Tom English: 'UEFA's vows on racism are about as hollow as its threats to Rangers'

Published on Saturday 14 November 2009 20:57

THE MEN of UEFA live in a parallel universe, a place of privilege and certainty, a world where nobody questions anybody or anything and where everything they do is right and proper. They're the Stepford Blazers, their righteous path illuminated by the Nyon lights.

So you end up with a situation whereby Michel Platini announces a zero tolerance policy against racism, where he bangs a table and puts on an angry face and says he is drawing a line in the sand against the bigots and will bring down the Sword of Damocles on the animals who abuse players. And everybody stands and applauds. All those UEFA officials congratulate Platini and say pity those racists of European football when Michel gets his hands on them. Oh yes. In their world, Platini becomes a hardliner on racism simply because he says he is, even though he is not, even though there are countless examples of UEFA being woefully weak on the haranguing of black players in its competitions.

But that's our interpretation, not UEFA's. Parallel universe, folks. Before Platini assumed office in Switzerland, these were the type of things that went on. Real Madrid were fined ?9,700 (8,700) for their fans' constant racist chants and Nazi salutes in a game against Bayer Leverkusen. Brugge were fined a little under 8,000 for abusing black players against Utrecht. The Slovakians were fined 27,000 – basically, a pound a racist -for constant monkey chants directed at England's Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole. "It wasn't just one section of the stadium, it was the whole stadium," said Heskey.

Those were the bad old days, of course. Since then, Platini was voted into the top job at UEFA on the back of a campaign of getting tough on the people who drag football into the gutter. The zero-tolerance policy has been introduced and here are the results.

In March last year, the fans of Zenit St Petersburg gorged themselves on a feast of bigotry when Marseille travelled to Russia for a UEFA Cup tie. Bananas were thrown onto the pitch at Marseille's black players and there was wholesale monkey chanting and all manner of foul behaviour. Zenit fans revelled in their policy of refusing to accept black players at their club. For their actions, they were fined ?36,000 (32,200). They went on to win a competition they should have been thrown out of had Platini been true to his hardline rhetoric.

That's one example of many of UEFA's supposed hardline attitude. There are many, many others. That's its zero tolerance in action. This is what Platini said: "Football must teach values to Europe – honesty, courage, fraternity, tolerance and peace. Football includes, integrates, and welcomes. It excludes no one, it discriminates against no one, it persecutes no one."

There are many black players around Europe who could challenge Platini on that assertion, but what's the point? He's convinced he is right. Everybody around him is convinced he is right. They all think that a ?36,000 fine is a proper punishment, a message to the bigots, a deterrent.

On Thursday, UEFA's control and disciplinary committee handed down an ?20,000 (17,900) fine to Rangers for the behaviour of some of their fans in Bucharest. To many – including a lot of fretful Rangers fans – this was a major let-off for the club, a gentle slap on the wrist when some were half-expecting something more severe. This was Rangers' third time in the dock after all. And that's not counting the riots of Manchester in May 2008, a full-scale horror show that UEFA washed its hands of.

In UEFA's book, 18 grand is about right for what happened in Bucharest. No fans invaded the pitch, no players or officials were attacked, the match wasn't halted or abandoned. These are the things it looks out for more than anything else. It has been genuinely tough on teams who've messed with the "sanctity of the playing area". The pitch, says one UEFA official, is a "holy place". Clearly, the same attitude does not extend to the terraces, where you can chant what you like and throw what you like without having to face the full rigour of UEFA justice.

Celtic, for instance, got fined 25,000 when one of their fans ran on to the "holy place" and brushed his hand off the head of Dida in the AC Milan goal. Fair enough, they deserved a real sanction. But it's a strange kind of justice that sees that offence as more serious than what happened in Bucharest – even allowing for the mitigation of aggressive stewarding at the stadium in Romania.

UEFA's vows on racism – "we will abandon games and dock points and throw teams out of major championships," says Platini – are about as hollow as its threats to Rangers to come down heavy on them if they repeat offend. In Platini's world, UEFA believes that its words pack a punch, it believes that Rangers' fans will be cowed by the fine. It says that a ?20,000 fine for Rangers is a serious punishment. Zenit, after all, didn't get a whole lot more despite their hateful behaviour against Marseille. The point here, though, is that UEFA routinely sets the punishment bar so low for these offences that any comparison is rendered ridiculous.

The lack of morality within UEFA can be told through many different stories. Here's one. In 2006, a group of Middlesbrough fans, women and children included, were set upon in Rome ahead of a UEFA Cup match against Roma that same evening. Three were stabbed. The visiting fans were also attacked inside the stadium as the match was going on. A couple of years ago, Manchester United fans were targeted by Roma thugs. Earlier this year an Arsenal supporter was stabbed outside Roma's Stadio Olimpico.

Roma fans are notorious in Italy. They have a charge sheet in Serie A as long as your arm and they show little sign of learning their lesson. And yet when UEFA sits down to decide which club should host the 2009 Champions League final they gave the showpiece match to Roma. Some Sword of Damocles, eh?

Some say that Rangers got lucky last week. UEFA disagrees and in its delusion we know everything we need to know about its zero tolerance.