Cameras, app to help fight racism in football: report

Dutch football association KNVB and the government are finalizing the measures they are taking to fight racism in football stadiums, and will likely present them next week, newspaper AD reports. Their measures include more cameras and a football app to report abuses, among other things.

With the football app, supporters will able to anonymously report abuses in the stands, according to the newspaper. The more and better cameras should help in catching supporters guilty of abuses. There may be a reporting obligation for supporters banned from a stadium - they'll have to report to a police station when a match is being played. And perpetrators' personal situations will be better examined, AD writes.

Late last year, NOS reported that the KNVB is also looking into imposing longer stadium bans on perpetrators. Whether this forms part of the plans, is not yet clear.

Many of these measures are already a possibility under Dutch law, but are not yet widely used. The government and KNVB now hope to change that.

The reason for these new measures is a match between FC Den Bosch and Excelsior on November 17th. Supporters in the stands shouted racist slurs at Excelsior player Ahmad Mendes Moreira. On Tuesday it was announced that FC Den Bosch called in lip readers to help track down those who shouted the racist slurs by viewing the TV images of the match. The club has since imposed stadium bans no multiple supporters, NOS reports.