Players' union backs tougher racism sanctions
Reuters - Wednesday 24 October 2012, 16:18
The
English Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) issued a six-point
action plan to help deal with racism on Wednesday following a series of
high profile developments in the fallout from the John Terry-Anton
Ferdinand case.
The PFA has
been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the problem, but
responded by saying the time was right for tougher penalties.
The
plan comes a day after David Bernstein, the chairman of the Football
Association, said the FA's sanctions for racial abuse were being
reviewed.
The response from
the FA and the PFA comes after Reading striker Jason Roberts, a member
of the PFA's management committee, expressed frustration that the
problem of racism was not being dealt with properly by the sport's
authorities.
Roberts was the
catalyst behind the move to boycott the wearing of anti-racism warm-up
T-shirts during the Kick It Out organisation's annual anti-racism
weekend last Saturday and Sunday.
Rio
Ferdinand and brother Anton were part of the boycott and issued a joint
statement on Wednesday which said: "Times change and organisations need
to change with them. We are more than happy to join the discussion,
privately, to make Kick It Out more relevant in its fight to stamp out
racism in football."
SIX-POINT PLAN
The PFA's plan calls for:
1) Speeding up the process of dealing with reported racist abuse by closely monitoring any incidents.
2) Consideration of stiffer penalties for racist abuse and an equality awareness programme for culprits and clubs involved.
3)
An English form of the "Rooney rule" - introduced by American
football's National Football League in 2003 - to make sure qualified
ethnic minority coaches are on interview lists for job vacancies.
4) Monitoring the proportion of black coaches and managers and any inequality or progress highlighted.
5) Racial abuse to be considered gross misconduct in player and coach contracts (and therefore potentially a sackable offence).
6)
Keeping abreast of other equality issues such as gender, sexual
orientation, disability, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Asians in
football.
PFA chief executive
Gordon Taylor also called for unity among players following widespread
media reports that some were considering forming a breakaway
organisation for black footballers.
"If
they want their own particular select group who they feel can influence
everybody more than the whole PFA as a union together, I would say they
are seriously mistaken," Taylor told the BBC.
"If
we are not careful, this will set us back years. It would not only set
back the game, it would set back the anti-racist initiative."
The
Ferdinands statement said: "Although we have been left disappointed by
the PFA and the FA's actions over the last year, as a family, we are
committed to working with football's existing organisations towards the
betterment of the game and to achieve immediate action."
SANCTIONS REVIEW
FA Chairman Bernstein told reporters at Wembley on Tuesday that the
domestic governing body will review its sanctions for racist abuse
following the Terry case.
The
Chelsea captain is serving a four-match domestic suspension after the
FA found him guilty of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers defender
Anton Ferdinand a year ago. He was also fined 220,000 pounds
despite being found not guilty in a criminal case.
There
was widespread criticism in the media from players that Terry escaped
lightly after Liverpool's Uruguay forward Luis Suarez was banned for
eight matches for racially abusing Manchester United's France defender
Patrice Evra last year.
Clarke
Carlisle, the chairman of the PFA, told Sky Sports that ideally the
organisation was looking for longer suspensions in the future than the
one Terry received.
"Eight games is a minimum entry level," he said.
"The
FA did punish John Terry in the parameters they had in place but it's
those parameters that are not strong enough. They need to be far tougher
than just four games."