24 Nov 2013

Former France soccer player, Marcel Dessaily, says racism in football needs to be tackled from the top with the world football governing bodies taking charge.

Speaking at the Barclays premier league trophy tour press conference in Gaborone, Dessaily said players were powerless to fight racism on the football pitch but rather FIFA and UEFA should put in place clear and stringent rules that would deal with racism in football more effectively.

“When players step out into the pitch it is all about competition, respecting your opponents, spirit and doing what you love best, so players cannot also be tasked with taking on racism,” he said. He said back when he played in Italy, he too experienced racism chants but he could not say or do anything about it.

“I’m expecting people who run football to commit themselves to much more of what they are doing regarding racism,” he said. Dessaily, who also played for Chelsea football club 222 times and scored seven goals during his time there, said this season’s Barclays premier league was unpredictable.

“Nobody can tell who is going to win the title because even the top clubs look like they are still going to lose a few games,” he said. Speaking on his country’s qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Dessaily said he was pleased that France qualified and it would have been a shame if they failed to qualify.

“I’m pleased that they showed real potential over the last leg of qualifying but we should be patient with them because we had a terrible World Cup back in 2010,” he said. Dessaily touched on African teams and their chances at the 2014 World Cup and said it was rare that an African team could qualify from the group stages.

“Qualifying from the group stages needs a certain mind set and you mostly find that when an African team does make it from the group stages, they are exhausted mentally and physically and cannot go past the quarter finals,” he said.

Dessaily said he wished that an African team could go further than the quarter finals. He also touched on Ghana’s Kevin Prince-Boateng and the controversy that followed when he announced that he was now available to play for Ghana again.

“I believe he did not set up a good example for the youth who look up to him when he quit the national only to now conveniently come back,” he said. Dessaily said there was no question that Prince-Boateng was a top player, but Ghana needed better commitment from him.

“It is easy to come back when the national team has already qualified and I must say I was not happy with his attitude,” he said.
For her part, head of marketing and communications at Barclays Bank Botswana, Rachel Mushaike, said this season Barclays was thanking fans across the world for their support.

“This is the first leg of a three year BPL trophy tour during which the trophy will visit Africa, Middle East, Asia and North America,” she said She indicated that in Africa, the trophy will only visit Kenya and Botswana.

Mushaike said during Dessaily’s visit, the soccer legend will engage in a number of public activities with customers and also interact with disadvantaged children aged between 10 and 13. She also said her bank has BPL product offerings and through these products customers have an opportunity to interact more with the game. ENDS