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GENEVA/ SPORT AND RACISM
STORY: GENEVA/ SPORT AND RACISM
TRT: 1.44
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH/ ENGLISH NATS
DATELINE: 7 OCTOBER 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND.
1. Wide shot, hand shakes
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Michele Platini, UEFA, President:
“Human beings are subject to many pressures physical, harassment sometimes on a daily basis, these pressures is often linked to their physical aspect, their ideas, their beliefs, their gender or their sexual orientation. Such discrimination and harassment is very often present when it comes to getting a job or emerges on in the workplace and it is in that context that football is having to address this scourge and problem.”
3. Cutaway, Panel discussion on Racism and Sport Palais des Nations, Geneva.
4. SOUNDBITE (French) (French) Michele Platini, UEFA, President:
“I have often said Football which is the most popular sport worldwide, reflects the society in which it thrives, it reflects its values and it reflects unfortunately, its prejudices, its fears and its distrust.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Wilfried Lemke, Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development:
“Racism is not a problem of football. Racism is a problem of society of people of governments, of schools, of families and neighbourhoods.”
7. Cutaway, meeting
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tokyo Sexwale, FIFA task force on racism:
“Sport has the power to change the world, it has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in the way little-else does, it speaks to youth in the language that they understand, sport can create hope, where once was there was only despair. It is more powerful than government breaking down racial barriers.”
9. Cutaway, participants
Eradicating racial discrimination is an ambitious program in a globalized world with millions of people destabilized by emigration, the President of the European Football governing body, UEFA, President Michele Platini said.
Speaking yesterday (7 October) in Geneva at an event on sport and racism organised by the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR), Platini observed that the societal pressures and prejudices have filtered into Football creating discrimination challenges.
While noting that human beings were subjected to many pressures he said that those pressures were often linked to their “physical aspect, their ideas, their beliefs, their gender or their sexual orientation.” He added that “such discrimination and harassment was very often present when it comes to getting a job or emerges on in the workplace and it is in that context that football is having to address this scourge and problem.”
Platini stressed that he had often said that Football “reflects the society in which it thrives, it reflects its values and it reflects unfortunately, its prejudices, its fears and its distrust.”
Also at the meeting the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development Wilfried Lemke also echoed Platini’s observation that racism in football mirrored the society in which we live.
He said, “Racism is not a problem of football. Racism is a problem of society of people of governments, of schools, of families and neighbourhoods.”
And a representative from the International Football Federation task force on racism, Tokyo Sexwale quoting former South African president Nelson Mandela, was optimistic that sport can change the world.
He said that “Sport has the power to change the world, it has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in the way little-else does, it speaks to youth in the language that they understand, sport can create hope, where once was there was only despair. It is more powerful than government breaking down racial barriers.”
The forum which brought together diplomats and members of the civil society, also heard that governments had sole responsibility to combat all forms of discrimination.
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