Sports
FIFA President Advocates Criminal Charges Against Racists
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has spoken forcefully against racism in football, adding the naked injustice being meted to players across some football grounds ‘is no longer acceptable’.
Racism has dogged association football for many years as players, officials, and fans suffer abuse because of their skin colour, nationality, or ethnicity.
But speaking Thursday, February 8, at the ongoing UEFA Congress in Paris, France, the Swiss was unequivocal that racism remains a danger to the beautiful game of football even as he advocated for criminal charges against perpetrators.
He said: ‘’I don’t want to make a long speech today, on the contrary, I want to be very short, I want to mention just one topic and that one topic is racism,” the 53-year-old told the UEFA gathering in Paris. “We live in a divided world. We say that Football unites the world but our world is divided, our world is aggressive, and in the last few weeks and months as we have witnessed unfortunately a lot of racist incidents.
“This is not acceptable anymore. We have to stop this, we have to do whatever it takes to stop this. Racism is a crime, racism is something terrible and I can be standing here and say to you all this and you can be sitting there nodding at me and saying yes, that’s right and we will continue and still racism moves on.
“We have to eradicate that and we have some tools in place, the problem is that we have different competition organisers, different competitions, different rules, and what we all do is not enough. So we have to take responsibility for this. The tools that we have are of course a three-step process of the referee who can stop the game, interrupt the game, and ultimately even abandon the game, the disciplinary consequences will have to be a forfeit against the team who has been responsible for the abandonment of the game if a game has been abandoned.”
Apart from the three-way process mentioned to curb racism on the pitch, Infantino has equally advocated that criminal charges should be brought against perpetrators of the dastardly act.
He continued: “We have to start criminal charges against those people who have acted in a racist way, we have to ban them from stadiums worldwide, we have to invest in education because, obviously racism is a problem of society but that’s not enough, that’s not the answer.
“So what I suggest to you in addition to all these is that we work all together in the next three months before the FIFA congress in May, in Bangkok and at the congress in May in Bangkok, we come all together with a strong resolution united all together, all 211 countries of FIFA for the fight against racism. Let’s stop racism, let’s stop it now, let’s do it all together in a united way.”
Isaako All Stars FC of Opuoko and Khana Khana AllStars Football all in Local Government Area of Rivers State will tomorrow engage in a friendly football match at Opuoko Mini Stadium.
Chatting with Tidesports in a telephone interview yesterday the Chairman of Khana All Stars Saro Tap-le said that the encounter is not going to be an easy game in spite it is an AllStars game.
He express his side readiness for the encounter stating that the opportunity as come for them to showcase their talents.
However, the chairman explained that AllStars game is not about winning but the excitement, love, unity and friendship it creates is more important.
” Tomorrow game is not going to be an easy one despite is a AllStars game. We are going there in a full force to do what we know how to do best and to showcase our talents.
“As Chairman of Khana All Stars I believes we have an edge over the Isaako All Stars be we are training so hard for the encounter” Tap-le said.
Also speaking the Chairman of Isaako All Stars Mina Zaasi Iloori sees the match as an opportunity to build relationships.
” My brother it is an AllStars friendly game I think winning is not important but the paramount thing is the relationship we are going to create among both teams and my community at large
” We are training hard because of the encounter because I will not be in my house and somebody will rob soap in my eyes.
” As I speak with you we are just coming from back training ground to ensure all my players are fit for the match.
” I am using this medium to call on football fans to come en mass to Opuoko Mini Stadium tomorrow and enjoy the best of round leather game.
I promise the game will be an exciting display of football talents and sportsmanship”, Iloori said.
Kiadum Edookor
Thierry Henry has called for the return of the away goals rule in the aftermath of the bombastic Champions League semi-final between Inter Milan and Barcelona.
The visitors at the Estadio Olimpic Lluis Companys came within milimeters of clinching the first leg of the final-four clash after former Arsenal star Henrikh Mkhitaryan netted late in the second-half.
But the linesman was quick to raise his flag, and semi-automated offside ruled out what would have been a thrilling conclusion to the high-octane 3-3 draw.
The hosts came from behind twice to share the spoils, chasing Inter Milan from the first minute of the game after Marcus Thuram stunned the Barcelona faithful into silence with his neatly flicked goal.
Denzel Dumfries doubled Inter’s lead 20 minutes later, but it took just three more for the Blaugrana to finally get on the scoresheet courtesy of a moment of magic from teenage starlet Lamine Yamal.
Ferran Torres drew Barcelona level ahead of the break, but Lamal was forced to play catch-up again in the second-half after Dumfries scored his second.
In light of the impressive effort from Inter, Henry wondered if the team should have got more from the fixture ahead of the second-leg at the San Siro.
‘I know it’s been like that for a very time, and we have to accept it,’ Henry said of the removal of the away goals rule, ‘But off air I was talking to Jamie (Carragher), and I was like, “how can you score three goals away from home and you don’t have an advantage?”
‘Away goals for me were massive, you score three goals away and you still don’t have an advantage 0-0 at home,’ Henry shrugged.
UEFA took the decision to scrap the rule which gave goals scored away from home the ability to act as a tiebreaker in the case of level scorelines ahead of the 2021-22 season.
Current FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger claimed during his time as Arsenal manager in 2015 that the away goals rule ‘encouraged the team at home not to attack’ and that ‘the weight of the away goal (was) too big today’.
Without the rules, the tie at San Siro will go to extra time and penalties to decide which teams books their spot in the Champions League final.
But based on Wednesday evening’s performance, Henry seemed to give Inter a fighting chance against the newly minted Copa del Rey champions.
The 2025 London Marathon set a new world record for the number of finishers despite hot conditions on Sunday for its 45th edition.
A total of 56,640 runners crossed the finish line at the end of the 26.2-mile route, Guinness World Records has confirmed.
The number surpassed the previous record of 55,646 set by the New York Marathon in November.
Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events, said he hoped the high number of finishers inspired people to apply for the 2026 race ballot.
“The London Marathon was already the most popular in terms of ballot entries, with 840,318 people applying for the 2025 race,” he said.
“It is also the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event with more than £1.3bn raised for charity since 1981.”
The number of people applying for the ballot to enter this year’s race broke the world record of 578,304 for the 2024 edition.
Of UK applicants 49% were female, while there was a 105% increase in applications from people aged between 20-29.
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa surged to victory in the elite women’s race in a world record for a women’s only field, while Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe triumphed in the men’s event.