Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Racism vs Undies: What's Worse?


Solving the issue of racism is supposed to be one of FIFA's top priorities. They have promised to deal with it more severely, via harsher punishments for the guilty parties. As usual though, their lack of bite and consistency, is farcical. Take, for instance, the fines imposed by UEFA- the organisers of Euro 2012- on its members (that is, country FA's, clubs and individuals who come under their jurisdiction) this year:
  • In April, UEFA fined FC Porto (Portugal) US $25,000 for the racist conduct of its fans who subjected Man City striker Mario Balotelli to monkey chants.
  • This past week, in the Euro 2012, the Russian, Croatian and German FA's were fined a combined a total of US $82,000 for the behaviour of their fans during matches. This behaviour included violence and racist chants.
On the other hand;
  • Nicklaus Bendtner, the Danish Striker, was fined a whopping $126,000 US and suspended for one match after exposing is undies after scoring. It wasn't the undies themselves which drew the ire of UEFA but what was on them-an advertisment from a company which isn't officially sponsoring the tournament.

To fine Bendtner more than all the fines imposed on the FA's and clubs put together- for exposing his undies- is just laughable. It is only serves to highlight that UEFA and FIFA's priorities are not, in fact, set on dealing with racism in the sport seriously. They are more worried about preventing ambush marketing and keeping their corporate sponsors happy. This seems to conflict with their ethos of being socially responsible organisations and the campaigns they use to promote these ideals (see the Respect Campaign section).

No, it seems that racism is still just another minor inconvenience to the leaders of football these days- though I would like to suggest that it is a growing one, which they cannot ignore forever. One hopes that sooner, rather than later, the issue will be more important in world football than a player who has adverts on his undies.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

P.S THIS is how you use undies to advertise a product. 

Photos sourced from theobamadiary.com and thetelegraph.com 




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