Remove the England captaincy from John Terry

Racism in football is back in the news this week with the eight match ban handed down to Liverpool’s Luis Suarez for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrick Evra and, today, the news that John Terry is facing criminal prosecution for allegedly racially abusing QPR's Anton Ferdinand.

The Football Association is just as much in the dock as its reputation and credibility is scrutinised at home and abroad. The stakes were raised last month when the FA spoke out at the apparent indifference towards racism in football by FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, after he claimed that racial abuse on the field could be dealt with by a handshake after the game.

The FA appear to have handled the Suarez case in accordance with the rules and appear only to have come to their judgement after much deliberation. It is sad that Suarez’s Liverpool team-mates and manager rallied round him without even slightest concern of his guilt. Wearing T-shirts in support of him undermines efforts to stamp out racism within the game. Let us just hope that at some stage in the future these same Liverpool players, who appear so quick to jump to Suarez’s defence, are not left annoyed with players of a rival team who rally round someone who has abused one of their own.

The John Terry incident raises even more serious questions. Obviously he is innocent until proven guilty, but it seems totally inappropriate for him to remain England captain whilst criminal charges hang over him. He was stripped of the captaincy after a Sunday newspaper exposed an extra-marital affair so it would only seem correct that he is once again forced to stand down as captain while charges of using racist language exist.

English football has done much to rid itself of racism over the last fifteen years and we can rightly boast to have the most pro-active national football association on this issue anywhere in Europe. The FA should act decisively over John Terry’s captaincy rather than be forced to act later under pressure. How can we seem to lecture other countries and FIFA if they fail to deal with this issue swiftly? If John Terry is found not guilty then he can regain the captaincy at some future date. If he has the interests of the game, and indeed the national team, at heart then he will also want to step aside as soon as possible.

Hope not hate

Sepp Blatter faces clamour to quit over racism row

Fifa president urged to step down after saying footballers suffering abuse on the pitch should 'shake hands' afterwards

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is facing a chorus of criticism as players, managers, politicians and anti-racism campaigners called on him to step down over his suggestion that racist abuse on the pitch could be settled with a handshake.

The sports minister, Hugh Robertson, and the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, Gordon Taylor, urged Blatter to resign after he suggested there was no racism in football and that players subjected to abuse should say "this is a game" and shake hands afterwards. David Cameron backed Robertson's call for Blatter to resign, describing Blatter's claims that racism on the pitch is not a problem as "appalling", adding that there was "no time for complacency" when it came to stamping it out.

Rio Ferdinand launched a scathing attack on the Fifa boss via Twitter. The Manchester United defender said Blatter's comments were "so condescending it's almost laughable", and he criticised the world football governing body for trying to "clear up the Blatter comments with a pic of him posing with a black man".

Blatter's remarks in interviews with CNN and al-Jazeera this week were particularly incendiary given two high-profile ongoing Football Association inquiries into allegations of racism.

Liverpool's Luis Suárez was charged on Wednesday with racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra. He denies it. England captain John Terry is the subject of an FA investigation and police inquiries into whether he racially abused Queens Park Rangers' Anton Ferdinand, Rio's brother. Terry denies the allegations.

Robertson called on Blatter to resign immediately. "This is the latest episode that calls into question whether this man should be the head of world football. For the sake of the game, he should go. We have been consistent in calls for improved governance at Fifa and this underlines the need for that once more. We must never be complacent in our efforts to tackle racism."

Ed Miliband, said: "I think Sepp Blatter's comments are a disgrace, frankly, and I think football needs new leadership. I don't think he has shown in the remarks he has made recently, or indeed his record, that he can provide that leadership for world football."

Blatter, Fifa president since 1998, has made various gaffes and has faced a serious crisis with corruption claims levelled at the organisation amid calls for wholesale reform.

Lord Herman Ouseley, chairman of the anti-racist campaign group Kick It Out, said: "To say Sepp Blatter's comments are unhelpful is an understatement. He has no understanding of what racism is, the ideology behind it, the damage it causes and how it subjugates one group of people as inferior."

But with only limited reporting of Blatter's comments in other countries, Fifa insiders said the furore was only likely to feed the president's belief that the British media was out to get him. This belief intensified in the runup to last year's World Cup vote, when Fifa was rocked by corruption claims, and again prior to his re-election in June.

Guardian

EDL members fined over rooftop protest

A rooftop protest over the ban on the England football team having embroidered poppies on their shirts has cost two English Defence League members £3,000.

EDL leader Stephen Lennon and member Kevin Carroll flew to Switzerland last Tuesday and 24 hours later managed to get on to the roof of the FIFA headquarters in Zurich. They were demanding England players be allowed to wear poppies on their shirts for their friendly against Spain after the governing body ruled emblems were not allowed because the poppy was seen as a political emblem.

The compromise of allowing the teams to wear black armbands with poppies on was reached after interventions from Prince William and David Cameron. But Mr Lennon claims his protest was the tipping point.

“FIFA changed their mind after two hours of us being up on that roof,” he said. “Everyone’s saying it was David Cameron but it was us.”

The pair were arrested when they came down from the roof after four hours, and were fined £2,300 and had to pay £700 court costs.

“They said our reasons were just but obviously it was against the law,” said Mr Lennon. “They put us in a grimy prison for three days.”

Their spell behind bars meant the pair were not in London on Friday when 170 English Defence Members were arrested at a pub near the Cenotaph because police believed they were headed for the protest camp at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Mr Lennon said: “They dragged everyone out of the pub and held them for four hours. There was no trouble. The police said they were preventing a breach of the peace so they arrested everyone, men and women. But no-one was charged with anything, they were all just released after four hours.”

Luton Today

Sick Heil

Croatian football chiefs are using a sick fascist hatemonger to whip up a vile racist frenzy among fans

A Sun investigation today reveals the Croatian FA is behind a cynical campaign encouraging thugs - who will be at Wembley for tomorrow's match against England - to worship the right-wing nut spreading hatred and Sieg Heil chants on the terraces.

Shocking songs by fascist rocker Marko Perkovic that glorify genocide and Hitler's death camps are played at Croatia's home matches. And his sick slogans are chanted by thousands of fans.

England striker Emile Heskey was subjected to sinister obscenities and disgusting monkey chants the last time the two sides met. The squad for the World Cup qualifier boasts a host of black stars including Heskey, goal ace Jermain Defoe and Ashley Cole.

Perkovic - nicknamed Thompson after the machinegun he used in the Balkans war - is loved by fans of the Croatia side. They are notorious for wearing the uniform of the Nazis' puppet Ustashe regime that ran Croatia during World War II. The songs are blasted out to crank up intimidation levels inside Zagreb's Maksimir Stadium. It instantly provokes a fascist fervour as fans - who once formed a human swastika on the terraces - launch into the Sieg Heil salutes popular at Thompson's concerts.

Fans repeatedly chant the notorious Ustashe war cry "Za dom - Spremni", which means "For the Homeland - ready" and is popularised in Thompson's songs.

Croatia's football chiefs have been repeatedly condemned by FIFA and punished over fans' racist thuggery. Yet stadium security chiefs make no attempt to curb the show of hate, which inevitably continues when fans follow the team abroad.

Team manager Slaven Bilic has even admitted playing Thompson's music in the dressing room to fire up his players, who include Arsenal striker Eduardo. The Sun witnessed the tactic being used to stir a 30,000-strong crowd into fascist chants and salutes at Croatia's home match against Belarus last Saturday. About 8,000 of those fans are expected at Wembley tomorrow.

Our investigators also attended a Thompson concert, where bare-chested fans openly gave the stiff-armed Sieg Heil salute while proudly waving Croatian flags. Some even took SWORDS to the show - where Thompson, 42, posed on stage with his own blade. Thompson, an avid footie fan who wears paramilitary costume at gigs, is a cult figure on white supremacist website Stormfront.

He has been barred from performing in countries including the Netherlands and Austria because of security fears. He glorifies the Ustashe regime which committed genocide in World War II and his chilling lyrics glamorise Nazi concentration camps where 90,000 innocent Jews, gipsies and Serbs were murdered. He also backs Croat generals who committed crimes against humanity during the bloody Balkans conflict in the 1990s.

His official video for one song, hailed as Croatia's footie anthem, honours warlord Mate Boban, who led a 1990s genocide campaign. Croatia's fans and players reacted angrily when the song was not played at a 2007 match against Israel for fear of causing offence.

Human rights campaigners demanded FIFA take action against Croatia for promoting Thompson. Nazi hunter Dr Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre said: "It is unacceptable, irresponsible and dangerous. His lyrics support the Ustashe and encourage nostalgia for a regime that committed genocide."

Anti-Nazi magazine Searchlight said Croatia should be forced to play behind closed doors.

Croatian MP Damir Kajin said: "The activities of Marko Perkovic give the appearance that Croatia is not a civilised country."

There is no suggestion Croatia's football officials or players share Thompson's fascist views. Manager Bilic - an ex-West Ham and Everton player - has previously condemned the far right and Croatia's fascist past.

The Sun asked the Croatian Football Federation why it played Thompson's songs and why fans were allowed to give Nazi salutes. We also asked whether officials considered it acceptable to link the national team with a singer accused of glorifying genocide. The CFF declined to answer. A spokesman said only: "I hope we play a good game and we win it."

Thompson was unavailable for comment last night.

Sun

Is racism rife in European football, and what is being done to stop it?

Why are we asking this now?

Racism has long been an issue in football, that most tribal of sports; but in recent weeks, the game in Europe has faced a series of incidents that have reminded British supporters of the Continent's problems and may have brought matters to a head.

First, Croatia fans made monkey noises at Emile Heskey during England's World Cup qualifying fixture in Zagreb, and were fined £15,000 by Fifa, the game's global governing body. Next, England asked for their forthcoming friendly against Spain to be rearranged away from Madrid's Bernabeu stadium, where black England players suffered similar abuse in a fixture four years ago. And yesterday Uefa decided that Atlético Madrid would be forced to play their next two home matches at a neutral venue and fined €150,000 (£120,000) after supporters abused black Marseille players a fortnight ago.

Where does racism most affect the game in Europe?

Spain and Italy have long had reputations as being particularly poor at policing racist supporters, and in both leagues black players are abused for the colour of their skin as a matter of course. In Spain, leadership from politicians and senior figures in the game has been seriously lacking. After national team coach Luis Aragones called Thierry Henry a "black piece of shit", condemnation from politicians didn't exactly pour out, and it was no great surprise supporters unfurled a banner which read "Aragones 1 – Henry 0" at the same game against England in 2004 at which Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole were constantly barracked.

Italian fans are known for the same kind of behaviour. Some Italian clubs' supporters are also subject to a troubling neo-fascist influence, with Lazio, the club that Mussolini supported, particularly notorious in that regard. Meanwhile, away fixtures against Eastern European teams are often an endurance test for black players.

Why are fans so susceptible to racist influences?

In the aforementioned countries, it's partly to do with wider demography: countries with smaller ethnic minority populations are almost always more hostile towards them. But some believe that football's insular culture is especially prone to such problems.

"The [football] hard-man lives in a dangerous and unchanging world," wrote sociologist Dave Robins in 1994. "Permanently sensitised to 'trouble' in his environment, his paranoid fantasies about defending his 'patch' against outsiders make him ripe for manipulation by the politics of the extreme right."

Do the same problems apply in the UK?

To some extent, racism can still be found in British stadiums. Just a few weeks ago, Tottenham supporters chanted racist, homophobic abuse at their former captain Sol Campbell in a game against his current club, Portsmouth. Compared to much of Europe, though, such incidents are few and far between. "When you go to a football match in the UK, you don't expect to be abused for the colour of your skin," says Piara Powar, director of the anti-racism campaign Kick It Out. "In Spain, Italy, some parts of Eastern Europe, you would expect it."

Why are things better here?

Partly as part of a broader cultural difference. "There's a wide appreciation of multiculturalism here," Powar says, "even if there's been a backlash against it in the last few years." Black players became a fixture in British football much earlier than in Spain or Italy, and so British football went through its own racist phase earlier – in the 70s and 80s supporters thought nothing of throwing bananas at players like Cyrille Regis and John Barnes – but, as a result, they dealt with them earlier, too.

What do we do differently?

Campaigns like Kick It Out started earlier here than they did in many other European countries, and clubs founded their own anti-racist initiatives which have become part of the furniture of the game in this country. This week, for instance, Kick it Out starts a "One game, one community" campaign aimed at encouraging inclusivity in the game at all levels.

Anecdotally, most supporters say that such efforts have coincided with a major reduction in racism in the game. As early as 1994, a survey found that 84 per cent of football fanzine editors felt that racism had diminished significantly in the previous five years; and, while homophobia is still rife, serious racist incidents are now very rarely a feature of the clashes between Premier League teams. Most British players and supporters are much more likely to encounter trouble in international fixtures or club games in European competitions.

What is Fifa doing about it?

Football's authorities have long talked a good game on anti-racism. Before the 2006 World Cup, Fifa president Sepp Blatter declared that "more than the sword of Damocles" was hanging over national associations that failed to take adequate steps to prevent racism. "This," he went on, "is the end of non-compliance with what our society is asking football to do." Since then, though, the organisation's actions have been far from the firm deterrents that such a speech would suggest. The decision to fine Croatia a mere £15,000 in the light of the clear evidence of abuse against Emile Heskey has drawn particular derision.

"Croatia were fined a few thousand quid," Rio Ferdinand said afterwards. "What's that going to do? That is not going to stop people shouting racist or homophobic abuse. Sepp Blatter likes to speak up about things that are good for Fifa's image but I would love to see them stand up and dish out the right punishments for these incidents."

What would the right punishment be?

It's widely agreed that a points deduction would be a far more powerful disincentive for abusive supporters, who might then see their teams lose out in competition. But many say that it has no chance of getting off the ground because of the minefield of potential legal challenges to such a decision. If that fear – and the inertia of member nations where racism is not high on the agenda – stops Fifa taking stronger action, it's hard to see how the organisation's actions can have much impact on racist behaviour.

Is anyone else doing more?

Uefa, which has responsibility for the club game in Europe, has taken a more convincing anti-racism stance. Its decision to hit Atlético Madrid with a much heftier fine and to deny them home advantage for two fixtures is seen as much more likely to hurt supporters and club revenue – and therefore to motivate real change. There is a caveat to this: while the fine was levied because of racism, the home ban also took into account an attack on the opposition bus after the game, and no such punishment has been levied on purely anti-racist grounds. Still, says Piara Powar, "this is a momentous step. It shows Uefa's prepared to show leadership on the issue. And football is a very familial industry. If the daddy shows a lead, the national associations will follow."

Should clubs with racist supporters get points deducted?

Yes...

• Supporters don't regret a financial penalty in the way they do if their team suffers in competition If a victim's play is affected, it makes sense to deny the other team any advantage it might have gained
• A points deduction makes headlines and send a wider message that such behaviour will not be tolerated

No...

• Docking points is much more likely to produce an expensive, time-consuming legal challenge
• You could end up encouraging away fans to sneak into the home end and behave in a racist fashion on purpose
• It's wrong to punish the club, players and law-abiding supporters so severely for the actions of a few

Independent

Croatia Fined Over England Abuse

The Croatian Football Federation has been fined almost £15,000 for fans' racist behaviour during a recent World Cup qualifying game against England.

Striker Emile Heskey was subjected to monkey chants

England striker Emile Heskey was subjected to monkey chants from a small section of the crowd in Zagreb after being booked during the 4-1 victory for Fabio Capello's side.

The Football Association asked Fifa to investigate the incident and the world governing body has now issued a fine.

A statement said: "Racism has no place in football. Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination."

It is the second time in a matter of months Croatian fans have been found guilty of racist behaviour, with Fifa issuing a small fine during Euro 2008 following chants during their quarter-final against Turkey.

Fifa's disciplinary committee have now warned the CFF that further incidents could result in "more severe sanctions".

Sky News