- Conference
- 2013 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 18 September 2012
- Decision
- Carried
With the events of racism being highlighted amongst several high profile football players, it is clear that the game has some way to go to shed itself of this vile and evil mindset.
It is disappointing to hear the FIFA president Sebb Blatter under play the significance of racism in the game which raises concerns about his ability to deal with equality issues in football and by not doing so appropriately, overlooking racism in football. This makes it even harder to educate and eradicate, if he sees this as an insignificant problem.
When the European Championships took place in Poland and Ukraine in June 2012 there was real concern that far right groups would use this opportunity to pedal there hatred and racism during the games.
UEFA and FIFA will have to stop paying lip service to racism in the game and put in clear and transparent zero tolerant deterrents to those football federations who choose not to take the issue of racism seriously and tackle the issues within their domestic and national game.
During Euro 2012, UEFA fined one Danish player £80,000 for inadvertently advertising a betting shop during a goal; celebration, against sponsorship rules; yet only fined the Croatian FA £65,000 for racist chanting by 300 of their fans against an Italian player. Another example of them downplaying racism within the game
In addition we are disappointed with the delay by the Football Association (FA) not investigating the issue of alleged racial abuse by John Terry towards a fellow Black professional and question the timing of the delay in the criminal proceedings which ensured he was able to play in the European Championships in 2012.
We in UNISON are encouraged by our affiliation and donations made to organisations like Show Racism the Red Card as we are in no doubt that this work is of vital importance to the education and awareness of racism amongst young people.
We are also mindful of the work Kick It Out are doing across the football federation and believe their work fits into UNISONS work programme on challenging racism.
Conference calls on the NBMC to work with the NEC to
1)Affiliate and donate to ‘Kick It Out’ and support programmes and initiative that fall in line with UNISON’s aims and objectives on challenging racism in the workplace.
2)Write to the FA, UEFA and FIFA outlining UNISON’s concerns on the issue of racism in the workplace and the lack of action taken by the federations on this issue.
3)Support and link into other partners groups that ‘Kick It Out’ work with like The Black and Asian Coaches Association and Stephen Lawrence Trust.
4)Organise a meeting with these organisations to develop stronger links within the community and highlight the importance of the trade union movement in tackling these issues.
5)Report back on this important work at the National Black Members Conference in 2014