Sunday that discrimination of any kind has no place in the sport or in society at large.
He issued a statement saying, “The events that took place in Udine and Sheffield on Saturday are totally abhorrent and completely unacceptable.”
“I fully support the players impacted by Saturday’s events.”
During Milan’s thrilling 3-2 victory over Udinese, supporters hurled monkey chants at the team and France goalie Mike Maignan, causing the game to be temporarily stopped.
The France squad declared on X, the former Twitter platform, with strong language: “You have our complete support, Mike Maignan. The French Football Federation, or FFF, strongly disapproves of all acts of racism.
Kylian Mbappe, the captain of France, also backed his international colleague.
The Paris Saint-Germain player wrote, “You are very far from being alone Mike Maignan, we are all with you.”
“The issues persist and there is still no fix. It’s got to end! “I reject racism,” he wrote on X.
“In order for future generations to understand that this is not a part of football or society, we need all the relevant stakeholders to take action,” Infantino stated.
“We have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned, in addition to the three-step process (match stopped, match re-stopped, match abandoned). We also have to implement worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists.”
“Victims of racism and other forms of discrimination have the full support of FIFA and the football community.” Forever and ever: No racism! “No to discrimination in any form!”
