The FIFA delegation has arrived in England to view the Bid for England to host the World Cup in 2018, it would appear that it will come down to a straight fight between Russia and England, whilst I obviously have to declare a bias here I do think that FIFA must think very carefully before handing a tournament of this prestige to Russia. Whilst I think that the UK bid speaks for itself with world class stadiums such as Wembley, Old Trafford and the Emirates along side our much complained about Public Transport System (Which if we are honest is actually one of the better ones in global terms.) but the simple fact is that Russia has a real problem with racism in their football supporters, And not just a little problem with most BME players coming in for abuse and several recorded offences against BME fans who are following their teams. It would be amiss of FIFA to announce that as the World Cup in 2018 is widely believed to be one in which African teams will start to make real progress that they should have to come into an environment that is violent towards them (It reminds me of when they tried to hold Miss World in a Muslim country – clearly no thoughts required.) Now all that said it is true that Russia are improving and that Neo-Nazism is on the decrease however I think until they get the situation under control it is irresponsible and FIFA are not meeting their duty of care to consider it.
FIFA should take the stand once and for all and say ANY federation who can not show that they take racism seriously can not hold any major tournament or final. I understand that there are occasional racist incidents in this country but they are dealt with quickly and strongly, not denied like they have been of late in Russia and Spain.
No comments:
Post a Comment