FIFA has announced -with immediate affect- severe new rules to punish clubs whose fans exhibit racist behaviour during football games. The move follows a series of incidents across Europe in which racist chanting was directed at black and asian players.
Locally, Linfield fans are in the spotlight following racist chants directed from the top club’s supporters during a recent Setanta cup match against Shelbourne.
With sectarianism- and now racism- plaguing the development of the game in the north of Ireland, could such a zero tolerance move to racism and sectarianism be part of the answer to finally removing the ‘venom’ from the terraces in our local game?
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