Euro 2012: Players To Be booked If They Leave The Pitch Due To Racism - Platini

[White Noise]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18338838



Euro 2012: Players to be booked if they leave the pitch due to racism


Uefa president Michel Platini says that any players who walk off the pitch at Euro 2012 due to racial abuse will be booked.

A BBC Panorama programme highlighted racism incidents at grounds in Poland and Ukraine, who co-host Euro 2012.

Manchester City and Italy striker Mario Balotelli threatened to walk off the pitch if he believed he was a victim.

But Platini said: "It's a yellow card. It's not a player - Mr Balotelli - who's in charge of refereeing."

Platini insists officials will deal with any racist incidents that occur during the tournament, which begins on Friday.

Use accessible player and disable flyout menusChris Rogers witnesses racist violence in Ukraine
"It's the referee who takes these decisions. Referees can finish the game. They have this power in case of racism," Platini told the BBC sports editor David Bond.

"That is, I think, the best way to protect the game against racism.

"The referee has been given advice and he can stop the game if there are problems."

Platini dismissed suggestions his reputation would be tarnished if there is racial abuse at Euro 2012.

"Are you joking? You think I am responsible for the racists in the rest of Europe or in England or in France?" he said.

Platini said Uefa had done a lot to tackle racisim, backing such initiatives as 'Never Again',  but said he was "not responsible for society".

Over the next month Ukraine and Poland will be in the spotlight in a way they have never encountered before. Should it go wrong then the reputation of Uefa and its ambitious French president will also be on the line.

He added: "Society is not so easy. You have some problems and we have to organise these Euros from the beginning with some problems because these two countries never welcome so big an event in the past.

"It was a big challenge for Poland, big challenge for Ukraine, a big challenge for Uefa, and we have done our best."

Asked about the footage shown in Panorama's documentary, Platini said: "We are shocked about racists but we are trying to do something; we have to fight against that.

"I feel bad. Of course I feel bad because I am not a racist."

The 56-year-old former France international midfiedler also insisted the issue of racism is one that extends far beyond the two host nations of Euro 2012.

Platini, who has been Uefa president since January 2007, said: "If you want to have a programme on racism you can go everywhere now because there is an increase in the nationalists in many, many countries. It is not just a fact only in Poland and Ukraine.

"You can go in France, United States, in England and you will find the problem of racism. You have more nationalists in many, many countries in east of Europe - that is true."

The Uefa president has previously criticised the host nations, describing Ukrainian hoteliers as "bandits" for the rising cost of accommodation and bemoaning the quality of pitches in Poland.  

The Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, has downplayed fears over racist attacks in Ukraine, saying hooligans were known to the authorities and security services "will be watching all the matches closely".

[White Noise]

Enough about your glory days, Michel, we want answers


By Martin Samuel


PUBLISHED: 23:00, 6 June 2012 | UPDATED: 23:00, 6 June 2012


About midway through Wednesday's inquisition at the Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw, UEFA president Michel Platini mentioned his nine goals for France in the European Championship in 1984.

'No player has scored more than that,' he offered, hopefully. He is used to getting a round of applause at this point. None was heard. Instead the hot potato topics kept coming: racism, match-fixing in Italy, Panorama, more racism, match-fixing in Turkey, racism, expensive hotels, racism, player walk-offs, racism.

Platini arrived saying he was in a good mood, by the end his face had crumpled like a used dish rag. And he was leaking, the psychological term for when a person makes a subconscious movement, such as bouncing a leg or drumming four fingers. The exterior may be calm, but the leak betrays inner tension. In Platini's case, he bobbed his head. The fact that he was wearing earphones to aid translation made him look like a teenager lost in his music on a train.


Clueless: Michel Platini had no answers
     
The cheery veneer had faded by now, too. Asked by a German radio reporter if there were regrets about hosting the tournament in Ukraine, Platini repeated once more that it was the decision of UEFA's Executive Committee, not him, to take the tournament east. 'Germany voted for Ukraine,' he said, sharply. 'You shouldn't have voted for Ukraine, then — there you go.'

The problem with Platini was plain throughout the session. Below the surface, very little is there. He knows the issues, and he genuinely wants to address them. His solutions, his examples, his logic, however, do not bear scrutiny.

You can see it with financial fair play. Football's economics are problematic and as UEFA chief, Platini feels he should take a lead. So far so good. He thinks the key is to stop clubs living beyond their means. Right again. The way he has gone about it, however, is to create a system that could cement the richest clubs in place and thwart the ambitions of mid-ranking rivals. No, no Michel.

So when Platini was asked about the next European Championship, in France in 2016, and whether the switch to a 24-team tournament would suck the thrill out of it — which it undoubtedly will, and the qualifying stages will be a moribund, driftless affair, too — his reasoning was poor and his comparisons with other sports baseless.

The present format has 16 teams, which means qualifiers must hit the ground running, and throws up exciting group stage match-ups: England versus France, Spain versus Italy, Germany versus Portugal in this competition alone.

The expansion in 2016 means half the continent goes to the finals and groups will either have to be big and unwieldy with plenty of dead rubbers, complex and turgid with four of six third-placed teams  progressing or three-team wham, bam, thank you mam, affairs in which one misstep could lead to the best players as good as disappearing before the end of week one.


Stars: Clarence Seedorf and former referee Pierluigi Collina (right) were also present


And why did Platini support this? To place a protective net beneath Europe's useless also-rans. England in 2008, for instance.

'We decided there are 24 good teams in Europe,' Platini said, without evidence. 'In 2008, no British team qualified. This year there is no room for Switzerland, Norway or Serbia. That shows you the tournament can sustain 24 teams.' No, it doesn't.

England have just played Norway away, in Oslo. Norway are lousy. They don't deserve to be here. England did not deserve to qualify in 2008, either. They played four games against Russia and Croatia and collected three points. They drew at home to Macedonia. They had to hold a 2-2 draw with Croatia, who had nothing to play for, at Wembley for 25 minutes, and failed. Still Platini's blather continued.

'We want to increase participation,' he said. 'Look at rugby. Wales and Scotland do well in competitions, they are always there. In football it is much harder for them to compete.'

You can see the problem here. Wales and Scotland are not admitted to the Rugby World Cup on some smaller nations outreach scheme. Wales have spent many years at the pinnacle of the sport in Europe, with players who are regarded in many quarters as rugby's equivalent of Holland's total footballers, while Scotland have for the most part been among the best eight nations in the world.


Memories: Platini will be fondly remembered for his footballing ability - but little else


They beat Australia away, this week; certainly the equivalent of defeating Argentina in Buenos Aires, even if it is the All Blacks who equate to Brazil.

So the International Rugby Board do not have to torpedo their own tournament with duds to find room for Wales and Scotland. They are present on merit.

Platini could have selected the Rugby World Cup participation  of Georgia or Romania and may have had a point, but Wales and Scotland? This argument falls apart beneath the merest scrutiny.
Platini's style is to wash his hands of a problem — 'It isn't my fault that hotel prices are high,' he said, when told that German fans were desperately attempting to sell their tickets, put off by extortionate accommodation charges — or to approach it from the intellectual shallows.
He talked of the great debate around punishment for racism as if it was just another talking point, to be tossed around after the game, and not a curse that could envelop this tournament unless UEFA care to be strong.

Confronted, he was petulant. Asked about Sol Campbell's assertion that black fans could come back from Ukraine in coffins, Platini snapped: 'What do you want me to say? How do you want me to answer that? I've nothing to say — everyone can do what they like.'


Warning: Sol Campbell told fans to beware what could lie in wait at Euro 2012

Quite what the last fragment of that response meant, who knows? The racists could do what they liked? The black fans? Campbell? It wasn't such a hard question. Platini could have challenged Campbell's knowledge of Ukrainian culture, or said that the only way to confront racism is with black faces, black athletes, a black presence that will change attitudes over time.

He got there eventually, much later in the session, remembering the way English football confronted hooliganism and changed attitudes, and hoping the same could be done with matters of race.

Yet, like so much of Platini's rhetoric, it was sandwiched between the usual platitudes and vacuity. He had not even bothered to watch the Panorama programme on which Campbell's comments were made.

Still, what about those nine goals? What about the president at his peak? Two perfect hat-tricks, against Belgium and Yugoslavia and, as for the total, nobody has ever come close. Thanks for the memories, Michel. And beyond that, quite frankly, thanks for nothing.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/euro2012/article-2155591/Michel-Platini--style-substance--Martin-Samuel.html#ixzz1x5g2BEvX

[FC Silver Fox]

This is nothing new. Any player leaving the pitch without permission can get a yellow card.  If Balotelli, or any other player, suffers extreme racial abuse, he just has to walk to the touch line near the middle of the park and remain on the pitch until the next break in play to be substituted. There is absolutely nothing the authorities can do about it.
  When Platini says the refs have the authority to stop the game, he doesn't mention the sanctions UEFA will impose.  Match abandoned and automatic 3-0 defeat for the offending team?  What exactly can the ref do and how does UEFA intend to back them up?