Kolkata: Now this has to be taken seriously. And we mean it. When the head of an international body speaks on an issue of grave concern, he can’t be refuted. FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants zero tolerance of child abuse in football and has assured to look into ways to ensure that the football body does enough to face the challenges vis-à-vis the scandal in England. Reuters reports, “The English Football Association (FA) have launched a review into allegations of children being sexually abused at professional clubs, while British police are also investigating mounting accusations of paedophile activity.”
Infantino said, “It has to be taken seriously. There must be zero tolerance from that point of view, from a football perspective, but also from a criminal perspective as well. “Those who have been guilty of abusing on children need to punished very seriously. They have to be out of football, that is without question, but also on the criminal side they need to be punished. There are not many worse things in life, not in football life but in life generally, than child abuse,” the FIFA president from Italy added.
“The Football Association is already, of course, looking into that matter and this is something that to be taken very seriously,” Infantino who holds both Swiss and Italian nationalities elaborated. “In football as well, we probably have to look into that with more care and more attention in order to prevent any potential child abuse in the future,” Infantino said
FIFA has faced impediments in recent times, but the fact that it still means business amid scandals in a country like England which popularises the game, are aberrations and the body is determined to fight this onslaught. It should be left to the authorities to fight it out and make sure that injustice is not meted out to innocent souls.
We are watching!
(With inputs from Reuters)