Blatter eases tough stance

FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Friday eased his hardline stance on combating racial abuse and violence in stadiums.
Blatter previously said football clubs should be docked points or relegated if their fans were found guilty of racist abuse and violence, however he is now suggesting such measures would be difficult to enforce.
Blatter had said last January that slapping financial penalties on clubs or ordering them to play matches behind closed doors did not go far enough.
But in comments Friday he appeared to recognise the practical difficulty of enforcing harder-hitting measures.
"How far should we go? Where should we stop?" the boss of world football's governing body said at a meeting of the company Early Warning System, which monitors matches on FIFA's behalf to fight match-fixing.
"Can we bring an end to violence or racism by docking points or relegating a team? Or would such measures lead people to come to games to get the match abandoned," he said.
"We should do all we can but there's a danger that if we have matches replayed or if we punish clubs on the sporting front, it will open the door to hooligan groups who will come to deliberately cause trouble."
FIFA later released a statement insisting that Blatter had not backtracked on his previous stance but was merely asking rhetorical questions about the feasibility of implementing tough sanctions.
"FIFA President Blatter today reiterated ... the need for punishment that hits hard against any form of racism," said the statement.
"Such issues will be carefully examined and will in no way alter the FIFA President's very strong commitment towards the eradication of the racism scourge from football and his zero tolerance towards any form of racism.
“At no stage did the FIFA President say any words that could be interpreted as him backing away from his firm position to sanction actions of any form of racism."