Exclusive: By Osasu Obayiuwana
March 21 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told InsideWorldFootball that confronting the growing scourge of racism in the sport is one of the last major challenges confronting his presidency. “I am going to tackle this with all my tenacity, my fighting character,” Blatter said, on the eve of the CAF Congress in Morocco earlier this month.
“Enough is enough… I have really had enough… I am going to do it (confront racism) and I am going to succeed. But not alone, as it will be with the special task force.”
Blatter meets Kevin-Prince Boateng, the Ghana international, for a discussion, in Zurich on Friday, following the latter’s criticism that FIFA was not doing enough to confront racism.
Boateng, who plays for Italian club AC Milan, led his colleagues off the pitch in January, in protest against racist abuse by fans of Pro Patria, during a friendly match.
Recently in Geneva to address an anti-racism meeting, organised by the United Nations, Boateng testified, in an Italian court, against the six Patria fans facing criminal charges for racist behaviour.
“At the time Boateng did this (walked out), I commended him… It was an alarm clock bell [for football], that somebody else can do the same,” Blatter previously told this reporter in South Africa, just before the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
“But he ran away from the problem. We cannot solve this problem by running away. We have to face this problem.
“Fines alone are not enough, because people will always find the money to pay for something.
“The solution is, and I will advocate that, is the deduction of points or the elimination of a team [from a competition]… If we don’t go with these strong measures, we will never get through [this problem].
“There are people in football that are totally against that, because they think it is [unfairly] punishing the players.
“But we are not punishing the players. We are punishing the club. The club is responsible for the behaviour of their players and of the spectators in the stadium.”
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