English players' union backs tougher racism sanctions

The English Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) issued a six-point action plan to help deal with racism on Wednesday following a series of high-profile developments in the fallout from the John Terry-Anton Ferdinand case.

The PFA has been criticized for not doing enough to tackle the problem, but responded by saying the time was right for tougher penalties.

The plan comes a day after David Bernstein, the chairman of the Football Association, said the FA's sanctions for racial abuse were being reviewed.

The responses from the FA and the PFA comes after Reading striker Jason Roberts, a member of the PFA's management committee, expressed frustration that the problem of racism was not being dealt with properly by the sport's authorities.

Roberts was the catalyst behind the move to boycott the wearing of anti-racism warm-up T-shirts during the Kick It Out organization's annual anti-racism weekend last Saturday and Sunday.

Rio Ferdinand and brother Anton were part of the boycott and issued a joint statement on Wednesday which said: "Times change and organizations need to change with them. We are more than happy to join the discussion, privately, to make Kick It Out more relevant in its fight to stamp out racism in football."

Six-point plan

The PFA's plan calls for:

1) Speeding up the process of dealing with reported racist abuse by closely monitoring any incidents.

2) Consideration of stiffer penalties for racist abuse and an equality awareness program for the culprits and clubs involved.

3) An English form of the "Rooney Rule" - introduced by American football's National Football League in 2003 - to make sure qualified ethnic minority coaches are on interview lists for job vacancies.

4) Monitoring the proportion of black coaches and managers and any inequality or progress highlighted.

5) Racial abuse to be considered gross misconduct in player and coach contracts (and therefore potentially a sackable offense).

6) Keeping abreast of other equality issues such as gender, sexual orientation, disability, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Asians in football.

PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor also called for unity among players following widespread media reports that some were considering forming a breakaway organization for black footballers.

"If they want their own particular select group who they feel can influence everybody more than the whole PFA as a union together, I would say they are seriously mistaken," Taylor said.

"If we are not careful, this will set us back years. It would not only set back the game, it would set back the anti-racist initiative."

(China Daily 10/26/2012 page24)