Thursday 29 September 2016, 09:53

Clarification on FIFA Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination

FIFA’s position on the issue of discrimination is unequivocal: discrimination of any kind has no place in football. FIFA recognises its responsibility to lead the way and has been actively fighting discrimination within football and within society as a whole for many years.

In March 2013, FIFA decided to call on experts from around the world to provide input and help develop concrete solutions to fight discrimination in football and strengthens FIFA’s approach. Over the next year, this FIFA Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination met three times and proposed a set of recommendations at its last meeting in December 2014. Since then, FIFA has worked intensively to implement all of them.

They include:

  • The FIFA Anti-Discrimination Monitoring System, including identification of high-risk matches and the corresponding disciplinary proceedings in cooperation with the Fare network;

  • The FIFA Good Practice Guide on Diversity and Anti-Discrimination;

  • The FIFA Diversity Award and 11-strong jury of experts;

  • The FIFA Legends as ambassadors.

  • Various diversity and anti-discrimination initiatives as part of the Sustainability Strategy for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™;

  • The FIFA Female Leadership Development Programme;

  • Advising member associations on diversity and anti-discrimination matters;

  • Anti-discrimination training for FIFA match commissioners;

  • The annual Anti-Discrimination Days;

  • The 'Say No to Racism' campaign;

  • The FIFA Women's Football and Leadership Conferences held in Zurich in 2015 and 2016.

A FIFA task force is a temporary structure with a defined mission. Once this mission is complete – as was the case with the FIFA Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination once it had made its recommendations - the structure is dissolved.

The FIFA Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination no longer exists, but thanks to its recommendations FIFA has been able to give a major boost in recent years to its work on diversity and anti-discrimination in football. FIFA is continuing to engage worldwide with its member associations, experts and concerned groups to continuously strengthen its approach and work towards driving discrimination from the game and promoting diversity.

FIFA is aware of the fact that the fight against racism and any other form of discrimination is a long term process, which is why the task force’s recommendations led to sustainable measures.