Ruling body still seems to care more about ambush marketing and trademarks infringement than racism and homophobia.
It is almost two years since Fifa wound up its anti‑racism task force, declaring it had “completely” fulfilled its mission and was therefore dissolved. That a banana should have been thrown on to a Russian pitch eight minutes into a Champions League game a mere three days after this dissolution was obviously unfortunate; that the banana should have remained there until the 15th minute arguably began to look like carelessness.
Ditto news that racist and homophobic chants have become more common in Russia in the season building up to the coming World Cup, according to a joint report by the anti-discrimination network Fare and the Moscow‑based Sova Centre.
As for the reasons given for the disbandment of Fifa’s anti-racism task force back in 2016, they are perhaps no more shameless than the governing body’s excuses in other departments. It is probably less embarrassing to suggest you have no more worlds of tolerance to conquer than it is to concede that the father of this particular programme is otherwise detained, in this case helping the FBI with its Fifa-related inquiries.