Italian officials can stop matches over racism
Reuters - Wednesday 09 January 2013, 18:08
Italian
public security officials will be given the power to stop or interrupt football matches in the case of racist behaviour by fans, the government's
watchdog for sports events (ONMS) said on Wednesday.
The
ONMS said in a statement that in cases of racism the referee should
alert the fourth official who should in turn report the incident to the
public security department responsible for policing at games.
"The
director of the public order service has the sole responsibility for
suspending the match," said the statement following a meeting with
officials from the Italian football federation.
"The
director, in the presence of expressions of racism or intolerance, will
decide in all cases on the non-continuation of the match or its
suspension on a temporary basis to allow warnings to be issued to
supporters over the public address system."
Italian football federation president Giancarlo Abete had previously agreed that matches could be abandoned in cases of racism.
Last
week AC Milan walked off the pitch during a friendly against lower tier
side Pro Patria after Kevin-Prince Boateng refused to play on following
racist abuse from a small number of supporters in the crowd.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Monday praised Boateng's stance as courageous
but said that such gestures would not provide a long-term solution to
the problem.
It was also
announced that security forces would hold regular exercises "to test the
flow of information, the effectiveness of emergency plans, as well as
knowledge of procedures by the stewards and policing officials."
But
the ONMS, a department of the interior ministry, added that the problem
was caused by a small minority while violence at Italian matches was
also on the decline.
"There
has been a further drop in the number of violent incidents, while
manifestations of racism and intolerance sporadic and always limited to a
restricted group," it said.