Kick It Out condemn Fifa as a ‘disgrace’ after dismissing Rhian Brewster’s allegations of racism

Kick It Out has condemned Fifa for dismissing Rhian Brewster’s allegation that England teammate Morgan Gibb-White was racially abused during the U17 World Cup final. ‘dsasad’

The Football Association lodged the complaint to Fifa after Brewster, in an interview with The Guardian, claimed that he had overhead a Spanish player call Gibbs-White a “monkey” during the final in India last year.

Fifa opened an investigation into the incident in January but confirmed on Thursday that the governing body’s disciplinary committee had dropped all charges against the Spanish player due to insufficient evidence.

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A statement read: “Following a thorough investigation, the disciplinary committee has decided to dismiss all charges in view of the lack of sufficient evidence that could corroborate the English player’s claim.”

Lord Herman Ouseley, chair of Kick It Out, branded Fifa’s actions as “unsatisfactory” and called the organisation’s handling of racism allegations as “nothing short of a disgrace”.

“The outcome delivered by Fifa is unsatisfactory,” he said. “It leaves questions unanswered such as how much more evidence is required than two people separately hearing and corroborating the alleged abuse, in order to be acceptable as sufficient? Are they not believed as honest because of who they are? Who are the investigators and who makes such ridiculous decisions?

“Recent decisions like this, and others recently by Uefa, only give encouragement to those players, and fans, who want to racially abuse and act in discriminatory ways to continue and to do so without punishment.”

Lord Ouseley urged the FA to pursue the case and called for clubs themselves to offer their assistance where appropriate.

“There are issues within this situation that must be resolved and we urge The Football Association to follow this up with Fifa and Uefa, as the current handling of discriminatory cases about the alleged treatment of young black players representing their country and clubs is nothing short of a disgrace,” he added.

“The clubs themselves must also join with The FA to tell Fifa and Uefa about the consequences of this not being resolved satisfactorily as a matter of urgency.

“With this outcome, there has to be little confidence that Fifa can effectively deal with any potential incidents of racism and discrimination that may occur during this summer’s World Cup and that is not a prospect to fill any with the confidence about what is in store in Russia this summer.”

This is not the first time Brewster’s allegations of racism have been dismissed by the game’s governing authorities. Last month, Uefa dropped their investigation into the youngster’s claim that he had been racially abused by Spartak Moscow player Leonid Mironov during a Uefa Youth League tie in December 2017.