” We must act. » Gianni Infantino did not mince his words this Thursday to discuss the problems of racism in football without proposing solutions. Present at the congress of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) in Paraguay, the president of the International Football Federation (Fifa) took a first step by recognizing the presence of racism.
“There are problems in football,” he admitted, calling for “to be united to fight racism (…) and violence.” “We must be united to fight racism. Vinicius (the Brazilian striker for Real Madrid, Editor’s note) and others suffer from it. These attacks targeting them have no reason to exist. We must be united against the violence that exists in the world,” said Gianni Infantino.
“Going to a match should be a party”
“We need to act together with governments, teams, players. Going to a match must be a party,” continued the Fifa boss, who spoke in particular in front of the Uruguayan and Paraguayan presidents Luis Lacalle Pou and Santiago Peña, but in the absence of their Argentine counterpart Javier Milei. These three countries will host the inaugural matches of the 2030 World Cup, before the rest of the competition takes place in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the Conmebol Congress today in Paraguay:
“The 2030 World Cup will be something special, something unique, it will be the World Cup of the centenary, it will be the World Cup that truly unites the world.”
“When we started talking about 2030 it… pic.twitter.com/begUs2fwTT
— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) April 11, 2024
Several football matches, particularly in Europe, have been further disrupted in recent weeks by racist incidents in the stands, which sometimes forced referees to interrupt matches. Frequently targeted by insults of this type in Spanish stadiums, Brazilian striker Vinicius recently burst into tears while speaking at a press conference about this fight against discrimination, for which a symbolic friendly match between Spain and Brazil was organized at the end of March (3-3).
