28/12/2005 19:09 - (SA)

# I'm no racist, says Di Canio
# Di Canio banned for Nazi salute
# Racial abuse: Zoro in tears
# Italy's racists sadden Zoro

http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20051228/italyplayer_48514.jpg

Rome - A hockey player has been banned for life from Italy's national team after repeatedly shouting racist slurs at a rival skater during a league game, hockey officials said on Wednesday.

Daniele Veggiato, a forward for the top hockey league's Alleghe team, was banned from "all future activities of the national teams" after a match against Cortina on Monday during which he insulted rival defender Luca Zandonella, the Italian Federation of Ice Sports said in a statement.

Zandonella's father is Italian and his mother is from Mauritius. During the game, Veggiato repeatedly addressed the 18-year-old Zandonella in Italian with slurs, said Franz Sinn, the head of the federation's hockey section.

The lifetime ban is largely symbolic since Veggiato, 27, hasn't played with the national team since 2003 and is not on Italy's roster for the Turin Winter Olympics in February. But hockey officials said the ban was significant.

"He's not worthy of wearing the jersey of the Azzurri," Sinn said.

In addition to the ban, Veggiato was expelled from the rink during the match and will serve a five-match suspension for upcoming league games.

"After the match he apologised (to Zandonella) and he did well, but this didn't change our decision," Sinn said. "We have already seen this kind of escalation in soccer and we cannot accept it."

Overpaid heroes

Although the case involved a sport which has a relatively minor following in Italy, national media hailed the decision as being in sharp contrast with the way soccer officials have dealt with a recent string of racist incidents in the country's most popular game.

Turin-based newspaper La Stampa called the ban "an exemplary punishment" and daily Corriere della Sera pointed out that the speed of the decision "doesn't belong to soccer, fearful to seriously face it's problems and always ready to defend the negative behaviours of its overpaid heroes."

Last month, Messina's Ivory Coast defender Marc Zoro was reduced to tears and threatened to walk off the soccer field during a Serie A match after Inter Milan fans insulted and booed him.

Lazio forward Paolo Di Canio has been at the centre of controversy after appearing to give a fascist salute to fans during recent games with Juventus and Livorno.

Di Canio was given a one-match ban and a fine for the Juventus incident. He has appealed against the decision and insists the gesture was not racist but "a gesture of belonging."

The Italian league must still rule on Di Canio's actions in the Dec 11 match with Livorno.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/More_Sport/0,,2-9-32_1856443,00.html

Wednesday December 28 2005

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – West Indies cricket legend Sir Viv Richards has called on the International Cricket Council and FIFA, the world governing body for football, to move more swiftly to rid sports of racism.

Speaking Sunday from Antigua, Sir Viv called for a stepped up approach and likened a “sporting racist” to someone with his hand on a nuclear bomb, just waiting to set it off.

“Stamp it out!” he urged.

“This thing must stop and the authorities must treat this like someone with a nuclear bomb. If you have the fabric which is human civilisation and human society being brought down because of colour and race, to me, that is like a killer with a nuclear reactor in his hand.”

http://sun-weekend.com/paper/?asw=view&asw=view&sun=360856086812282005&an=105912079812282005&ac=Sports

Friday, 30 December 2005

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uefa.com chief writer Mark Chaplin casts an eye back on the issues European football's governing body faced during 2005.

1 December
Members of the European Parliament add their voice to the drive to tackle racism in football. MEPs launch a declaration in Brussels commending the work of the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network and calling for action by national associations, leagues and clubs across the continent. The declaration will achieve the status of a motion if a majority of the 732 MEPs give their backing.

6 December
UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson says that any move to reintroduce a straight knockout format in Europe's club competitions would increase the gap between rich and poor clubs. In an interview published in the latest edition of the official UEFA Champions League magazine Champions, Mr Olsson says it is necessary to "temper romance with realism" in response to this "romantic view". He adds: "For a start, if UEFA organised a tournament on those grounds, someone else would come in very quickly and organise a European league. And romantic as the idea sounds, who would benefit? Only the clubs who were left in right at the end would make any money out of it. So, if anything, it would increase the polarisation in European football between rich and poor clubs, not reduce it."

8 December
At a meeting described as "historic" by United Kingdom sports minister Richard Caborn on behalf of his government's presidency of the European Union, the EU issues its strongest message of support to date for the principle of safeguarding the specificity of sport in Europe. With football's governance coming under increasing political and legal pressure, Mr Olsson describes the talks in Leipzig as "a very important step". UEFA will lead a review of the game in Europe over the first half of next year, reporting its findings to the EU in June.

13 December
Mr Olsson says it would be foolish to pretend that problems related to corruption, money-laundering and gambling did not exist within football. In an interview with the official UEFA Champions League magazine Champions, Mr Olsson explains that UEFA is working together with various bodies in an effort to eradicate the problem, which has been given high exposure recently with a match-fixing case in Germany. "There have been some well-publicised instances like the [Robert] Hoyzer case so it would be stupid to pretend there isn't a problem," Mr Olsson says. "The idea of vast amounts of money coming into football is alarming and because of modern technology like the internet which crosses borders, it can be very difficult to legislate against. There is the possibility that criminal gangs could use football as a money-laundering machine and we have to help stop this."

15 December
After its meeting in Nyon, Switzerland, UEFA's Executive Committee issues a declaration condemning all types of racism. The declaration emphasises the Executive Committee's zero tolerance approach towards any form of discrimination within European football. Fighting racism within the game, the committee said, will remain a top priority.

19 December
Out-of-competition doping controls introduced by UEFA for this season's UEFA Champions League have run smoothly in the group stage. Since the start of the group phase, a total of 211 players from 22 teams have been controlled out-of-competition. UEFA has yet to receive all test results - however, the ones received so far have been negative.

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/Keytopics/kind=64/newsId=381172.html

Here's another of those useless "should" arguments.

All White players of professional sports should quit immediately and find new careers.

All White sports fans should shun professional sports hereafter.

If pro sports games are on public property, wouldnt TAA distributors have a right to distribute the paper? I dont know about this and you would face possible arrest even if the law was on your side, but let's ask that question. Where else can you get a bunch-- ie, LOTS-- of middle class White men in one place other than sporting events?