Jerome Champagne Says Russian Football Union Should Do More To Combat Racism

FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne urged the Russian Football Union "to increase punishments for clubs whose fans are guilty of racism to help eradicate the problem before the 2018 World Cup finals there," according to Mike Collett of REUTERS. Champagne said that "he was pleased the RFU had started to take action, but more needed to be done." Champagne said, "It seems the Russian football union has understood the gravity of the problem and they have started to tackle the issue, but they should do more." His comments follow a round table held in St. Petersburg last week when SOVA, the Russian anti-discriminatory analysis center, reported that since March '12, "there had been 93 reported cases of racism in Russian football stadiums." Champagne said, "The RFU should increase the punishments on their clubs. We cannot have that in the stadiums, whether it is Russia or France or in Brazil. It is not acceptable" (REUTERS, 10/15).