The Global Stand Against Racism and the Three Step Procedure

Dear Sir or Madam,

At the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, each of you took the historic decision to unanimously approve and assume collective responsibility for football’s Global Stand Against Racism. This represented a hugely important first step in what will be a process of change that will make our game stronger and more welcoming for all, now and into the future.

The operationalisation of this initiative is now underway, and FIFA will, together with all member associations, activate programmes and actions across each of the five action areas underpinning the Global Stand Against Racism – Rules and sanctions, Action on the field, Criminal charges, Education and the Player’s Voice.

Under the second action area of Action on the Field, it was agreed unanimously by the FIFA Congress that global football will pause, suspend and abandon games in cases of racism, introducing a global standard gesture for players to communicate racist incidents and referees to signal the mandatory implementation of the three-step procedure which will be made mandatory in all 211 FIFA Member Associations.

Following this decision, FIFA would therefore like to share with you the enclosed Three-Step Procedure protocol which reflects this decision. This represents a basic, simplified version of the protocol, allowing it to be activated universally to ensure its common application at all levels of the game. Each step should be increasingly upscaled and expanded upon in accordance with the increasing scale and resources of the competition in question.

Each member association is asked to distribute the Three Step Procedure accordingly within their respective countries to all affected stakeholders including match officials, competition organisers, teams, players and any other relevant parties, reminding them of the mandatory implementation of this protocol at all organised football games.

Looking ahead to the further operationalisation of the five action areas globally, the FIFA Member Association Division, supported by the FIFA Anti-Discrimination team will be reaching out to each of you individually, in particular to gather current existing information, to provide updates on the regulatory framework, to share templates, guidelines and best practices on initiatives to be undertaken in each country, and to provide technology and software that can assist member associations, amongst others.

We thank you for taking note of the above and please do not hesitate to contact Solomon Mudege (Head of Development Programmes) and Gerd Dembowski (Senior Diversity & Anti-Discrimination Manager) at anti-racism@fifa.org  for any questions you may have in the meantime.

Yours faithfully,

FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION

Mattias Grafström Secretary General

Encl.: The Three Step Procedure Protocol

cc: - FIFA Council - Confederations - ECA - FIFPRO - World Leagues Association