Irish League Leaders Give Racism the Red Card

Glentoran FC has become the first Irish League side to publish material tri-lingual catering in addition to its traditional fan base but also targetting new Belfast residents from Portugal and Poland.


Glentoran are five points ahead of Linfield in the Carnegie Premier League and will be challenging the best of the Eircom League of Ireland sides in the Setanta Cup from February 26th.


The club stresses it is a practical way to combat growing racism, not only in Belfast but across Northern Ireland. An Observer survey two months ago found that 97 per cent of all media-reported racist attacks between 2005 and 2006 in Northern Ireland occurred in loyalist areas.

Organisations on both sides of the Irish Sea set up to counter racism in sport have praised the initiative and called on other clubs in Ireland and the UK to follow Glentoran's example.

Stafford Reynolds, Glentoran's chairman, says the website and the outreach programmes by the club into the new communities in Belfast showed they were serious about battling racism.

'From a commercial viewpoint it makes sense to reach out to these new communities. There are thousands of Portuguese and Eastern European workers now living in Northern Ireland. There must be young players out there in these new communities who are good enough to play in the Irish League. So it's not just about building a new fan base, there is bound to be a new talent base that's untapped among the migrant workers coming here.'

Reynolds added the move is designed to help the migrant workers integrate better into Northern Irish society. An estimated 50,000 immigrants have arrived over the past three years, the majority of them from Portugal and the former Soviet bloc nations. Adam Kaldonek, 21, from Szczecin, northern Poland, was one of the first of the new migrant workers to visit the Oval last Friday. Kaldonek runs a business advising and helping fellow Polish immigrants throughout Northern Ireland.

'A lot of Poles work six days a week in Northern Ireland so it might be difficult for them to turn up for a match at the Oval,' he said. 'But I would encourage Polish people and others from abroad working here to come along.'

Glentoran will face tough competition alongside Derry City, Drogheda United and Linfield FC in group 1 of the Setanta Cup. Their first outing will be home at the Oval to FAI Cup winners Derrry City. Derry held the might of Paris Saint Germain to a 0-0 draw at the Brandywell in September. Drogheda United won the Setanta Cup 2006, while the Glens Belfast rivals Linfield FC won the Setanta Cup in the inaguaral year 2005.

Shelbourne FC and Cork City are in group 2 alongside Dungannon Swifts and Portadown.

Source: www.kickitout.org
www.glentoran.net

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Paris Saint Germain threatened with grant cut over violence and racism

Paris mayor Betrand Delanoe has threatened to stop funding Paris St Germain unless effective measures are taken to rid the capital club of hooliganism.

The death of a PSG fan following last month's 4-2 UEFA Cup defeat by Hapoel Tel Aviv has triggered a nationwide debate about how to free French soccer from violence and racism. "I have suggested that the collective agreement between the city of Paris and PSG should be reinforced to include the club's new commitments (in terms of security)", Delanoe told French daily Le Parisien in an interview on Wednesday.

"The payment of the subsidy would be tied to an effective implementation of those measures," he added. PSG have pledged to take action to bar fans known to be violent from entering their Parc des Princes stadium. The city of Paris pay 2.3 million euros ($3.06 million) a year to the club.

"The few hundreds of people identified by police (as being violent) have nothing to do at Parc des Princes and must be barred from entering the stadium," Delanoe said. "The true PSG supporters... can no longer be taken hostage by a handful of neo-Nazis who flout the true values of sport," he added. The lower section of the Boulogne Kop, an area of the Parc des Princes where PSG's most extreme fans traditionally assemble, has been closed on police orders until further notice.

A league match between PSG and Toulouse scheduled for last Sunday, which would have been the capital side's first home game since the incidents, has been postponed for security reasons. A policeman shot dead 25-year-old Julien Quemener and injured another fan while under attack from supporters after the Nov. 23 game.

Witnesses said the policeman opened fire on a mob of PSG fans who were chasing a Jewish supporter of Israeli team Hapoel outside Parc des Princes. PSG have been tainted by hooliganism for years. Their next home game is against Panathinaikos in the UEFA Cup on Dec. 13.

Source: www.cnn.com

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German football creates anti- racism post

German football authorities Friday appointed a Turkish-born management consultant to a key advisory post in efforts to stamp out racism and hooliganism in the game.


The German Football Federation (DFB) named 43-year-old mother-of-two Gul Keskinler as fan integration officer and member of a newly-formed "task force" to combat racism, xenophia and fan violence.

Keskinler, who was born in Istanbul but has lived in Germany since 1970 and has German citizenship, will advise the DFB executive on a voluntary basis on projects to improve and foster fan communication and behaviour.

The DFB three weeks ago also appointed a security chief to lead the 21-strong task force which has been established after several incidents of fan violence and racist chants this season. Although the World Cup in Germany this summer passed off largely peacefully, football officials have been dismayed to see an increase in hooliganism at lower league games. Keskinler has worked on a number of sports-linked cultural and social projects and took part in an "integrations summit" called by Chancellor Angela Merkel in the summer.

Meanwhile Wisla Krakow's Serbian defender Nikola Mijailovic was handed a record five match ban from UEFA competition for racially abusing Blackburn forward Benni Mc Carthy. Wisla lost the 2-1 tie but were still three points clear at the top of the Polish league.

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