Racial comments from Soccer fans are likely to continue


Unpunished German fans

At 10.32am, Rio time, Fifa dignitaries gathered at the Maracana to launch a “Say No To Racism” video, featuring Lionel Messi, David Luiz and Pele, which will be shown on screens at World Cup quarter-final stadiums on Friday and Saturday. Within 20 minutes, Fifa was ripping itself apart over the speed, direction and strength of its anti-racism campaign. Fifa ended the session standing accused of not wanting to acknowledge the ugly side of the ‘Beautiful Game’.

The genesis of the schism was simple. The Fifa task force against racism headed by Jeffrey Webb was aghast at the Fifa disciplinary committee’s failure to punish discriminatory acts by Mexico, Croatia and Germany supporters in Brazil.

Webb, the president of Concacaf, sat next to Claudio Sulser, the former Swiss international and current chairman of the disciplinary commission, at the Maracana. They made awkward neighbours.

“It is obvious there is a disconnect between what we in the task force deem as racism and discrimination and what the disciplinary committee deems as racism and discrimination,” Webb said. Ouch. Sulser stared straight ahead and defended his committee’s inactivity, retreating into the more obscure parts of the rule book for justification.

On the eve of the tournament, Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, campaigned for this to be the “anti-racism” World Cup. Sadly, Mexican fans chanted “puto” (“faggot”) at opposing keepers

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