FIFA wants fewer images of
attractive women in World Cup stadiums shown on future broadcasts, with sexism
being a bigger problem than racism in Russia, according to anti-discrimination
experts advising FIFA.
FIFA diversity chief Federico
Addiechi says football’s world body will talk with national broadcasters and
its own TV production team.
The subject arose Wednesday in a
review of FIFA’s anti-discrimination program in Russia. Monitors identified
sexist incidents including fans harassing female broadcasters as having been a
bigger problem so far than acts of racism.
Addiechi says FIFA’s stance is “a
normal evolution,” and broadcasts in Russia have already improved from the 2014
World Cup in Brazil.
He says FIFA has already
intervened with broadcasters “on a case-by-case basis when some cases arose and
they were pretty evident.”
At future tournaments, FIFA hopes
hundreds of millions of television viewers worldwide will get a more respectful
view of women at games.
Fans harassing female broadcasters
while they worked accounted for about 30 cases out of an approximate 300
incidents of “sexism on the streets” reported to FIFA by the Fare network.
Racism was predicted to be the
main World Cup problem because of longstanding issues in Russian football and
other European fan bases.
“There haven’t been a great deal
of incidents of the type we expected,” Fare director Piara Powar said, praising
Russian people who “played a magnificent role making people feel welcome.”
Instead, treatment of female media
workers and fans provoked debate.
Powar said about half of those
reported incidents involved female broadcasters being “accosted while on air.”
He estimated up to 10 times more unreported cases where Russian women were
targeted.
With World Cup costs for travel
and tickets — $105 for the cheapest seats at group games for visitors — always
rising, the different audience for games helps explain changing patterns of
behaviour.
Powar said with Russian
authorities also keeping home-grown hooligans away from games, the World Cup
had an international crowd “very different to the fans that come to domestic
football.”
“If you come to this tournament
with prejudices, and don’t like people from a different nationality, then
generally you’re in the wrong place,” he said.
Still, FIFA did impose fines
during the tournament on football federations including Serbia, Russia and
Poland for racist, nationalist and offensive banners displayed by fans at games.
The fines started at 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,100) for a first incident.
FIFA and Russian organisers worked
to identify fans linked to incidents of discrimination in Russia, and the most
public violent incident was when Argentina fans attacked Croatia fans inside a
stadium.
Addiechi said some of the 1.5
million people issued with fan identification laminates had them stripped, and
were deported. About 700,000 of the Fan IDs went to international visitors, he
said.
FIFA worked with Fare to ensure
three expert monitors attend each of 64 World Cup games.
Taking lessons from the World Cup
in Russia, Powar said he hoped for more coordination between FIFA and its six
continental governing bodies to ensure a consistency of monitoring and
punishing discrimination cases.
Russia has won praise for its
hosting of the World Cup, including embracing some social programs FIFA
requires of host nations.
Addiechi acknowledged FIFA could
have “a limited impact” from next week, and looked to former Russia player
Alexei Smertin to continue leading its anti-discrimination work.
“We definitely expect and count on
the support of Alexei,” Addiechi said, “and the Russian football union.”
No comments:
Post a Comment