Deafening silence that shames UEFA
IT IS the silence that shames the rulers of European football.
As players across the continent remain unprotected from racist abuse, governing body UEFA are saying nothing beyond Tuesday’s soundbite statement, calling on “the football family” to “wage war” on the culprits.
Here, on the sunkissed banks of Lake Geneva, they continue to live in denial at UEFA’s opulent Swiss headquarters, and there is little appetite to refute the charge that the organisation simply do not care enough about racism.
The brutal truth is that, for all the controversy surrounding cases such as the events in Bulgaria, racist fans are unconcerned by any of the sanctions imposed.
No one was able to say why UEFA remain so terrified of throwing serial offenders out of their competitions. No one was able to say why Bulgaria remain at risk of just a one-match stadium ban after their fans’ abuse of England’s players, even though the offence was their third at national level during the qualifiers, with another two for clubs in the Europa League.
It was UEFA doing what they have done so often while inadvertently enabling racism to fester across Europe – announcing charges and waiting for the furore to die down before revealing a pitiful punishment a few weeks later on a good day to bury bad news. Last March Montenegro were fined just £17,253 for their fans’ welldocumented abuse of Gareth Southgate’s England stars.
To put that into perspective, Manchester City were fined £24,740 for being one minute late for a tie and Besiktas fined almost £30,000 when a cat wandered onto the pitch.
The lack of diversity on their disciplinary committee is also under scrutiny. All 10 members of UEFA’s control, ethics and disciplinary body are white and male.
The spotlight is now firmly on the lack of leadership at UEFA and, this time, it will not go away.