‘Fifa racism task force achieved goal’

Nothing sinister should be read into the disbanding of the Fifa task force on racism as it had simply achieved its goals, Fifa secretary-general Fatma Samoura said on Monday.

The 54-year-old Senegalese — recruited to some surprise from the United Nations in May and the first woman and non-European to serve on the Fifa executive — added Fifa could live with the perception by many that it was too soon to end the task force’s work.

“We can live with perception but we are taking very seriously our role as football’s governing body to fight discrimination, it is well reflected in the statutes,” said Samoura at the Global Football Convention.

The task force was established in 2013 by disgraced former Fifa president Sepp Blatter to eradicate racism in football but was disbanded recently with the world sports body controversially insisting the mission had been a success.

“It had a very specific mandate and they came up with very strong recommendations and Fifa is acting on them,” said Samoura. “There are several cases against teams and based on solid legal grounds we have taken strong measures through the sanctioning body. Coming from the UN we must really be firm. It is really on top of the agenda of the Fifa administration.

“It is zero tolerance to discrimination on grounds of culture, racism colour of the skin and sexual orientation.”

Andy Burnham, formerly Culture, Media and Sport Secretary in former prime minister Tony Blair’s government, had aired his concerns when he opened the convention, addressing Samoura directly saying it was rather worrying with Russia hosting the 2018 World Cup as their fans are notorious for their racist chants and attacks.

“It‘s not football's problem alone but it is used as a vehicle by extremists in football to try and promote Islamophobia and xenophobia,” said Burnham.

“We must take the toughest possible line that we are all one and won’t tolerate racism in our great game and give extremists publicity”

Soccerex is a top sports business conference bringing together more than 3,000 delegates to Manchester over the coming three days.