MICHEL PLATINI has warned players they will be booked if they walk off the pitch at Euro 2012 in protest at being racially abused, though the Uefa president has empowered referees to halt matches if the issue flares up during the tournament.
The Italy forward Mario Balotelli has threatened to leave the field of play if he is subjected to abuse in Poland and Ukraine yet Platini, hosting a pre-tournament press conference in Warsaw, insisted the rule preventing players from departing the pitch without the officials’ permission would stand. In that case, a player would be cautioned.
“It’s a yellow card,” said Platini when asked what would happen if a player took matters into his own hands.
“We’d support the referee if he decided to stop the game. It’s not a player, Mr Balotelli, who’s in charge of refereeing.
“It’s the referee who takes these decisions. So, the referee has been given advice and he can stop the game if there are problems. We will stop the game if there are problems because I think racism is the worst of this.”
Platini’s briefing was dominated by questions on racism, an issue highlighted in a BBC Panorama programme last week in which former England international Sol Campbell warned black fans they risked “coming back in a coffin” if they chose to attend the tournament.
The line of questioning increasingly appeared to frustrate the Uefa president. “What would you like me to say?” said Platini, when asked to respond to Campbell’s comments. “I don’t think there’s any more racism in Poland and Ukraine than in France or anywhere else, or even in England.
“There is more and more nationalism in Europe. You can feel this at a number of football matches. There are some worries, some big worries, but a lot has been done thanks to football.
“There have been problems with violence in the 1970s in England. They made great strides actually to change the situation and we need to do work in the field of racism and we need to stop this from happening.
“But how can you say outside the stadium: ‘He’s a racist, he can’t come in; he’s not a racist, he can come in’? You can’t do it.”
Uefa’s chief refereeing officer, Pierluigi Collina, insisted each of the 16 teams involved and the governing body’s 12 referees had been made aware of the procedure to follow if one of their players is abused. “Things are clear,” he said. “Referees have a protocol so they know what they have to do.”
The governing body has invited Football Against Racism in Europe (Fare) to select a group of 31 expert spotters who will monitor every team’s fans for banners, chants and racist behaviour inside stadiums which would breach Uefa’s zero-tolerance anti-discrimination policy.
