Uefa make racism 'top priority'

Uefa yesterday named the fight against racism as a top priority. Racist chants and taunts against black players have marred three matches in Spain in the past 10 days.

Uefa yesterday named the fight against racism as a top priority. Racist chants and taunts against black players have marred three matches in Spain in the past 10 days.

Despite years of anti-racist campaigns, the problem has never entirely disappeared from European football grounds, but the recent outbreaks have been the worst for some time.

The chief executive of European football's governing body, Lars-Christer Olsson, said: "It is one of our priorities and this is what we are working on continuously. It pops up and disappears from time to time." On Thursday, Uefa said it was holding an enquiry following Real Madrid's Champions' League match with Bayer Leverkusen at the Bernabeu stadium on Tuesday. Television pictures, seen all over Europe, clearly showed fans with swastika tattoos giving Nazi salutes to Leverkusen's black players.

Uefa officials have asked clubs to ban racist fans and clubs are cooperating according to Olsson. "The problem of racism is not only in football, it is in society in general," he said.

Meanwhile, the Manchester City and England goalkeeper David James has called on the Football Association to assist its Spanish counterparts in eradicating racism in football.

James said: "You are dealing with a social issue. We tend to forget that 30 years ago Spain was under a dictatorship.

"Look at England and the way we have dealt with racism here - 15 years ago John Barnes had bananas thrown at him.

"You cannot expect Spain to turn around in two weeks and all of a sudden have a policy which is going to enforce non-racism. It is going to take time."