MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Measures announced to tackle racism in sports

Ronaldo will be a part of Conmebol's task force

Brazil's Government Thursday launched a comprehensive plan to tackle racism in sports, focusing on awareness, monitoring, and education. Key actions include creating a seal and award for anti-racist sports entities, launching educational campaigns at events, and developing a digital platform to track racial discrimination data. The initiative, supported by Ministers Anielle Franco (Racial Equality) and André Fufuca (Sports), emphasizes collaboration with sports justice, media, and government programs to promote equality and inclusion.

This effort addresses persistent racism in Brazilian sports, highlighted by incidents like the 2023 racist insults against soccer player Vinícius Júnior in Spain, which sparked global outrage.

“Sport must be a space of union and respect. We need effective public policies to eradicate racism and promote equality inside and outside the sports arenas,” Fufuca said.

“Racism in sports is a reflection of the systemic racism present in society, and confronting it is an urgency. With this partnership, we want to move forward in ensuring sports environments guided by equality and respect, being safe and welcoming spaces for all,” Franco pointed out.

Discrimination made headlines again in the past few days when Brazilian players of Sao Paulo's Palmeiras were mocked (called an ape) in Asunción (Paraguay) by a Cerro Porteño fan during an Under-20 Libertadores Cup match. The Paraguayan club was fined US$ and must henceforth play behind doors, which was deemed very lenient in Brazil, so much so that some officials threatened to pull the country from the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol).

To make matters worse, when asked if he could picture a Libertadores Cup without Brazilian teams, Conmebol President Alejandro Domínguez said it would be like Tarzan without Cheetah.

In this scenario, Conmebol launched Thursday a task force led by Brazilian retired player Ronaldo to combat racism and violence in football. Ronaldo had sought to preside over the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) but dropped his candidacy amid poor support. Other former football stars joining the force during Thursday's ceremony at the Conmebol's headquarters in Luque (Paraguay) were Mauro Silva, Carlitos Tevez, Claudio Caniggia, and Fatma Samoura.

“We are acting here today with responsibility and unity to face the challenges ahead, overcome them, and continue on the path of growth. We don't want to debate the past, we want to discuss the future. Everything that is said here is to add to and improve our sport,” Domínguez said.

Among the measures announced are the creation of blacklist of people banned from stadiums, in addition to educational programs aimed at promoting awareness and preventing racism.