BANGKOK, May 17. /TASS/. The world’s governing football body, FIFA, ruled on Friday to institute a five-point plan against fighting the issue of racism in the sport of football and the decision was announced on Friday at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand.
The official website quoted FIFA President Gianni Infantino as saying that a robust anti-racism program based on five 'pillars' would be applied across all 211 FIFA Member Associations: "We need to stand up and fight racism and defeat racism all together."
"Racism is something terrible," he said. "It is a scourge that exists in our society. And is one also that is infiltrated in football."
"For too long we were not capable of dealing with it in an appropriate way," Infantino continued. "We need to stand up and fight racism and defeat racism all together."
"We cannot accept any more what is happening in the stadiums, what is happening on the pitch, and those who still believe in the world - anywhere in the world - that they can still behave in a racist way when they are dealing with football, when they are attending a football game, when they are playing a game," the FIFA chief noted.
"Those who believe that, they must know that we don’t want them - we don’t want them. They have to go out, they have to be out, they don’t have to be part of our community, they don’t have to be part of football," Infantino stated.
"Racism is darkness, and somebody much more wise and intelligent than me once said: 'If you are in a dark room, don’t be afraid, just light a candle.'"
"Today, we don’t light a candle: we light a big fire that will shine all over the world," FIFA chief added.