FIFA accused of not addressing racism at the World Cup

The head of FIFA’s anti-racism task force has voiced his disappointment at the failure to appoint staff trained to record discriminatory abuse in World Cup stadiums in the wake of a series of contentious incidents.

Fifa did not take action over offensive chanting by Mexican fans, racist chanting at matches involving Russia and Croatia, or “blacked up” fans who were pictured at the Germany v Ghana game.

“There is no reason why someone should be entering the stadium clearly displaying their intent. We at FIFA and the local organising committee should be doing a much better job,” said Jeffrey Webb, the Concacaf president and also a member of FIFA’s executive committee.

He said a proposal to have three officials at every match trained to spot and record evidence of anti-discriminatory behaviour had been knocked back by Fifa and the organising committee.

Webb said the proposal, made in March, was one of the “top priorities” of the task force precisely because of the sort of incidents that had happened in Brazil and that the failure to implement it was “very unfortunate”.

Piara Powar, the director of European anti-racism network FARE, which helps operate a similar system for UEFA, confirmed that a detailed proposal had been worked up with Webb’s office. A FIFA spokesman insisted there was no time to implement the plan, but Webb said there were trained staff ready and willing to do the job.

FIFA’s disciplinary committee chairman, Claudio Sulser, dismissed criticism of the decision not to take action over the “inappropriate” and “inconvenient" behaviour of fans. He said it was hard to prove cases that involved racist or homophobic behaviour by the crowd because it was not easy to tell which country the offenders were from. Sulser also queried whether it was effective to sanction national associations with a fine in cases where their fans misbehave and, bizarrely, argued that unless it could be proved the chanting was against a specific player then it was hard for Fifa to take action.

FIFA opened a disciplinary case against Mexico over the use of the word “puto”, generally considered to be homophobic. But the case was dismissed and Sulser said the chants were “inappropriate, even kind of rude, but were not directed at a specific player”. Similarly, he said that while Russian fans had audibly abused Cameroon players, it could not be proved that the chants were directed at any individual.

Sulser added that “The World Cup has been a clear demonstration of moments of happiness. There have been isolated cases where we can’t intervene only for the sake of intervening.”

Pressed further, the former Switzerland player added, “It was inconvenient. But there are so many inadequate behaviours. I hear chants, I hear insults. But it is difficult. I don’t want to repeat myself but I invite you to change your question.”

He also pointed to the recent 10-game ban handed to Croatia’s Josip Simunic for a pro-Nazi chant and a stadium ban for Ukraine fans as proof it was taking the issue seriously.

But Sulser’s stance appeared to jar with the “zero tolerance” message that has been a key plank of FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s public rhetoric for some time. FIFA has used advertising hoardings in the 12 stadiums in Brazil to deliver an anti-racism message.

Former players Cafu and Dwight Yorke, also appearing alongside Webb and Sulser at the press conference, also called for stronger sanctions against offenders.