UEFA on the right track

By Mark Chaplin

UEFA is determined to punish the racists and drive them out of football - and argues against the theory that the European body could do more to punish the perpetrators of discrimination and intolerance on and off the field.

Direct action
In recent times, UEFA has made its intentions clear by issuing disciplinary sanctions against clubs and national associations, aiming to show that it will not accept racist conduct. UEFA's communications and public affairs director William Gaillard says that the body is operating a "zero tolerance" policy towards racist conduct throughout the game. "This year, there are quite a few instances where UEFA has intervened," Gaillard explained. "This went from hefty fines to actually suspending a stadium for UEFA matches. There is a range of sanctions that we can apply."

Delegates' role
Match delegates at UEFA games are being urged to report racist incidents, as they are on the spot to give first-hand evidence of such conduct. "In most of these [disciplinary] cases, the violations were signalled by our match delegates," said Gaillard. "They have been trained to look for incidents that could involve racism, they are aware of the situation. And we are getting results in terms of sanctions against racist incidents wherever they happen."

Limited powers
Gaillard takes great pains to clarify just where UEFA is able to act on racist incidents. The body was criticised in some quarters for not acting on the incidents that marred the Spain-England friendly match earlier this year - but Gaillard points out that this is a simple question of football jurisdiction.

Local concerns
"There is quite a lot of confusion about UEFA's jurisdiction," he explained. "What we have to be clear about is that, first of all, whatever happens during a league game within a football association is outside of our jurisdiction. It is the principle of subsidiarity - in this case it is for the national association of that country to handle the case.

FIFA jurisdiction
"If it is a match that is being played under FIFA's control, for example a [FIFA] World Cup qualifying match or a friendly - because all friendlies between national teams are played under FIFA's jurisdiction - then UEFA cannot intervene," he added. "The case of England-Spain was dealt with on the one hand by the Spanish Football Federation and, on the other hand, by FIFA."

Repeat offenders
So is it fair to say that UEFA's disciplinary sanctions against the racists have not been sufficiently tough, as some critics have implied? "Both of our disciplinary bodies, the Control and Disciplinary Body and the Appeals Body, are independent, so I think it is up to them to decide what is the appropriate sanction," said Gaillard. "I think that for this year, we have been satisfied with the sanctions applied. We've seen the sanctions go up quite drastically when it is a repeat offence."

Improving standards
In general, Gaillard is convinced that football's battle against racism is progressing well. "I think that we've made progress already," he said. "If we had applied the same sanctions 20 years ago, there would have been a lot more fines and a lot more grounds suspended. I think that supporters are behaving a lot better on the whole today than they were 20 years ago."

'Zero tolerance'
"I think that the number of incidents recorded is increasing because we are more aware of them, and because UEFA and the football authorities are applying this 'zero tolerance' policy - this was not the case 25 years ago when people were less aware of the situation."