Posted June 15, 2017 19:13:55

Photo: FIFA's stance on racist crowds has often been criticised. (Reuters: Vladimir Kutin)

Referees at this year's Confederations Cup in Russia will have the power to abandon games over discriminatory behaviour by fans as part of a three-step procedure to promote fair play during the tournament.

The procedure announced by FIFA allows referees to make a public announcement over discriminatory fan behaviour, temporarily suspend the game if the problem persists and completely call off the match if the behaviour does not stop.

The governing body also introduced an initiative to deploy anti-discrimination officials into the crowd to detect and report abusive behaviour.

From issues with the stadiums to potential human rights violations, rampant hooliganism to Vladimir Putin himself, this is a tournament on a knife's edge.

"These are ground-breaking changes in the global fight against discrimination that will mark the 2017 edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement.

"Both initiatives are extra tools for the referees and match officials to prevent discriminatory attitudes and ensure that the atmosphere in the stadium is one of fair play and respect."

FIFA had previously used observers, who are trained by the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network, at the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and specific international friendlies.

The threat of rampant racial abuse is just one concern ahead of the 2018 World Cup and this most recent measure is a far cry from an incident earlier this year, when a Serie A player was handed a red card after reporting racial abuse from the stands.

Ghanaian Sulley Muntari was playing for Pescara against Cagliari in May when he stopped playing due to the abuse by fans.

Photo: Sulley Muntari is on record as saying FIFA and UEFA do not care about racism in the game. (Reuters: Wolfgang Rattay)

He was eventually handed a red card for refusing to play on and the league's rules dictated he had to be handed a one-game ban.

Italy's football federation stepped in to overturn the suspension, but Muntari said FIFA and European football's governing body, UEFA, did not care about tackling the problem.

"They only do things that they are interested in," he told the BBC.

"If you're interesting in something right away you jump in ... Things that are good for them, they do it."

The 10th edition of the Confederations Cup will kick off on June 18 (AEST) with hosts Russia facing New Zealand, with Australia set to play its first game on the morning of June 20 against Germany.

Reuters/ABC

Topics: soccer, race-relations, sport, russian-federation