PFA to re-educate on racism

The Professional Footballers’ Association will begin a re-education scheme following racism incidents involving John Terry and Luis Suarez.

The proposed strategy aims to remind both playing and non-playing staff of their responsibilities and the dangers of discrimination, as well as ensuring any prejudices are put to one side.

PFA chief Gordon Taylor said recent controversies had been damaging to football’s image, but was quick to stress England was still at the forefront of promoting racial equality in the game.

“We’ve not gone back to the bad old days, but there has been a lot of negative publicity recently and that has done a lot of damage,” Taylor said.

“We have seen a sudden increase in racist abuse of black footballers on Twitter, for example, which shows the problems it can cause.”

“No country in the world has assimilated more players from around the world than ours and we have to remember that we were once seen as leading the way in the fight against racism.”

“Football has come a long way in the last 20 years and has brought a lot of positive change in attitudes through Kick it Out and Show Racism The Red Card and we need to get back to that.”

According to Taylor, the wide-ranging scheme will hopefully be launched by the beginning of next season.

“In partnership with the LMA, we are going to visit clubs and hold educational workshops with trained staff on equality and to try and make sure everybody in the game is reminded of what is acceptable and what isn’t,” he said.

“We’re working on that strategy at the moment and we should be ready to launch it, if not before the end of this season, certainly at the start of next.”