UEFA’s Executive Committee has approved guidelines for match officials to deal with serious racist incidents in stadiums.
The decision, made by the Executive Committee at its two-day meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, means in effect that if there are incidents of sufficient magnitude and intensity, the referee will apply Law 5 of the Laws of the Game in particular. First of all, the match will be stopped and announcements will be made. Eventually, if the racist behaviour does not cease, the referee has the power to abandon the match.
The decision was made on a two-day UEFA executive meeting in Vilnius yesterday and Wednesday and UEFA provides some guidelines for the match officials. The three-step procedure given by UEFA involves stopping the match and providing a stadium announcement, then suspend the match for a short period of time, and if these measures doesn’t work the referee shall abandon the match.
Luckily the referee will not be left alone making the decision:
Mr Platini said: “There are people of authority [at a UEFA match], such as the referee and match delegate who can consult before deciding to temporarily suspend a match for five or 10 minutes, in agreement with officials responsible for security – and from then, if the atmosphere remains negative, the match must be stopped.”
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