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Fifa has proposed a five-pillar plan to tackle racist abuse in football.<\/b><\/p>\n
The sport’s world governing body said it had undergone an “extensive consultation process” with current and former players who “are passionate about making change”.<\/p>\n
One of the plan’s proposals would see the introduction of a standard crossed-hands gesture for players to communicate racist incidents during matches.<\/p>\n
The ‘Global Stand Against Racism’ proposal will be presented to Fifa’s 211 members at its annual congress in Bangkok on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The first pillar of the proposal intends to make racism a specific offence which is included in all member associations’ disciplinary codes and has its own “specific and severe sanctions, including match forfeits”.<\/p>\n
Fifa said it will “pause, suspend and abandon games in cases of racism”.<\/p>\n
The crossed-hands gesture will be used by referees to signal an in-game procedure in which matches are paused twice and warnings are given, with the game to then be abandoned in the event of further racism.<\/p>\n
In pillar three – ‘criminal charges’ – Fifa called for racism to be recognised as a criminal offence in every country, and said it would push for severe sanctions in the countries where it is already an offence.<\/p>\n
Fifa also said it would promote education initiatives with schools and governments to “provide a future free of racism”, while an anti-racism panel made up of former players will be set up to review the progress of the proposal.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Brazil and Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr said he felt “less and less” like playing football<\/a> because he had suffered repeated racist abuse.<\/p>\n Last year, a Fifa report found<\/a> almost 20,000 abusive social media posts were aimed at players, coaches and officials during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n And in 2021, England manager Gareth Southgate called the racist abuse aimed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after the Euro 2020 final “unforgivable”.<\/a><\/p>\n Fifa’s proposals have been criticised by anti-discrimination charity Kick it Out.<\/p>\n Chief executive Tony Burnett said the plans “lack detail”, while asking players to “come up with solutions to tackle the issue is unfair”. <\/p>\n “Rather than introducing new hand gestures, Fifa should focus on empowering players and their management to leave the pitch when they feel it\u2019s appropriate,” said Burnett.<\/p>\n He added that “referees also need better education”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n