With the Uefa Cup Final set for tomorrow afternoon (Cali Time) in Manchester between surprise finalists Glasgow Rangers and Zenit St. Petersburg, the focus for local police is squarely on the supporters groups.

Zenit has already been charged with racially abusing Marseille players earlier in the tournament and has officially been warned by UK Sports Minister Gary Sutcliffe that abuse will be dealt with a zero tolerance policy. That policy was officially written into law Under The Football Offences Act 1991 which made racist chanting a criminal offense, punishable by 6 months in prison.

Here’s a little idea of what can possibly happen if police can’t control the situation.

And don’t forget about the 100,000+ Rangers supporters that will be making the 3 hour journey south.

image via DayLife

With the horrible situation in France and club FC Metz, everyone should watch this video on Racism in Soccer throughout Europe (made before the last World Cup).

Dunny recently wrote this story about some of the problems French Football has been experiencing with racism lately. It’s a sad state of affairs that these people use soccer as a platform to try and cause problems and bring attention to themselves. Seems like the clubs should do more to ensure that these fans don’t get in to the stadiums right? Well after reading a couple of articles on the subject, I came across this completely moronic piece of French law. Apparently the law goes something like this. Clubs can only ban people from entering stadiums if they are caught actually breaking the law, not for being racist or making racist remarks. According to Metz’s security chief, Jacky Ancel, “you can ban people from entering nightclubs but nor from entering the stadiums.” Apparently there are only 80 people in France banned from stadiums in England, while at the same time there are over 3,500 banned from stadiums in England, this according to Frédéric Thiriez, the president of the French league. Why this outdated, archaic law still exists like this is beyond reason. French football has experienced some tremendous highs and a resurgence in the last 10 years or so. If this problem doesn’t get fixed, not only will French football suffer, but the country as a whole will be affected. For more info check this story.

[Pic via Football Resistance]

Only one week ago French Police were involved an alleged racist incident between Valenciennes Captain Abdelsam Ouaddou and FC Metz supporters.  Today Metz filed a complaint against it’s own supporters after fans at the weekends Ligue 1 match away to Olympic Lyon threw up Nazi salutes and threw anti-racism shirts back on the field during their 2-nil loss.

Seems like we still have a long ways to go people.

image via Crystalxp

Unfortunately Racism still exists throughout the world of football, but if Ligue 1 president Frederic Theriez has his way, any fan or player caught will be punished by the full extent of the law and banned from entering any ground for games. In a game last night, Moroccan and Valenciennes captain Abdeslam Ouaddou went into the stands after a “fan” shouted racist remarks at him. Ouaddou was given a yellow card for leaving the field of play and while his team lost 2-1 to Metz, the police got involved (rightly so) and Ouaddou is not only pressing charges, but suing as well.

[image via MarrocFootball]