LONDON (AP) — The head of English soccer has raised concerns with UEFA President Michel Platini that players and fans could be racially abused at European Championship matches in Ukraine.
Football Association chairman David Bernstein says UEFA is “taking the whole potential situation very, very seriously.”
Referees have the power to stop games if racist chants are being directed at players.
Bernstein told a British parliamentary hearing into racism that “we are working on all sorts of contingency plans both for possible issues in stadia or outside the stadia. There are all sorts of things that could happen in Ukraine.”
Ukraine is co-hosting Euro 2012 with Poland from June 8-July 1. Anti-racism groups investigated an 18-month period up to March 2011 and found 195 incidents at matches in those two countries.
