The European Union�s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) will join UEFA, FARE, FIFPro, football players and others in signing a pledge� supporting respect for diversity at a launch event for EURO 2008� on 7th June in Basel, Switzerland. This pledge� is timely as a spate of events in Europe over the past year has shown that the spectrum of racism and other forms of intolerance still haunt the sport.

The pledge kicks off a series of planned activities on football and racism for FRA in 2008. The agency has published a special edition of its Equal Voices magazine on �football versus intolerance�, which brings together perspectives from professional players, UEFA president Platini and European politicians, on how football can win the match against racism and other forms of intolerance. FRA is preparing a report on racism and examples of anti-racism good practice within football and will organise an event with the football family to develop further action to address these issues across Europe. 

FRA calls on the football authorities and their clubs to undertake the following action as part of coordinated and sustainable work to promote racial equality and combat all forms of intolerance:

National level

• Establish a mechanism to record, report and monitor intolerance, in close cooperation with Equality bodies and the policing authorities.
• Establish a public database of good practice to promote racial equality and combat all forms of discrimination in football.
• Designate or establish an equality coordinator within national associations of football who can devise a national action plan for football.

European level

• Establish standards and rules on racial abuse and inequality with enforcement powers with European wide applicability and consistency.
• Establish a train-the-trainers programme for managers, referees and football officials on equality and discrimination issues.