By Agence France-PresseFriday, April 5, 2013 20:00 EDT FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Friday eased his hardline stance on fighting racial abuse and violence in stadiums. Blatter previously said basketball clubs should really be docked factors or directed if their fans were found guilty of violence and racist abuse, but he's now indicating such measures would be hard to apply. Blatter had mentioned last January that slapping economic penalties on groups or getting them to perform matches behind closed doors did not go far enough. In responses Friday he seemed to understand the practical difficulty of imposing harder-hitting measures. aHow much must we go? Where should we stop?a the manager of world footballas governing body said at a meeting of the organization Early Warning System, which monitors fits on FIFAas account to fight match-fixing. aCan we bring an end to violence or racism by docking items or relegating a group? Or would such actions cause people to arrive at activities to obtain the fit abandoned,a he said. Amazement should do all we can but thereas a threat that if we have matches replayed or on the sporting front if clubs are punished by us, it'll open the entranceway to hooligan groups who'll arrive at intentionally cause trouble.a FIFA later produced a statement insisting that Blatter hadn't backtracked on his previous stance but was merely asking rhetorical questions concerning the feasibility of implementing tough sanctions. aFIFA President Blatter today reiterated a the necessity for punishment that gets hard against any form of racism,a said the statement. aAs described previously the FIFA President underlined that penalties accomplish little, but factors discounts and exemption from tournaments could be effective methods. He also stressed that reduction should go in conjunction with punishment. aHe acknowledged that the implementation of those sanctions may present some problems, such as a possible threat that the device could possibly be abused by some spectators for the only real purpose of obtaining a very unfair advantage for their team. aSuch problems will be carefully analyzed and will in no way change the FIFA Presidentas very good commitment towards the reduction of the racism scourge from basketball and his zero tolerance towards any form of racism. aAt no point did the FIFA President say any words that may be interpreted as him backing away from his company position to sanction measures of any form of racism.a Back in January, Blatteras statements came after AC Milanas Kevin-Prince Boateng and his team-mates went off a message during a pleasant with fourth-division Italian area Pro Patria in protest at a great hail of abuse from rival fans. After initially disagreeing with Boatengas decision to take the laws of the game into their own arms, Blatter swung behind the player and said difficult action was needed and football should show just how due to its global following. In November 2011 controversy was caused by Blatter by denying there clearly was racism on the area of play, showing that if punishment did happen at a match the situation must be completed by a at the conclusion of the match. He swiftly apologised for using aunfortunate wordsa and insisted he backed azero tolerancea in regards to racism anywhere in the game. Boateng was recently called a member of FIFAas anti-racism taskforce. On Friday, Blatter also stated that a proposal for standard sanctions across every one of FIFAas 209 member groups could be set to an election at its congress in May. aThe same standard should make an application for each and every group and national association,a he explained. [Image via Agence France-Presse]
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