Englands PFA announces anti-racism action plan

24 October 2012 16:47

The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) responded to a spate of racism controversies on Wednesday by publishing a six-point action plan to combat discrimination in the sport.

PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has called for stricter punishments for racial abuse, including making it a potentially sackable offence, and wants culprits to be obliged to attend awareness programmes.

The plans also include an initiative to introduce a form of the 'Rooney rule', which was introduced by the NFL in the United States in 2003 to ensure qualified black coaches get a place on interview lists for job vacancies.

Taylor has reacted to frustrations aired by Reading striker Jason Roberts, who sparked a boycott of the anti-racism 'Kick It Out' campaign last weekend after complaining that not enough was being done to combat racism in the game.

The PFA's six-point plan is as follows: "1. Speeding up the process of dealing with reported racist abuse with close monitoring of any incidents.

"2. Consideration of stiffer penalties for racist abuse and to include an equality awareness programme for culprits and clubs involved.

"3. An English form of the 'Rooney rule' ... to make sure qualified black coaches are on interview lists for job vacancies.

"4. The proportion of black coaches and managers to be monitored and any inequality or progress highlighted.

"5. Racial abuse to be considered gross misconduct in player and coach contracts (and therefore potentially a sackable offence).

"6. To not to lose sight of other equality issues such as gender, sexual orientation, disability, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Asians in football."

Taylor also used the opportunity to call for unity in the fight against racism, amid reports that players were moving to form a breakaway union for black footballers.

"If they want their own particular select group who they feel they can influence everybody more than the whole PFA as a union together, I would say they are seriously mistaken," he said.

"If we are not careful this will set us back years. It would not only set back the game, it would set back the anti-racist initiative."

Responding to the announcement, Roberts said he had begged the PFA to strengthen their equality department.

"The equality department in the PFA needs to change and should have stronger leadership and more than just one or two staff," he told the Daily Mail.

"It doesn't have the resources or the manpower to tackle the job. These are the issues that I felt needed to be raised.

"Detailed discussions and recommendations have been tabled for a year now, across several meetings, without any progress being made."

FA chairman David Bernstein announced on Tuesday that the governing body will review the sanctions for racist abuse following the John Terry case but said the Chelsea's captain's four-match ban for abusing Anton Ferdinand was "about right".

Source: AFP