UEFA don't care about racism in football

[Nazis in Space]

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.

Just off the top of my head, this season in Germany has featured:

• Kevin Großkreutz allegedly insulting Gerald Asamoah on the pitch - jury is out on whether it was because Asamoah used to play for Schalke 04 or because he's a darkie
• The right wing of the Alemannia Aachen Ultras outnumbering the left wing by a factor of 2 : 1, with actual fights between the two groups in the stadium
• FC Kaiserslautern fans throwing antisemitic insults at their player Itar Shechter (Israel) during a training session
• Distinctly and very noticeably right-wing to neo-nazi posters provided by parts of the Borussia Dortmund Ultras - though those were less racist and more homophobic/ anti-left

As said, that's off the top of my head, and disregarding more long-term history (Hansa Rostock & Aachen come to mind). 's far as I can tell, they're all minority issues within the relevant fanbases, but they're quite noticeable minorities, and in some instances - Aachen & Kaiserslautern -, the club leadership is remarkably slow in taking action against these issues (Dortmund on the other hand, was quite quick and thorough, taking action before it even had to be prodded by the DFB).

I think I can confidently say that it isn't a British issue.

[Arkinesia]

Okay, here goes one of my “your first mistake” posts…

Your first mistake was expecting a Europe-based football association to not be pants-on-head retarded.

Remember, UEFA is not only under the FIFA umbrella, but like most morons in the football world they pretty much suck Hans Blatter off. And Hans Blatter is the guy who was against modernizing the game through instant replay because “it's not traditional.”

It's also not traditional to not engage in monkey chants so of course UEFA isn't going to do more than fuck all about it. Because tradition.

[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.

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

To which era are you referring? Though it was possible to change national teams with a change of citizenship, it’s my understanding that the citizenship requirement to play for a national team extends back to the first World Cup in 1930.

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.

The easiest way for FIFA to avoid the spectre of a closed European super league (as Sepp Blatter is fond of trotting out) would be to create their own super league based upon promotion and relegation.

Regarding the topic at hand, I think Manchester City’s greater fine for a lesser offence could be partly justified by their having greater financial means than Porto; however, €20 000 still seems ridiculously low for Porto depending on the degree to which the club was found responsible for their supporters’ racial abuse. Unfortunately, uefa.com’s report makes no mention of the merits of the case.

[Miasto Lodz]

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

Hard question. Is UEFA supposed to protect the principles of so called "humanism" more than the rules of the game?
In football world the game came first. And the game itself is still about "us vs them", no matter if "us" and "them" means "the guys from our street/school" or the Saudi-funded corporation. It still appeals to this tiny little chauvinist in our hearts and it should remain like that, at least as some sort of safety valve.

[Arkinesia]

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

Sure, they were about right for not doing shit.

[Gravonia]

Okay, here goes one of my “your first mistake” posts…

Your first mistake was expecting a Europe-based football association to not be pants-on-head retarded.

Remember, UEFA is not only under the FIFA umbrella, but like most morons in the football world they pretty much suck Hans Blatter off. And Hans Blatter is the guy who was against modernizing the game through instant replay because “it's not traditional.”

It's also not traditional to not engage in monkey chants so of course UEFA isn't going to do more than fuck all about it. Because tradition.

Sepp Blatter but yes

[Nazis in Space]

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

To which era are you referring? Though it was possible to change national teams with a change of citizenship, it’s my understanding that the citizenship requirement to play for a national team extends back to the first World Cup in 1930.

Given that citizenship itself could be changed at the drop of a hat - at least, if you were a good enough player -, the difference is, frankly, semantic.

[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.

Just off the top of my head, this season in Germany has featured:

• Kevin Großkreutz allegedly insulting Gerald Asamoah on the pitch - jury is out on whether it was because Asamoah used to play for Schalke 04 or because he's a darkie
• The right wing of the Alemannia Aachen Ultras outnumbering the left wing by a factor of 2 : 1, with actual fights between the two groups in the stadium
• FC Kaiserslautern fans throwing antisemitic insults at their player Itar Shechter (Israel) during a training session
• Distinctly and very noticeably right-wing to neo-nazi posters provided by parts of the Borussia Dortmund Ultras - though those were less racist and more homophobic/ anti-left

As said, that's off the top of my head, and disregarding more long-term history (Hansa Rostock & Aachen come to mind). 's far as I can tell, they're all minority issues within the relevant fanbases, but they're quite noticeable minorities, and in some instances - Aachen & Kaiserslautern -, the club leadership is remarkably slow in taking action against these issues (Dortmund on the other hand, was quite quick and thorough, taking action before it even had to be prodded by the DFB).

I think I can confidently say that it isn't a British issue.

I don't think it's solely a British issue but we seem to care about it more than the rest of Europe.
Were there any repercussions to any of the above incidents? The Großkreutz/Asamoah thing sounds similar to the Terry/Ferdinand thing here.

[Nazis in Space]

Großkreutz/ Asamoah could have led to repercussions, but since Asamoah declined to elaborate on the matter, it just kinda died.

Precedence - non-racist, but still - concerning a 'Cutthroat' gesture by a player against opposing fans (In a particularly rivalry-laden game, to the point of regular violence and their next game outright banning guest supporters for safety reasons) in a St. Pauli/ Rostock game resulted in a three-match ban. I doubt racist comments against an opposing player would yield more, though admittedly, you never know - the sports courts are mildly inconsistent.

A Suarez-scale quarter-season ban seems rather unlikely, though. Unless the targeted player was jewish, rather than a darkie.

[Arkinesia]

Okay, here goes one of my “your first mistake” posts…

Your first mistake was expecting a Europe-based football association to not be pants-on-head retarded.

Remember, UEFA is not only under the FIFA umbrella, but like most morons in the football world they pretty much suck Hans Blatter off. And Hans Blatter is the guy who was against modernizing the game through instant replay because “it's not traditional.”

It's also not traditional to not engage in monkey chants so of course UEFA isn't going to do more than fuck all about it. Because tradition.

Sepp Blatter but yes

I knew I was getting something wrong with that name.