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27th October 2006

UEFA hands Serbian defender 5-match racism ban

WISLA Krakow defender Nikola Mijailovic has received a five-match European ban from UEFA for racially abusing Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy.

South Africa striker McCarthy squared up to Serbian stopper Mijailovic at the end of Blackburn's 2-1 victory, with the Premiership side then making a complaint that their player was subjected to racist taunts.

A statement on UEFA's website confirmed: "Wisla Krakow defender Nikola Mijailovic has been banned by UEFA for five UEFA club competition matches for racial abuse of Blackburn Rovers FC striker Benni McCarthy."

Mijailovic has until Monday to appeal against the ban.

The punishment has been described as "ground-breaking" by football's anti-racism group Kick It Out.

Spokesman Piara Powar said: "A ban for five matches is strong stuff and very welcome. It is the sort of sanction that people across Europe will think 'There is a message to be learned here'.

"The concern in the past has been that many incidents have gone unpunished. It is time we were able to demonstrate that racism is being challenged in European football.

"UEFA are doing a lot of work in this field and this guy [Mijailovic] has been nailed in the right way.

"It seems that Blackburn and other officials were able to produce eye-witness evidence, allowing action to be taken."

Meanwhile, the Spanish Football Federation has told a government commission that it will redouble its efforts to combat incidents of racism in the sport, although it denied the problem was on the increase.

"Spanish clubs and the RFEF need to intensify our efforts to eradicate racism and xenophobia and we have to do it via the club directors, the players, non-governmental groups, community groups and immigrants," president Angel Maria Villar told a Senate investigation committee yesterday. "Its very existence should push us to do whatever we have to so eliminate it."

Despite the large number of incidents of racist behaviour at Spanish football grounds in recent years, Villar said the problem was not on the rise.

"We have done our utmost to combat racism," he said. "It could be that it hasn't been enough and that we have made mistakes, but I say that although racism does exist it hasn't spread throughout Spanish football or amongst its fans."

When questioned on the derogatory remarks made by Spain's national team coach Luis Aragones about French striker Thierry Henry in 2004, Villar denied they had encouraged racist behaviour. "Luis Aragones isn't a racist, his behaviour wasn't racist and it did not cause a rise in xenophobia at Spanish stadiums."

Aragones was fined for his comments which were followed by large scale racist abuse of visiting black players in a friendly international against England the following month.

Incidents of racist abuse have occurred on a regular basis in the Primera Liga in recent seasons.

Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o threatened to walk off the pitch during last season's league game against Real Zaragoza after being subjected to racist insults. The referee in last month's league match between Zaragoza and Levante reported that monkey chants were directed at a visiting black player during the game.

Source: The Scotsman