Fight against racism goes on

Charity partner
UEFA has been actively involved in countering racism during recent years, notably through its association with the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network. FARE is one of UEFA's four main charity partners and this year received €387,000 to support its work.

Plan of action
The positive steps taken by UEFA include its support of FARE's ten-point plan of action in 2002. UEFA President Lennart Johansson and then Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner wrote to the European football community urging implementation of the measures called for by FARE.

Measures
They involved: disciplinary action against spectators and players who engage in racist abuse; preventing the sale of racist literature inside and outside stadiums; introducing equal opportunities' policies in relation to employment and service provision; and adopting common strategies between stewards and police for dealing with racist abuse.

Good practice guide
Then, in July 2003, UEFA together with FARE issued an Anti-Racism Good Practice Guide (Click here to read more), which set out practical steps that could be taken to tackle the issue. This was circulated to all of Europe's national associations, leagues and clubs as well as to referees, match delegates and venue directors.

London event
This guide was a practical consequence of the anti-racism conference in London in March 2003, where UEFA together with FARE and the English Football Association discussed the problem with representatives of all 52 UEFA member associations and many leading clubs. Arsenal FC and England defender Ashley Cole and former France captain Marcel Desailly were among the guest speakers at the conference.

Action week
UEFA also supports FARE's annual Action Week, which was staged this year from 14-26 October. The anti-racism message was spelt out during the UEFA Champions League fixtures on 19 and 20 October through tannoy announcements and the players of all 32 teams taking the field accompanied by children wearing United Against Racism t-shirts.

Fan activities
UEFA also supported FARE activities at last season's Champions League final where the Schalker Fan-Initiative arranged an anti-racism street event in Gelsenkirchen. Supporters of different countries were also encouraged to mix during UEFA EURO 2004™ through a Fan Embassies programme, organised by FARE and the Football Supporters International (FSI) network and supported financially by UEFA.

Portugal conference
In Portugal just prior to EURO 2004™, meanwhile, UEFA joined the European Union's Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) for a conference in Braga.

Disciplinary action
UEFA has also taken disciplinary action against those guilty of racism. Serbo-Montenegrin international Sinisa Mihajlovic received a two-match ban in October 2000 for his sustained abuse of Arsenal players when playing for S.S. Lazio.

Record fine
In January last year Slovakia were ordered to play a EURO 2004™ qualifier against Liechtenstein behind closed doors after the racist behaviour of fans during a match against England. The English Football Association itself received a record €99,000 fine in May that year because of pitch incursions and racist chanting at the EURO 2004™ qualifer between England and Turkey.

Chants
The fight continues, of course, and last month Czech club AC Sparta Praha and Hungary's Ferencvarosi TC both received fines after their supporters directed monkey chants at rival players in European club competition matches.