The Sepp Blatter Guide to Racism

From the man who has (somehow) survived scandal after scandal, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has now decided to air his incredibly controversial views on racism, or rather the lack of it, in football.

The Message

Blatter’s frankly unbelievable comments suggest that racist taunts between players should be considered fair game, just like other wind-up tricks players may try on their opponents. Blatter has clearly come to the opinion that any victim of racial abuse should remain completely unoffended– after all it’s just a game…

It is then up to the victim to forgive and forget any racial abuse, by closing the matter with a firm hand shake at the end of the game.

The Effects

Thankfully, in Britain, Sepp Blatter is already widely seen as a comedy figure, corrupting his way through life whilst somehow hanging on to the FIFA presidency (unfortunately the joke’s on us though). Nothing he could say will be taken seriously by any intelligent person. Regrettably when it comes to racism it’s not intelligent people who you need to try to reach out to, it’s those who don’t fully understand the effects racial abuse can have.

You can’t blame the uneducated for not understanding the consequences of their actions, yet you can blame a man in power who preaches his backward views to millions of suggestible grass-roots footballers, including men, women and children, across the globe.

If racial abuse becomes accepted in football, discriminated against players will be forced to leave the sport due to no fault of their own, purely to avoid the abuse. In any scenario, sport or otherwise, it should never be the victim who has to change their ways, the aggressor must always be punished for their actions.

The Fight Back

In recent times, the ‘zero tolerance’ approach to racism, supported by brilliant organisations such as ‘Kick It Out’, appears to have had a very positive effect – allegations of racism appear to have declined, and every allegation is widely reported (and rightly so) in the media. Blatter’s new message completely undermines all the work that ‘Kick It Out’ have done, and it’s important that the footballing world takes a stand against the acceptance of racial abuse.

If you’re incensed by Sepp Blatter’s comments, there are loads of things you can do to help rid football of this man and his outrageous messages.

1. Contact FIFA’s sponsors (Adidas/Coca Cola/McDonalds/Visa etc) letting them know of your rejection of Sepp Blatter as a credible leader of world football – threaten a boycott unless he is removed.

2. Spread the #BlatterOut Hashtag on Twitter, and bombard @SeppBlatter and @FIFAcom telling them why Blatter should be removed from power.

3. Support & Follow @ChangeFIfa & @KickItOut on Twitter

But most of all…

4. Stand up against racism, be it on the pitch, in the stands, wherever you see it, challenge the aggressor and actively support the victim – a hand shake will not solve the problem.

Spread the word #BlatterOut

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