FIFA President Gianni Infantino has strongly denounced a series of racist incidents that marred football matches in Germany and England over the weekend, describing them as “unacceptable.”
“I repeat myself and will continue to do so. There is no place for racism in football,” Infantino declared in a statement on Monday.
One of the incidents occurred during Sunday’s German Cup tie between Lokomotive Leipzig and Schalke, when Schalke winger Christopher Antwi-Adjei reported being racially abused by sections of the home crowd. The match was briefly halted after an announcement over the stadium PA condemned the behaviour, but Antwi-Adjei was still met with jeers when play resumed. Lokomotive later issued a public apology.
In a separate game the same day, Kaiserslautern reported that one of their players was targeted with racial abuse from a spectator during their clash with RSV Eintracht.
Infantino promised that FIFA would “continue to closely monitor these incidents” and affirmed his organisation’s cooperation with the German Football Association (DFB) “in the fight against racism.”
These cases came just days after a similar episode in the Premier League, when Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo said he was subjected to racist remarks during Friday’s season opener against Liverpool at Anfield. The game was paused while officials addressed the complaint, and police later arrested a suspect for a racially aggravated public order offence.
Semenyo later wrote on social media that the abuse would “stay with him forever,” but he praised the swift reaction on the pitch, saying “football showed its best side when it mattered most.”
Commenting on both the German and English incidents, Infantino stressed that such behaviour must never be tolerated: “It is absolutely unacceptable that racist abuse has occurred at football matches for the second time in recent days.”
