England Could Have Walked - Blatter

[Darthshearer]

England could have walked - Fifa
Sepp Blatter
Blatter says England would have been right to walk off in Spain
Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has admitted he would have supported England's players if they had walked off in the face of racial abuse against Spain this week.

"Such a movement I would have understood. I would have supported their walking off," Blatter told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek.

"We have to maintain discipline and respect on and off the field.

"When such a threat is in football in the future I think this would be a good remedy," he added.

A number of England players - notably Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips - were subjected to monkey chants at the Bernabeu.

"I was shocked and I am still shocked," said Blatter.

"I am sad about these new expressions of racism in a stadium that has been a temple of football and I cannot understand that, and I say in the name of Fifa, I apologise."

Blatter said possible sanctions could include a ban for the Spanish football team.

But he denied that by allowing teams to walk off in protest at racism Fifa would be stirring up a hornet's nest, with fans of a losing team striking up abuse to have a game called off.


The great thing is that the debate on racism has moved forward
FA spokesman Adrian Bevington
"This would not be the case. This would be a matter we would never accept," he said.

"Let's be confident that by taking steps against such behaviour in the future we can avoid such situations."

The FA's head of media, Adrian Bevington remained non-commital as to whether the England team might walk off if they are subjected to future racial abuse.

Bevington said: "Certainly it is something the FA in conjunction with the manager and the team will have to give consideration over forthcoming months.

"It's something that we hope we won't have to face in the future.

"There are diverse views within the dressing room as to whether it's best to beat the racists on the field of play or whether the best message is to walk off.

"The great thing is that the debate on racism has moved forward. We have to make that a positive, so we have a higher level of education and we are not faced by these problems in the future.

"I don't think it will be resolved in the next few days - it's something that needs serious consideration ."

Taken from BBC Webby

 

[Dillinja]

I still really do wonder what FIFA's response would be if they had been English fans doing the monkey chants. I'm pretty sure they would've came down on top of our team like a ton of bricks.

 

[Turamber]

Call me cynical, but it's easy to say that he would have supported it after the event. If England had done that there would have been cries about England giving in to racism, and that the majority of Spanish fans - who are not racist - were being punished for the minority.

 

[Munkey]

plus our fans arent exactly the best, one call of racism from our lot next game and the other team could just walk off. And who would be the judge?

Is there an acceptable "limit" for racism? or the first call of it and do they just walk?

 

[Gurnox]

Racism has no place in football, or anywhere else, full stop. Spain should be made to play their next x games behind closed doors.

As for Blatter..... Let's face it, if it were english fans he would have wanted them banned for years. Preferably with a good, wholesome kicking from the local police thrown in for good measure. In comparison, any other nation could have their fans turn up wearing hooded white cloaks and play the game using flaming crosses for goal posts and get away lightly.

edit: And Aragones has to go. Why hasn't he been fired?