UEFA’s 3-Step Protocol is not strong enough, “One Strike” should be: Tammy Abraham on Racial Abuse

England’s star striker player Tammy Abraham is all prepared to walk off the pitch with his teammates through completely ignoring the UEFA’s 3-step protocol in the upcoming European Championship qualifiers if he or any of his black teammate is subjected to racial abuse. Before boarding for the Euro 2020 Championship qualifying trip, scheduled to happen in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, the team called a meeting on Monday to highlight the possibility of unilaterally walking off if any racial abuse occurs during the qualifying match and if felt that their complaints are not being supported by the match officials and the process.

The meeting included England’s caption Harry Kane, team manager Gareth Southgate, and few squad members. It has been understood that the England Players are likely to follow the UEFA protocol but will walk off on their own if felt it is the right thing to do, Tammy Abraham confirmed.

England’s Caption Harry Kane said in the meeting that, “if it happens and we’re not happy with it, we speak to the player and if he’s not happy, we all come off the pitch together. It’s a team thing. Don’t isolate one person, we’re a whole team. If it happens to one of us, it happens to all”. He further added that if they want to stop the game no matter what the score would be if they aren’t happy they will decide as a team whether to stay and play or stop and move back in there dressing rooms.

Responding to his caption’s take Tammy said “I think if that happens and we do decide to leave the field, obviously it’s serious. We’d just let the FA or whoever deals with whatever’s next, the scores or what happens with the points. At the time, it’s about making sure we’re a team. We don’t stand for it and we want the world to see that, that we don’t stand for the silly abuse.” He further added that the UEFA’s three-step protocol was not strong enough and that “one strike” should be enough, although he reiterated that England will attempt to follow the process and only make an independent decision as a team if required.

Such conditions arrived after Bulgaria were found guilty of racist behaviour during June qualifiers against eh Czech Republic and Kosovo. Many black England players were racially abused on their 5-1 win over Montenegro in Podgorica earlier this year. The game in Sofia next Monday thus is to be played in front of a minimum crowd as possible and the officials are keeping in mind that no racial abuse happens, during the gameplay.

WHAT IS UEFA’S 3-STEP PROCEDURE?

The UEFA’s three-step procedure is a process that needed to be followed if any player is been racially abused during a match. The process as the name suggests is divided into three steps that are taken one-by-one according to the continuation of the abuse.

STEP 1: After getting to know that the player has been racially abused, the referee has given the power to halt the match and make an announcement over the PA system, insisting that the racial behaviour needs to be stopped immediately.

STEP2: In this step, if after the first warning the behavior continuous then the referee has to suspend the match for a reasonable period while doing so no teams would stay on the field and would return into their dressing rooms.

STEP3: It is the final step that is been taken if the previous steps haven’t proved effective. Under this step, the referee now will abandon the match completely.

Leave a Reply