Push to tackle racial abuse at soccer matches

PARIS - Europe is stepping up efforts to tackle racism in its soccer stadiums, adding to an offensive against the cancer of hooliganism as Germany prepares to host football's World Cup finals next year.

Members of the European Union's Parliament have called on Uefa, the governing body in European football, to give referees the option to stop and even abandon matches in the event of serious racial abuse from the crowd. Clubs "whose supporters or players commit serious racist offences" could be barred from Uefa competitions, they say.

The declaration has been put forward by a group of deputies who are appalled at race taunts that are still a problem in some countries, despite a decade-long attempt to stamp it out.

"There is a lot of pain in the beautiful game today," said one of the declaration's sponsors, British MEP Claude Moraes. "We want tough sanctions at all levels, from amateur to professional."

The proposal was put forward last week in the wake of an event in Italy that shocked football chiefs and anti-racist campaigners.

Marc-Andre Zoro, a defender born in the Ivory Coast who plays for the Italian top division side Messina, was reduced to tears by crowd abuse during a home match against Inter Milan.

Inter fans chanted "dirty black, dirty black" and made monkey noises. At one point, Zoro was about to walk off the pitch, but his team-mates persuaded him to play the remainder of the match, a decision that was warmly applauded by Messina fans.

"I have been playing in Italy for three years and I see this happening almost daily," Zoro, 21, said. "All this makes me really sad. It's not easy for me and it hurts. I don't deserve this."

Zoro has gained strong support from football bosses across Italy, and all of the country's league and cup football games this week will start five minutes late, to allow a brief protest demonstration in which a "no to racism" banner will be hauled around the pitch.

But the move is being widely written-off as a useless gesture. Inter has already been fined three times this season by the Italian football federation, the FIGC, for racist abuse by its supporters in matches against Lazio, Fiorentina and Ascoli. The club had already just completed a four-match "closed-doors" ban in Uefa's Champions League because of violence by its fans in a match against AC Milan.

Racial abuse against black players is chronic in Spain and occurs in northern Europe, too. Britain has a campaign for people to report abuse.

The proposal put forward by the group of five MEPs will, if supported by a majority of deputies, be endorsed as a parliamentary motion. It is not a law but is nonetheless a clear sign of mounting political impatience with the failure of football authorities to clean up their sport.

"We are prepared to implement the necessary sanctions, from fines and closure of stadiums, and even to not allow teams to participate in competitions," said Uefa vice-president Per Ravn Omdal.

He called on referees to be aware of racist taunts and not hesitate to suspend or call off a match.

These punishments - should they ever take effect - would mirror measures that have been implemented to combat hooliganism in European football stadiums.