Tuesday, June 13, 2006
On the World Cup and Multiculturalism..
As a couple of you have already noted, the World Cup has been notorious for bringing out the racist side of some fans. I was watching the news about 2 weeks ago and caught an interview with the President of FIFA. According to him, and this article http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1951184,00.html, new rules have been implemented to make sure that the racism stays out of the game:
"The rules, approved by FIFA last month, went into effect on Thursday and dictate that an "official or spectator behaving in a discriminatory or contemptuous manner (that) can be attributed to a certain team" could cost the team three points for a first offense, six for a second and relegation for further violations. For matches in which points are not awarded, such as in the World Cup's knock-out rounds and other international tournaments, the offending team could be disqualified and member associations excluded for up to two years."
I think these rules are necessary but risky to implement. Like the article goes on to say, how can the FIFA ensure that fans don't intentionally try to make opposing teams break the rules, or even worse, dress up as the opposing team and break the rules?
"The rules, approved by FIFA last month, went into effect on Thursday and dictate that an "official or spectator behaving in a discriminatory or contemptuous manner (that) can be attributed to a certain team" could cost the team three points for a first offense, six for a second and relegation for further violations. For matches in which points are not awarded, such as in the World Cup's knock-out rounds and other international tournaments, the offending team could be disqualified and member associations excluded for up to two years."
I think these rules are necessary but risky to implement. Like the article goes on to say, how can the FIFA ensure that fans don't intentionally try to make opposing teams break the rules, or even worse, dress up as the opposing team and break the rules?
# posted by Anonymous @ 8:49 PM 
