Sporting Leaders Call For Zero-tolerance On Racism
Two of US sport’s most influential leaders called for a zero tolerance approach on racism across the whole sporting spectrum on Tuesday at Beyond Sport United, and insisted that sport can play a leading role in terms of social inclusion and tackling discrimination.
David Stern, the Commissioner of the NBA, and Brian France, the CEO and Chairman of NASCAR, made their feelings clear when asked about the issues with racism that European football has faced in recent months – with cases of abuse between players on the pitch alongside incidents such as the abuse of English players by Serbian fans in October’s international U21 match.
Their answers, though, went beyond European football to the entire global sporting field.
‘Just throw them out of the game. That’s all. It’s easy enough,’ said Stern. ‘It’s relatively easy because they do want to come to the game, but that’s not acceptable. There will always be some that slip through but it’s about the organisation.’
France, who heads North America’s most popular motorsports series, added: ‘Zero tolerance means zero. It means nothing, zero. So David’s right – it’s pretty simple.’
Stern added that the objections cited in such cases are not enough reason not to adopt a zero tolerance approach. ‘It’s about leading as well. Some people say ‘if you eliminate racial chants you have to shut down the football stadium’, but that’s OK. There have been games played before no crowds when there was unacceptable crowd behaviour, and racial epithets just are not acceptable.’
Earlier in the day, Piara Powar, founder of FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe), had spoken of the challenges sport still faces.
‘I would say it is getting better, but as a consequence of moving on from some of those basic issues that we need to deal with we are now dealing with issues that are more testing. It’s easier now to police a fan out of a stadium and get the message across to those fans, but what do you do when the captain of the team playing is a perpetrator of racism? That’s the challenge that English football has faced, with varied degrees of success.
‘From every bit of adversity comes a challenge and an opportunity, and that’s what people are looking to see. The right questions are now being asked, how can the football system be improved, and how we engage communities in a better way.’
