Yaya Toure’s remarks about a boycott of the 2018 World Cup in Russia have been wrongly shunned by certain sections of FIFA and UEFA. The Manchester City and Cote d’Ivoire midfielder commented after City’s Champions League tie against CSKA Moscow that black players could potentially boycott the World Cup in 2018 if Russia refuses to take a fighting stance against racism.
UEFA decided to follow up on Toure’s complaints against CSKA Moscow by partially closing Arena Khimki, the home of CSKA Moscow, for their fixture against Bayern Munich on November 27. UEFA’s decision was followed up by some typical rhetoric where they said fighting racism is a high priority and that they maintain a “zero-tolerance” policy. Oh, and they spout some more anti-racism adverts during the half-time break in between other god-awful betting adverts.
The thing is neither Yaya Toure’s comments of a boycott or UEFA’s usual stance on racism have any real substance. The difference is that if a boycott did happen then that would cause a significant shift in how FIFA and other footballing organisations such as UEFA deal with not just racism but all forms of discrimination. Meanwhile, UEFA’s claptrap of stadium closures ultimately tackled nothing.
Depending on the extent of racist behaviour, UEFA decide whether to close all or part of that team’s stadium. Only three teams have suffered full closures and neither Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), Legia Warsaw (Poland) or Honved (Hungary) are particularly big teams on the world stage, and their full closures have had little effect for the cause of fighting racism.
Italian club Lazio were also supposed to be on that list, but UEFA has decided to limit the closure to only a part of the Stadio Olimpico for their Europa League fixture against Apollon Limassol. One would have to criticise UEFA for back-tracking on the full closure of Stadio Olimpico on two levels: Firstly, back-tracking on your own policy shows weakness and that’s extremely bad if it opposes an anti-discrimination policy. Secondly, and more importantly, it shows that relatively big clubs like Lazio are able to get away with allowing their fans to continue with their discriminatory actions.
Whilst it is understandable that certain clubs could protest that a percentage of their fans are to blame, the club in question should be held accountable for not enforcing stricter sanctions on fans who continue with their racist abuse towards players of different colour or nationality.
It is no wonder then that players like Yaya Toure inevitably get frustrated and suggest that extreme measures have to be taken. And he won’t be the last footballer, or sportsman, to suffer racial abuse to suggest, or even show, that extreme action needs to be taken.
It was only earlier this year that Kevin Prince-Boateng walked off along with several of his AC Milan teammates after suffering racial abuse in a pre-season friendly against Pro Patria. FIFA President Sepp Blatter said Boateng’s actions caused an “earthquake” in the game and as a consequence Blatter appointed Boateng as the first member of their anti-discriminatory taskforce.
It’s nice to know that they “were not” pacifying Boateng by giving him this role and it’s really nice to know that FIFA did not have a taskforce tackling discrimination before this incident on January 3 this year.
It was only a few months ago that British comedian and writer Stephen Fry also wrote an open letter tackling Russia’s homophobic policies and why they should not be hosting the Winter Olympics next year. His letter definitely raised awareness during the World Athletic Championships this year (which was hosted by Moscow if you didn’t know), but one would also say that it did not do much other than raise awareness of a topic that many people already knew anyway.
Therefore it is frustrating to see Yaya Toure’s comments of black players boycotting the World Cup is to be silenced by FIFA handing him a role on the same taskforce that Boateng will sit on. If the likes of Toure, Boateng and other players are subject to racial abuse then they should not participate in the World Cup.
It is this sort of extreme action that would necessitate the game to change. If not, then it will be the same monotonous message being repeated by the governing bodies of football stating “fair play” and “against racism” with pointless partial closures and insignificant fines. Yaya Toure’s remarks might not carry any weight for now, but a united stance from all sections of the game, could hopefully shift the views of those who gladly incite discriminatory actions.
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