Sexism a problem at this Cup
Sexism has turned out to be a bigger problem than racism at the World Cup in Russia, according to anti-discrimination experts advising FIFA.
Fans harassing female broadcasters while they worked are among about 30 cases of “sexism on the streets” reported to FIFA by the Fare network.
Analyzing the World Cup’s issues at a briefing Wednesday, the head of FIFA’s diversity program also acknowledged wanting fewer images of attractive women in stadiums to be shown on future telecasts. Federico Addiechi said FIFA plans to talk with national broadcasters and its own TV production team about the issue.
Racism was predicted to be the main World Cup problem because of long-standing issues in Russian soccer and some European countries.
“There haven’t been a great deal of incidents of the type we expected,” Fare director Piara Powar said, praising Russian people who “played a magnificent role making people feel welcome.”
Instead, soccer’s treatment of female media workers and fans provoked debate.
Powar said about half of those reported incidents involved female broadcasters being “accosted while on air.” He estimated up to 10 times more unreported cases in which Russian women were targeted.
Powar said with Russian authorities also keeping homegrown hooligans away from games, the World Cup had an international crowd “very different to the fans that come to domestic football.”
“If you come to this tournament with prejudices, and don’t like people from a different nationality, then generally you’re in the wrong place,” he said.
Still, FIFA did impose fines during the tournament on soccer federations including Serbia, Russia and Poland for racist, nationalist and offensive banners displayed by fans at games. The fines started at $10,100 for a first incident. Jagger prophetic? In a case of life imitating art, Mick Jagger went to see England and England lost.
The Rolling Stones frontman was at the Luzhniki Stadium on Wednesday to see Croatia beat England 2-1 in extra time in the World Cup semifinals.
Last year, Jagger unexpectedly released two solo songs. One of the songs was called “England Lost,” and it starts with the tale of someone ostensibly going to watch England play a soccer match and finishes with some political commentary about Britain’s exit from the European Union.
“I went to see England, but England’s lost,” Jagger sings. “And everyone said we were all ripped off.”
Jagger arrived in Russia for the World Cup after he and his bandmates completed a short European tour in Warsaw on Sunday. He attended Tuesday’s match between France and Belgium in St. Petersburg and then came to Moscow to see his home national team play — and lose to — Croatia. Soccer trumps tennis: Wimbledon’s No. 1 Court was less than one-third full for the men’s quarterfinal match between John Isner and Milos Raonic, which was being played at the same time as England took on Croatia in Moscow.
Centre Court was close to full for the more high-profile match between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro taking place at the same time. Only some blotches of empty seats were visible, although plenty of fans had their attention divided between their phone screens and the court.