UEFA approves new anti-racism guidelines

July 2, 2009

UEFA’s Executive Committee has approved new guidelines that are meant for match officials to properly deal with racist incidents in stadiums.

The new ‘zero tolerance’ policy consists of several steps, the first being that a referee may stop a game and ask for a public announcement to be made asking the public to stop this racist behaviour.

If the racism continues after the match has restarted, the referee will suspend the match once more for a period of up to ten minutes. At this moment, players will be asked to return to their dressing rooms.

The third and most drastic measure will be that a referee may actually abandon the game, if all other possibilities have been tried and proven insufficient.

UEFA Chairman Michel Platini commented on the new guidelines: “It was necessary to give the pitch people the means to do something, and we have determined the parameters and lines of conduct, whereby in important cases of racist behaviour in a stadium, a referee must stop the match.”

By: Jonathan Roorda