Maybe one of these days FIFA’s actions will back up its big talk about combatting hate and discrimination.
Today is not that day, however.
A month after FIFA president Gianni Infantino said racism and bigotry were such a blight on the beautiful game that offenders deserve criminal penalties, the federation seems to have lost the messages that had become a staple of its anti-discrimination campaigns. The PSAs on the Jumbotron, the decals and banners on the field, the messages on the P.A. system, the posts on social media — they’re nowhere to be found at the Club World Cup.
Maybe they got misplaced on the way from FIFA headquarters. Maybe FIFA ran out of money after making its gaudy new trophy for the Club World Cup — you know, the one Infantino made sure to etch his name on.
Or maybe, just maybe, Infantino saw how sensitive U.S. President Donald Trump is to anything that dares suggest racism is bad or that Black and brown people are entitled to respect and decided it was best if FIFA didn’t bring it up.
If this sounds familiar, it should. The last time there was a major tournament in a country run by a great and all-powerful Oz, Infantino and FIFA were quick to abandon their values, too.
Rather than risk offending their Qatari hosts, they threw both longtime partner AB InBev and the LGBTQ community under the bus during the men’s World Cup in 2022. Now FIFA is abandoning what should be one of its highest priorities: Calling out the racism and discrimination that remains far too prevalent in soccer.
As if any reminder of why it’s so imperative for FIFA to challenge discrimination in full throat, a Spanish court on Monday issued prison sentences to four people convicted of a hate crime for hanging an effigy of Vinicius Jr. The Brazilian has been subjected to repeated racist abuse since joining Real Madrid, which just so happens to be one of the 32 teams playing in the Club World Cup.
Real Madrid’s first game in the tournament is Wednesday, June 18, against Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal.
“I play in Spain, where I suffered a lot and still suffer sometimes,” Vinicius Jr. said last year. “But of course, it is less with the help of all the clubs, of all the people who are doing everything possible to combat racism.”
That FIFA can no longer be counted on to be part of that is appalling. That it’s done so voluntarily is infuriating.
FIFA hasn’t commented on why it is suddenly caving on its commitment to calling out racism and discrimination, either to The Athletic, which first reported the absence of the messages, or USA TODAY Sports. But really, what’s there to say?
Infantino had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said last month that, and I quote, “Racism and discrimination — they are not just wrong, they are crimes”? FIFA really does want to stamp out racism but it wants to avoid Trump’s ire more? They’re just trying to get the Club World Cup, and next year’s men’s World Cup, played without Trump and Stephen Miller realizing the tournaments will bring an influx of thousands of Black and brown people to the United States?
If Infantino and FIFA do actually believe racism, and every other form of discrimination, is bad and has no place in the game, it shouldn’t matter where a tournament is being played. If Infantino and FIFA truly want soccer to be a game that belongs to everyone, the “local customs” of a host nation and the personal prejudices of its leaders ought to be irrelevant.
But by their actions, first in Qatar and now in the United States, Infantino and FIFA have made it clear their supposed core values of equality and respect have limits. Or come with a whole lot of asterisks attached. Airing a PSA, making a couple of social posts and slapping signs on the field and the LED boards that surround it is the bare minimum of what FIFA should be doing, and it can’t even muster the courage to do that.
It’s easy to have convictions when they’re not being put to the test. Infantino and FIFA’s are, and they’re failing miserably.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.