2 Mar 2013

Fifa to set up task force to deal with racism

12:05 pm on 2 March 2013

The president of football's world governing body FIFA says they're establishing a task force to deal with racism in the game.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's board meeting in Edinburgh, Sepp Blatter says the task force will be headed by Jeffrey Webb, president of the CONCACAF confederation of north and central American and Caribbean countries.

Football has been blighted by a never-ending series of racist incidents from fans especially in eastern Europe, often met with derisory fines and punishments amounting to little more than a slap on the wrist.

However, this week European football's governing body UEFA finally took some stricter measures by ordering Italian club Lazio to play their next two European home matches behind closed doors because of repeated racism from supporters and fined the club $80,000.