LONDON: The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) responded to a spate of racism controversies yesterday by publishing a six-point action plan to combat discrimination in the sport.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has called for stricter punishments for racial abuse, including making it a potentially sackable offence, and wants culprits to be obliged to attend awareness programmes.
The plans also include an initiative to introduce a form of the ‘Rooney rule’, which was introduced by the NFL in the United States in 2003 to ensure qualified black coaches get a place on interview lists for job vacancies.
Taylor has reacted to frustrations aired by Reading striker Jason Roberts, who sparked a boycott of the anti-racism ‘Kick It Out’ campaign last weekend after complaining that not enough was being done to combat racism in the game.
The PFA’s six-point plan is as follows: “1. Speeding up the process of dealing with reported racist abuse with close monitoring of any incidents.
“2. Consideration of stiffer penalties for racist abuse and to include an equality awareness programme for culprits and clubs involved.
“3. An English form of the ‘Rooney rule’ ... to make sure qualified black coaches are on interview lists for job vacancies.
“4. The proportion of black coaches and managers to be monitored and any inequality or progress highlighted.
“5. Racial abuse to be considered gross misconduct in player and coach contracts (and therefore potentially a sackable offence).
“6. To not to lose sight of other equality issues such as gender, sexual orientation, disability, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Asians in football.”
Taylor also used the opportunity to call for unity in the fight against racism, amid reports that players were moving to form a breakaway union for black footballers. AFP
