January 4 – FIFA have launched an investigation into racial discrimination after England under-17 striker Rhian Brewster made a complaint about a teammate being abused in the under-17 World Cup final.
Brewster claims England team-mate Morgan Gibbs-White was targeted by a Spanish opponent during the final which England won 5-2.
Brewster, who won the tournament’s golden boot, has been quoted as saying: “They were telling us to win respectfully. I started laughing. I said: ‘How can you tell us to win respectfully when one of your players has been racist? What about your team-mate being respectful to us?’”
The 17-year-old Londoner told The Guardian newspaper last week he has either personally experienced racial abuse or witnessed it on a football pitch seven times, including five occasions in the last seven months.
The English FA has already complained to UEFA about an incident that took place in a game against Ukraine at last May’s European U17 Championship, and Liverpool have also complained about two incidents involving Spartak Moscow and one with Sevilla in the UEFA Youth League.
An FA statement read: “We have raised with both UEFA and FIFA a need for discrimination to be covered as part of the pre-tournament player workshops. We have also expressed our concern at difficulties encountered in trying to report incidents.”
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