GENEVA (AP) — Two international soccer games stopped because of racial abuse between players. A United States-Mexico game cut short amid homophobic chants by fans. An advisor to Brazil player Vinícius Júnior racially harassed by a steward at a stadium in Spain.
All these incidents in the past week are evidence of an “urgent crisis” facing soccer, an anti-discrimination group that works with FIFA and European soccer body UEFA said Tuesday.
The two men’s games abandoned Monday — when New Zealand and the Ireland under-21 team refused to continue playing after hearing racial abuse by opponents from Qatar and Kuwait, respectively — followed days after FIFA president Gianni Infantino reset soccer’s task to tackle discrimination.
“There is no football if there is racism! So let’s stop the games,” Infantino said last Friday after meeting with Vinícius in Barcelona and enlisting him to work with FIFA and other players.
Vinícius, who is Black, has been the target of sustained racist abuse by fans in Spanish stadiums throughout the season while playing for Real Madrid, with little done by referees or soccer organizers to protect him.