Football authorities must get tough with Serbia, says Leroy Rosenior
POST columnist and former Bristol City striker Leroy Rosenior has called on UEFA to ban the Serbia Under-21 side from their next major international tournament after Danny Rose claimed he was racially abused by fans in Krusevac.
Rose, 22, said he was subjected to monkey chants throughout the game on Tuesday night, which England Under-21s won 1-0 to book their place in the Euro 2013 finals next summer.
-
Leroy Rosenior
The match ended with scuffles breaking out between players of both sides after Rose was given a red card for kicking a ball away in disgust at the treatment he had received.
Rosenior, pictured, said: "It was a total and utter disgrace. The big problem is that this sort of thing is happening too often and little is ever done about it in the way of real punishment. The Serbian FA will probably get a slap on the wrist and an obligatory fine and that is just not good enough.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
"The time has come now for a real punishment to show the authorities will go and do something really positive to try to stamp this out.
"Serbia should be banned from the next tournament because all international federations need to be warned that this sort of racist abuse will not be tolerated and those that have a problem need to work harder to stop it. The relevant authorities need to start taking a zero-tolerance stance for this sort of thing, because enough is enough."
Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, was "appalled" by the ugly scenes at the end of the match.
The PM's official spokesman said the government was giving its full backing to a Football Association complaint over alleged racist comments by Serbian players, and sport minister Hugh Robertson had written to UEFA president Michel Platini urging an investigation.
Britain expects "tough sanctions" if racism is proved, the spokesman said.
Commenting on the Prime Minister's response, the spokesman said: "He was appalled by the scenes that we have seen in Serbia. We are determined to stamp out racism internationally and at home and we are giving our full backing to the FA's complaint on this issue.
"Clearly it is for UEFA to investigate this issue, but we would expect tough sanctions. If we are going to stamp out racism from football, it is no good giving derisory fines, as have been handed out in the past. It is not good enough to say that people should shake hands and forget about it."
Reading striker Jason Roberts accused UEFA of not dealing adequately with past racism issues and said players should take action themselves by walking off the pitch if subjected to racist abuse.
The 34-year-old said: "I was absolutely fuming at what I saw. To think this was an England Under-21 game and another generation of players is seeing this sort of behaviour makes me very sad and makes me aware of the fact we haven't moved far enough."
Comments
by Big_Gregory
Friday, October 19 2012, 11:31AM
“Jab_the_Cab - I'm not sure Terry was dealt with leniently. He was fined £250k and banned for approx 10% of a seasons league matches. More than you would get for punching an opposition player. I think being found guilty in a criminal court would see a maximum penalty of £2000 so the fa penalty is pretty significant even when you are wealthy. Far bigger than any punishment is the public hatred he is now subject to and being on the front pages every day since. We had the awful story of the little girl who went missing in Wales recently and I suspect that the Terry case has had more coverage which is ridiculously disproportionate and quite sick.
If anyone has been treated softly it was Rio Ferdinand. He re tweeted a racist term and yet got a tiny fine. I keep hearing that context doesn't matter so where is the consistency.
Regards Serbia its quite clear that they are a bunch of animals - fans and players. They have a history of racism and violence and have taken no notice of previous punishments. I'd therefore order them to complete this current competition so as not to cause disruption but all remaining home fixtures to be played in empty stadiums. After that they (U21 & seniors) should be banned from the next two competitions.”
by tomcribb
Friday, October 19 2012, 10:03AM
“@Jab the cab - if UEFA banned Serbia four competitive matches across all its teams and fined it £200k like the FA did with John Terry, that would seriously mess them up .”
by FromMendip
Thursday, October 18 2012, 8:16PM
“The FA has been charged as well as the Serbian FA following this match.
No doubt the FA wil be given a heavier penalty as UEFA will regard it as a richer organisation than its Serbian counterpart.
When the Danish player Bendtner showed the top of his underpants to advertise a betting company in a World Cup qualifier in June he was fined £80,000 by Uefa and banned from the next match.
Yet in recent years Porto FC were fined a mere £16,000 when its crowd racially abused a Manchester City player, and the Serbian and Croatian FAs were fined just £16,000 and £10,000 for racism at their matches in recent years and even the high profile Spanish FA was fined only £45,000 for a similar offence.
It's clear where UEFA's priorities lie.”
by Jab_the_cab
Thursday, October 18 2012, 5:52PM
“Difficult for the FA to command the high ground on racism when they were so soft on Terry.”
by tomcribb
Thursday, October 18 2012, 1:16PM
“So ban them for racial abuse by their fans and not for the punching and kicking by their players and officials or the missiles being thrown throughout? - the racial abuse was vile but get a grip, UEFA will never do anything about it and nor will the country itself - remember Srebrenica was as recent as 1995 ! What UEFA should understand though is that physically attacking opposition players and staff DOES usually involve lengthy bans so get on with it. By all means continue to highlight racism as a major issue but don't expect essentially racist governments to show any interest in the matter, when the so called governing body only pays lip service to it.”
by Lone_Ranger
Thursday, October 18 2012, 1:14PM
“Wouldn't be much football played if players refused to play "other racial sides".
How can FIFA (or anyone else for that matter) prevent any country's team from being racial?”
by Rovers1990
Thursday, October 18 2012, 10:49AM
“It's an actual joke that a team who have racially abused our players can still play in tournaments, how can UEFA actually be called a "organisation" after this is beyond me. Time for players to start boycotting games against Serbia & other racial sides until something is done about it by UEFA.
The way Serbia represented their National team on Tuesday night was a complete & utter disgrace, Sepp Blatter & his cronies need to look at footage of Tuesday & start fining/banning player's for the part they played in this repulsive encounter. Also start administering life bans for these brainless fans that continue to racially abuse innocent football players.”