FA: WE MUST DO MORE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST RACISM

FA chAirmAn Greg clarke has admitted that football is still failing to protect British players against racism by leaving them to report abuse and investigating too few incidents.

Eight days after raheem Sterling (below), Danny rose and callum hudson- Odoi were racially abused in montenegro, clarke also said that UEFA’s threshold for referees taking players from the field — the racism must be of a ‘strong magnitude and intensity’ — was no longer good enough. clarke suggested that abuse from one fan at a throw- in or corner should be enough.

With UEFA president Aleksander ceferin also calling yesterday for ‘brave’ action from referees, the prospect of this course of action seems increasingly likely. clarke admitted that his own organisation had ‘ learned the hard way’ how to handle racism. he was severely censured by a house of commons select committee in October 2017 over the treatment of Eniola Aluko, whose complaints of racism against then-England manager mark Sampson were not dealt with properly. But he said that clubs and leagues must do more — using cameras and foreign-language lip-readers if necessary, to investigate every single complaint that is lodged — even if it is ‘the word of one person against another’.

‘We must reduce the threshold for player-to-player discrimination to ensure all cases are brought forward,’ he said.

clarke insisted it was wrong to investigate only those incidents which are in a referee’s official match report.

‘We should see how we can better report incidents through the UEFA match delegate or through employing specific spotters and take the weight off the players’ shoulders and act ourselves.

‘We have a duty to protect them. The responsibility should not be on them to instigate action.’

Vastly improved training of stewards to enable them to detect racism was the third tranche of clarke’s proposals.

A survey of Asian grassroots footballers by iTV news revealed yesterday that 79 per cent had been racially abused playing football, only six per cent reported it and saw action taken, and 58 per cent did not even bother to report.

referees have been reluctant to lead players from the field because a three- stage strategy compels them to use tannoy messages and temporarily halt games before a walk-off.

But ceferin said officials should remove teams to stamp out racist abuse. ‘We will speak to the referees again and tell them not to be afraid to act,’ said ceferin.

The UEFA chief identified eastern European nations as serial offenders. ‘ There’s not much immigration there. Everybody wanted to go to western Europe because of economic reasons, jobs, a better life.’

montenegro FA general secretary momir Djurdjevac has claimed his country had been unfairly maligned over the England incident and suggested that only ‘three or four’ racists may have been responsible for abuse heard by Gareth Southgate, journalists and photographers.

‘i must say frankly i did not hear the sounds,’ said Djurdjevac. ‘many with whom i spoke did not hear. The top brass of politicians were all there and racism did not come up. The match delegate himself did not hear those chants. The referee did not stop the game. They were a handful of idiots and because of those three or four, montenegro has been pilloried.’