What sort of message is UEFA sending out in its attempt to combat racism in football?

Think of the worst scenes you’ve scenes so far during Euro 2012; Whilst the sight of Denmark’s Nicklas Bendtner baring his underwear during a goal celebration might have not been to great on the eye it pails into insignificance compared to the sight of Croatia’s fans racially abusing Italy’s Mario Balotelli. So you would think that UEFA’s stance would reflect this when handing out the punishments for two very different rules being broke. UEFA fined Croatia’s football association 80,000 Euro’s ($101,000). The charges related to the “setting off and throwing of fireworks, and the improper conduct of supports (racist chants, racist symbols),” UEFA announced in a statement. Unbelievably the fine is 20,000 Euros ($25,000) less than the one handed done to Bendtner for revealing the name of betting firm Paddy Power on his underpants.

UEFA received reports from monitors based inside the stadium that around 300 Croatia fans made monkey noises at Balotelli. The Croatia association was also fined 25,000 Euros ($31,500) last week for the behaviour of its fans during the match played against the Republic of Ireland. UEFA announced that the fine was imposed for “the setting off and throwing of fireworks and missiles, and a pitch invasion by a supporter.”

In comparison Bendtners goal celebration with no racial undertones or fireworks being set off causing games to be held up whilst they were cleared resulted in a fine of 100,000 Euro’s ($126,000) the maximum that UEFA could impose on the player under disciplinary rules.

National football associations can be fined up to 1 million Euro’s ($1.26 million) by UEFA. What sort of message is UEFA sending out to the world in a bid to combat the problem of racism when it imposes a higher fine for showing the name of a sponsor that it does for punishing fans found guilty of racist abuse? To compound matters Paddy Power have offered to pay the fine after receiving several days of worldwide exposure for its company.

Russia’s FA have also been fined 120,000 Euro’s ($151,000) following the attack by their fans on stewards in Wroclaw after the end of a Euro 2012 match. UEFA are able to impose several sanctions upon national bodies which are held responsible for their fans behaviour. They range from warnings, a sliding scale of fines to points deductions and can even go as far as expulsion of sides from competitions. With the latter in mind wouldn’t kicking out sides out of a tournament send out a message that a change has got to come about and that this needs to come from UEFA and go down to the grass roots of the game and onto the stands of the stadiums.

This isn’t the first time that the Croatian FA has been charged by UEFA for the behaviour of its fans. Four years ago they received a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs which at the time was about 12,450 Euros ($19,600) after fans unveiled Neo-Nazi flags and for chants during a game against Turkey in Vienna, Austria.

In 2008 world football governing body FIFA imposed a fine of 30,000 Swiss francs, then 18,800 Euros ($27,700) after Croatian fans directed racist chants at English forward Emile Heskey during a World Cup qualifier in Zagreb.

UEFA Head Michel Platini had previously urged Croatian political and football leaders to pass laws which would help control their problem fans. Possible sanctions muted included suspending both national and club sides from European Competitions. So with this threat having been made to the national federation we see things haven’t improved any and surely calls have to be made from other footballing nations for UEFA to finally take a proper stand against racism.

Fining them less than a player showing a betting firms name on his underwear puts out a message that UEFA is either unwilling to tackle the problem or head on or doesn’t accept the seriousness of the situation. The world is watching – It’s time to take a stand and get tough on racism.