English football has no plans to upgrade protocols dealing with racist abuse, despite the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, calling for an automatic forfeit of games by teams whose fans cause an abandonment with racist behaviour.
Individual competitions have the right to decide what steps they want to take in the event of an abandonment. The internationally adopted process is to reschedule matches and it is thought unlikely the Premier League, English Football League or Football Association would change that without consensus in the English game.
A new focus on the processes for dealing with abuse comes after Infantino’s remarks, which followed racist incidents last weekend in Serie A and the Championship. The rules dictate a three-step process whereby the referee is first informed of any abuse. If the abuse continues the referee withdraws teams from the field temporarily. If the players return and the abuse continues, players are withdrawn for a second time and the match is abandoned.
On Saturday Milan withdrew from the field at Udinese after sustained abuse of their goalkeeper Mike Maignan by home fans, but returned to the pitch and completed the fixture. In the EFL, play was temporarily stopped at Sheffield Wednesday after the Coventry midfielder Kasey Palmer reported monkey gestures directed at him by the crowd.
“We have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned, as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists,” Infantino said. Udinese have said they intend to ban for life any spectators found guilty of racially abusing Maignan.
Infantino’s words will be welcomed by many within the game. Ian Wright, posting on X, summarised the frustration widely felt over the slow progress on eradicating racism from football grounds. Commenting on the Maignan incident, Wright said: “Keep walking off!! We did ‘playing through it’ and nothing has changed. Points deductions needed, the fines are pointless.”
Under Law 7.5 of the laws of the game as defined by the International Football Association Board, “an abandoned match is replayed unless the competition rules or organisers determine otherwise”.
The FA, Premier League and EFL have, in recent years, increasingly taken a joined-up approach to matters of disorder. In 2022 they agreed common measures to tackle a growing trend for pitch invasions and objects being thrown on to the pitch. It is understood that any reform to the three-stage protocol and the approach to abandonments would need to be agreed in similar fashion.
Omar Beckles, chair of the Professional Footballers’ Association, said: “Our members want to see real, consistent and significant consequences for racist abuse, both for the individuals who are responsible and for clubs who fail to get a grip of the issue within their stadiums. The reality is that players don’t believe this is happening. The responsibility for what happens next lies with the authorities.”
