It was not an unfamiliar incident for an unknown individual to invade an ongoing international match. But as FIFA recently introduced a new set of policies in the hopes of curbing racism and discrimination incidents in the World Cup, interest groups like the anti-discrimination network Fare have been paying attention to anything that appeared racist or discriminating.
NDTV said on Saturday's match between Ghana and Germany, a bearded man invaded the ongoing game, taking off his shirt and revealing what seemed to be a protest of some sort. He was later on escorted by Ghanian player Sulley Muntari.
On a closer look however, some of the messages written on his chest included "HH" which signified Heil Hitler, and "SS" that refers to the Nazi paramilitary unit.
Yesterday, Fare executive director Piara Powar told The Associated Press about their investigation about the incident, "There would be no other explanation for it. The question becomes how does one control an individual fan who chooses to mark his body and jumps on the pitch to propagate his neo-Nazi views."
Power also added that it has also tackled an incident of fans wearing blackface makeup at the same match, and observed that there was no intervention by stadium security of any sort about the behavior.
Earlier on Sunday, FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer told reporters, "We do not respect any discriminatory messages. We are always taking any evidence or submissions to our disciplinary committee."
Power said that FIFA has somewhat failed in its mandate to curb racism and discrimination, especially during the Germany-Ghana match. He suggested that monitors should be installed in matches to aid in intervening incidents like the field intruder and alleged German faces wearing blackface paint.
NDTV said that should FIFA decides to impose penalties regarding such acts, national football federations would be taking the brunt of the punishment, as the latter are deemed responsible for the behavior of fans inside the stadiums.
