“Spain is not racist, it is a false and uninformed label”
“I want to minimize the discrepancies in football, I don’t see the Viana 2 Pacts, but there will be dialogue”
MADRID, 15 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), Víctor Francos, affirmed that if the PSOE wins the elections on 23-J and remains in office, its first objective will be to “develop” the new Sports Law, and regretted the “false label and uninformed” that has been put to Spain for the ‘Vinícius case’.
“Spain is not a racist country. I think it is a label, in some cases, false, misinformed and disinterested. Therefore, you have to be careful. In Spain there are racists who go to football, basketball and sports courts. Just like there are sexists, homophobes and people who insult other people’s religious condition,” he said in an interview with Europa Press.
In this sense, Víctor Francos insisted that Spain “is neither a homophobic, nor a macho, nor a racist country.” “Now, yes, there are racists, sexists, homophobes, who discriminate and who violate the fundamental rights recognized by the United Nations who go to see sporting events. And what the government wants is to eradicate that presence and we will take all the necessary measures “, he stated.
He recalled that the Government has given the power to the Police to stop a match if they see a racist attitude in the stands of a stadium. “I know that the professional and non-professional leagues are also taking all possible measures. That there is a commitment from the clubs and federations to this end and I also claim that we need a lot of help from the fans so that when they see an attitude of that denounce it forcefully,” he said.
Regarding Spain’s candidacies for the 2030 and 2029 soccer and athletics world cups and the 2031 Ryder Cup, Francos declared himself “very optimistic” in all of them. “Perhaps, in which we are starting now, and therefore it is the one with which I am more prudent, is the 2029 World Athletics Championships in Barcelona. But with the Ryder, last week we had the opportunity to have a meeting and the thing It looks very good. And with the World Cup we are very hopeful, because we think we have a very solid candidacy”, he commented.
The trick of Spain’s project for the 2030 World Cup is that, along with Portugal, they are two “very soccer-loving” countries in Europe and the inclusion of Morocco allows them to “unite two continents and two cultures.” “We are very hopeful.”
SOME PACTS OF VIANA 2?
Spain should not recover the Olympic dream because “to recover it you have to have lost it.” “We were very hopeful with the possible candidacy of the Winter Olympics. It could not be due to discrepancies outside the Government of Spain and we did not give up even on being able to recover the idea of a Winter Games, which we do not want to give up, nor on the dream of having new summer ones”, he stressed.
In the event that the PSOE wins the elections on 23-J, Francos has set himself to develop the new Sports Law, consolidate the budget increase for the sector, and that it reaches the federations and the base sport, prepare the great events such as Paris 2024 and “reduce as much as possible” the discrepancies in football.
“When the PSOE wins the elections and Pedro Sánchez governs again, and if he and the minister see fit for me to repeat in this position, our first objective will be to develop the Sports Law immediately. The second, to consolidate the increase that there has been in the last four years in the budget for Spanish sport and if possible to increase it”, he advanced.
The third objective would be for this budget increase to go down to the federations and the grassroots sport, and the fourth would be to prepare for major events such as the America’s Cup for sailing, the Ryder Cup for golf, and the athletics and soccer world championships.
“And the fifth, no less important, but I am realistic, more complicated, how can we minimize the discrepancies that exist in Spanish sport, and especially in football. I don’t see myself prefiguring some Viana Pacts right now 2, but yes, on what depends on me, there will be dialogue,” he wished.