Anti-discriminatory monitoring system launched ahead of 2018 World Cup in Russia

LONDON, May 12. /TASS/. The International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) in collaboration with the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network launched on Tuesday a special monitoring system for 2018 World Cup qualifiers, which kick off this year. The system, which was launched today at the Wembley Stadium in London, is part of FIFA’s set of measures to tackle the issue of discriminatory behavior at football stadiums ahead of the much-anticipated global football tournament, which will be hosted by Russia in three years. The system will be supervised by FIFA and implemented by FARE. It implies deployment of the so-called Match Observers at the 2018 World Cup qualifying matches, who will be monitoring and keeping track of all incidents of discriminatory nature during and around the game and reporting about them to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee within 24 hours. "This collaboration between FIFA and the Fare network marks a milestone in the fight against discrimination in football," FARE Executive Director Piara Powar was quoted as saying on the network’s official website. "We are bringing our experience and know-how in identifying match-day issues and will work with leading experts across the world to ensure that football’s flagship event shows that football does not have to be associated with issues of discrimination or exclusion," Powar added. Russia is currently gearing up for the Preliminary Draw, which is the first major kick-off event ahead of the global tournament itself. The draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition will be held on July 25 in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg with a total of 208 nations having signed up for the participation in the event. It will be for the first time in the history of World Cups, when all national teams registered for the Preliminary Draw. Russia as the hosting nation automatically qualified for the championship and therefore is not taking part in the preliminary competition. The first major kick-start event of the 2018 World Cup will be held at the historic Konstantinovsky Palace, a stronghold of Russia’s rich culture located on the Gulf of Finland’s stunning shoreline. It used to serve in the 18th century as one of the residences of Russia’s imperial family. Russia won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup over four years ago in a tight race against the joint bid from England, Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands. Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara. The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital. Read more