UEFA don't care about racism in football

[Gravonia]

UEFA have fined Porto €20,000 (£17,600) for monkey chants aimed at Mario Balotelli in the Porto v Man City Champions League match last month but have fined Man City €30,000 (£25,000) for being a minute late in returning to the pitch after half time. This seems to prove that their stated commitment to come down hard on racism is, in fact, bullshit.

Does anyone else think they have their priorities seriously skewed. I mean, who actually suffered as a result of the delay? Some commentators who had to fill for a minute? They talk after the game so they could have just cut that by a minute. The advertisers still had their ads aired so what's the problem there?

I'm especially interested to hear from people from other European nations apart from the UK as I've got a feeling racism might be a bigger deal in Britain than elsewhere.

Edit
Should have added a link

[Druidville]

I had to go look up a news article to decipher your OP.

... you mean they were doing that seriously? And people complain about the South Eastern USA being racists? No, the fine isn't enough.

[Commerce Heights]

Of course UEFA aren’t interested in opposing discrimination. If they were, they wouldn’t be organizing competitions between national teams, and they wouldn’t have “home-grown player” rules in their club competitions which—in combination with the restrictions on international transfers of young players—effectively limit the number of foreign players a club can register.

[Disserbia]

I'm pretty sure racism is a big deal everywhere in Europe, but yeah, that's bs. They don't care, never have and never will. Football never had the best fans...

[Gravonia]

Of course UEFA aren’t interested in opposing discrimination. If they were, they wouldn’t be organizing competitions between national teams, and they wouldn’t have “home-grown player” rules in their club competitions which—in combination with the restrictions on international transfers of young players—effectively limit the number of foreign players a club can register.

Nah, you've lost me.

[Commerce Heights]

Of course UEFA aren’t interested in opposing discrimination. If they were, they wouldn’t be organizing competitions between national teams, and they wouldn’t have “home-grown player” rules in their club competitions which—in combination with the restrictions on international transfers of young players—effectively limit the number of foreign players a club can register.

Nah, you've lost me.

I’ll put it another way: If the next Ashley Cole is born in London tomorrow, with the opportunity to play on an England team with ten other decent players, and the next Lionel Messi is born in Domagnano, San Marino tomorrow, and has to play on a San Marino team with ten untalented players, who do you think will have a better chance of qualifying for, and playing in, Euro 2036? If the latter can’t play in the ostensible European championship, not because of his footballing skill, but because of his lineage, isn’t that just a wee bit wrong?

[Alyakia]

Nah, you've lost me.

I’ll put it another way: If the next Ashley Cole is born in London tomorrow, with the opportunity to play on an England team with ten other decent players, and the next Lionel Messi is born in Domagnano, San Marino tomorrow, and has to play on a San Marino team with ten untalented players, who do you think will have a better chance of qualifying for, and playing in, Euro 2036? If the latter can’t play in the ostensible European championship, not because of his footballing skill, but because of his lineage, isn’t that just a wee bit wrong?

sounds more like he can't play because of his teams lack of footballing skill tbh

[Alyakia]

Nah, you've lost me.

I’ll put it another way: If the next Ashley Cole is born in London tomorrow, with the opportunity to play on an England team with ten other decent players, and the next Lionel Messi is born in Domagnano, San Marino tomorrow, and has to play on a San Marino team with ten untalented players, who do you think will have a better chance of qualifying for, and playing in, Euro 2036? If the latter can’t play in the ostensible European championship, not because of his footballing skill, but because of his lineage, isn’t that just a wee bit wrong?

trust me i'm scottish i know what it's like

hey

you said wee

are you scottish too

we can't just say uefa is racist for having national things, abolish national teams and replace everyone with brazillians because our team is shit

[Gravonia]

Nah, you've lost me.

I’ll put it another way: If the next Ashley Cole is born in London tomorrow, with the opportunity to play on an England team with ten other decent players, and the next Lionel Messi is born in Domagnano, San Marino tomorrow, and has to play on a San Marino team with ten untalented players, who do you think will have a better chance of qualifying for, and playing in, Euro 2036? If the latter can’t play in the ostensible European championship, not because of his footballing skill, but because of his lineage, isn’t that just a wee bit wrong?

Not really. Gareth Bale has to deal with it.
What does that have to with UEFA not caring about racism? or racism at all?

[Lacadaemon]

If the latter can’t play in the ostensible European championship, not because of his footballing skill, but because of his lineage, isn’t that just a wee bit wrong?

It's more important to play in the champions league though, and he could still do that.

[Cromarty]

replace everyone with brazillians because our team is shit

Italy 1934-38.*

*although that was Argentinians and Uruguayans iirc

[Nazis in Space]

Nah, you've lost me.

I’ll put it another way: If the next Ashley Cole is born in London tomorrow, with the opportunity to play on an England team with ten other decent players, and the next Lionel Messi is born in Domagnano, San Marino tomorrow, and has to play on a San Marino team with ten untalented players, who do you think will have a better chance of qualifying for, and playing in, Euro 2036? If the latter can’t play in the ostensible European championship, not because of his footballing skill, but because of his lineage, isn’t that just a wee bit wrong?

Ah, how sad the glorious times when half the Italian team consisted of argies are gone~

[Commerce Heights]

sounds more like he can't play because of his teams lack of footballing skill tbh

That is the problem; he can’t simply choose to play for Spain or Germany or Italy instead of San Marino, because of the citizenship requirements in national team football (which are technically imposed by FIFA, but UEFA is complicit as one of FIFA’s member confederations). In contrast, he can succeed on his own merits in club football, since instead of being limited to playing for Domagnano or Juvenes-Dogana or Tre Fiori, he can be signed for millions of euros by the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester United. (Since he’s the next Lionel Messi, he almost certainly won’t be shut out of the Champions League by the aforementioned home-grown player rule, though some less-fortunate foreign player might have to be removed from the squad list to make a space for him as one of the seventeen non–home-grown players.)

trust me i'm scottish i know what it's like

hey

you said wee

are you scottish too

Nae.

we can't just say uefa is racist for having national things, abolish national teams and replace everyone with brazillians because our team is shit

Firstly, I’m maintaining a distinction between racial and national discrimination. They’re closely related, particularly where citizenship is determined by jus sanguinis, and I find them equally repulsive, but they’re not the same thing.

Secondly, Internazionale Milano, for example, seem to do a reasonable job of employing players without regard for nationality, yet they’re far from “replacing everyone with Brazilians,” with players in their current squad who’ve represented ten different national teams on four continents.

What does that have to with UEFA not caring about racism? or racism at all?

The reason I bring up national discrimination is that, given that a major portion of UEFA’s operation is fundamentally based on one form of discrimination, it is unsurprising that they would turn a blind eye to another, in spite of their public relations campaigns.

[Gravonia]

What does that have to with UEFA not caring about racism? or racism at all?

The reason I bring up national discrimination is that, given that a major portion of UEFA’s operation is fundamentally based on one form of discrimination, it is unsurprising that they would turn a blind eye to another, in spite of their public relations campaigns.

What the fuck are you talking about? If you don't discriminate based on nationality in a nations-based competition it rather defeats the object.

[Commerce Heights]

The reason I bring up national discrimination is that, given that a major portion of UEFA’s operation is fundamentally based on one form of discrimination, it is unsurprising that they would turn a blind eye to another, in spite of their public relations campaigns.

What the fuck are you talking about? If you don't discriminate based on nationality in a nations-based competition it rather defeats the object.

It does, yes. We don’t have race-based sporting events because racial discrimination is not tolerated by most of Western society. When national discrimination has the same stigma, nation-based sporting events will likewise vanish. I’d like to see a club competition replace the FIFA World Cup in my lifetime.

[Serrland]

What the fuck are you talking about? If you don't discriminate based on nationality in a nations-based competition it rather defeats the object.

It does, yes. We don’t have race-based sporting events because racial discrimination is not tolerated by most of Western society. When national discrimination has the same stigma, nation-based sporting events will likewise vanish. I’d like to see a club competition replace the FIFA World Cup in my lifetime.

You mean like the Club World Cup...?

[Astograth]

It does, yes. We don’t have race-based sporting events because racial discrimination is not tolerated by most of Western society. When national discrimination has the same stigma, nation-based sporting events will likewise vanish. I’d like to see a club competition replace the FIFA World Cup in my lifetime.

You mean like the Club World Cup...?

The Club World Cup is more like the Confederations Cup than an actual worldwide tournament. So not like the World Cup.

[Serrland]

You mean like the Club World Cup...?

The Club World Cup is more like the Confederations Cup than an actual worldwide tournament. So not like the World Cup.

But then we have to watch the boring teams. With exemptions to Brazil and Argentina, I can't think of more than a handful of domestic leagues worth watching outside of UEFA.

[Commerce Heights]

It does, yes. We don’t have race-based sporting events because racial discrimination is not tolerated by most of Western society. When national discrimination has the same stigma, nation-based sporting events will likewise vanish. I’d like to see a club competition replace the FIFA World Cup in my lifetime.

You mean like the Club World Cup...?

A bigger event than the current Club World Cup, taking all of the media and spectator attention that the national team World Cup now has (or, what Astograth said.) I think we’re straying from the topic, though.

[Commerce Heights]

But then we have to watch the boring teams. With exemptions to Brazil and Argentina, I can't think of more than a handful of domestic leagues worth watching outside of UEFA.

That could change if they had the opportunity to play against teams from other continents on a regular basis.

[Miasto Lodz]

I'm especially interested to hear from people from other European nations apart from the UK as I've got a feeling racism might be a bigger deal in Britain than elsewhere.

IMHO not the racism itself, but fighting the racism in football in a British way is making mountain out of a molehill. It was real fun to watch the outrage spectacle around Sanchez and Evra.

[Gravonia]

I'm especially interested to hear from people from other European nations apart from the UK as I've got a feeling racism might be a bigger deal in Britain than elsewhere.

IMHO not the racism itself, but fighting the racism in football in a British way is making mountain out of a molehill. It was real fun to watch the outrage spectacle around Sanchez and Evra.

Hurray! Back on subject.
If you liked Sanchez and Evra then you'll love the John Terry trial.

So do you think the fines for Porto and Citeh were about right?

[Astograth]

IMHO not the racism itself, but fighting the racism in football in a British way is making mountain out of a molehill. It was real fun to watch the outrage spectacle around Sanchez and Evra.

Hurray! Back on subject.
If you liked Sanchez and Evra then you'll love the John Terry trial.

So do you think the fines for Porto and Citeh were about right?

Suárez*. No monetary fine in the thousands is IMO, enough for teams like Porto and City; stricter measures should be employed if UEFA was truly committed to eliminating racism. To answer the original question, I believe racism is more prevalent in La Liga and Serie-A than the EPL, though the outcry and punishments are much larger in the latter than the former.

[Nazis in Space]

What the fuck are you talking about? If you don't discriminate based on nationality in a nations-based competition it rather defeats the object.

It does, yes. We don’t have race-based sporting events because racial discrimination is not tolerated by most of Western society. When national discrimination has the same stigma, nation-based sporting events will likewise vanish. I’d like to see a club competition replace the FIFA World Cup in my lifetime.

Didn't happen back when players could switch their national affiliation as often as their socks. Don't see why it'd happen now.

[Dainer]

Of course UEFA aren’t interested in opposing discrimination. If they were, they wouldn’t be organizing competitions between national teams, and they wouldn’t have “home-grown player” rules in their club competitions which—in combination with the restrictions on international transfers of young players—effectively limit the number of foreign players a club can register.

As if UEFA needs any more leeway to concentrate power in world football.