UEFA has taken another positive step towards eradicating in-stadium racism and racist chanting that has been plaguing European Football Stadiums by giving Referees and Match Officials new guidelines, including the power to abandon matches.

Via Guardian

The new rules, agreed today, would allow a referee to first stop a match and issue a warning over the public address system requesting that racist behaviour cease. If this does not work, he could suspend a game for five to 10 minutes.

“As a third and final step, if the racist behaviour does not cease after the game has restarted, the referee shall as a last resort, definitively abandon the match,” Uefa said in a statement.

European football’s governing body also decided that any consequences, such as forfeit, stadium suspension, fines or others, from any racism outbreak “will be dealt with by the Uefa disciplinary bodies”.

A number of racist incidents have blighted matches in recent years and Uefa has often been criticised for imposing relatively minor fines and sanctions on the governing bodies of offending nations.

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