Racism Task Force Disbanded

 

FIFA has disbanded its anti-racism task force, declaring the work complete despite ongoing concerns about discriminatory behaviour in Russia, the hosts of the 2018 World Cup. World football's governing body wrote to members of the task force to say that it has completely fulfilled its temporary mission" and "is hereby dissolved and no longer in operation.

The task force was established in 2013 by then-FIFA President Sepp Blatter and headed by Jeffrey Webb, a vice president of world soccer's governing body until he was arrested in 2015 as part of the American investigation into soccer corruption. Webb, who pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, was replaced exactly a year ago as task force chairman by Congolese federation president Constant Omari, who also sits on FIFA's ruling council.

Task force member Oases Obayiuwana said “I wish I could say that I am shocked by the decision, but unfortunately I am not, the problem of racism in football remains a burning, very serious and topical one, which need continuous attention. I personally think there remained a lot of very serious work for the task force to have done  the 2018 World Cup in Russia being one such matter. But it is evident the FIFA administration takes a different position. We never had a single meeting under his chairmanship, I wrote him, more than once, asking for when a meeting would be held. But I never received a reply from him.”

Obayiuwana received the letter from FIFA on Friday announcing the end of the task force and shared its contents. FIFA's diversity and anti-discrimination manager, Gerd Dembowski, wrote “The FIFA Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination was set up with your help on a temporary basis to develop recommendations for FIFA. We are therefore delighted to inform you that all of the task force's recommendations have been implemented and all resulting projects are ongoing.”