No to the Collective Punishment of a Football Club for a Single, Vocal act of Racism by a Lone Attendant at a Match

To:  The Football Association of Wales

While emphasising that racism in any form is unacceptable, we believe that the Football Association of Wales' decision to punish Porthmadog Football club for an isolated incident of a lone attendant having shouted racial abuse at an official during a match was disproportionate and unfair. This form of collective punishment is wrong, especially given that the Club and Fans reacted appropriately at the time of and subsequent to the event.

(Background : Officials of Porthmadog Football Club are shocked and surprised at the severity of the sanctions imposed upon it by the FAW disciplinary panel with regard to the incident of racial abuse, which occurred at the recent match against Cwmbran. This was not a chant from the terraces by a crowd of people but rather one individual who shouted one remark, which was heard by the linesman. It is a particular feature of the Welsh Premier League that an individual voice can be heard in a crowd of 200, whereas an individual voice cannot be heard in a crowd of 20,000 but we are being treated exactly the same as Manchester United or Barcelona or Inter Milan.

Porthmadog Football Club have an anti-discrimination policy which we have promoted. We have backed and participated in all initiatives instigated by the FAW and the Welsh Premier League and we agree that discrimination in any form has no place in football and we abhor it, but we feel that the punishment handed out to us has been totally out of proportion to the act itself.

The club apprehended the individual concerned as soon as possible, passed his details to the FAW, banned the individual from subsequent matches and have further promoted our anti-discrimination policy at subsequent matches. We feel that we could have done no more, indeed no club could have done any more to stop such an occurrence as this and yet we have been so severely punished. The club has never been involved in any occurrence of this sort before and has prided itself over the years as being an all inclusive club serving the whole community. The deduction of three points is particularly unfair as it punishes the team, the players who are totally innocent parties in all this.

Other clubs we have spoken to have also been surprised at the severity of the punishment and were equally unaware that such sanctions could be imposed.

The club is now seeking legal advice and will consider an appeal against the decision as it believes that this will have serious implications for all clubs in Wales.

Porthmadog FC (January 17th 2007) )

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The No to the Collective Punishment of a Football Club for a Single, Vocal act of Racism by a Lone Attendant at a Match Petition to The Football Association of Wales was created by and written by Jason Humphreys (jason@deudraeth.net).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

Send this to a friend