KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: FIFA has tacitly conceded how badly it blundered in 2016 by scrapping an anti-racism task force.

The nonsensical decision was taken in a wholesale clear-the-decks rush by then new president Gianni Infantino to create as much distance as possible from the scandal-scarred FIFA of disgraced predecessor Sepp Blatter.

FIFA’s original anti-racism task force had been created in 2013, partly to assess measures to combat the ongoing problem but partly also as a profile-building vehicle for Jebb Webb, then the head of CONCACAF who was considered a possible future presidential candidate of the world body.

His bright future vanished two years later: Webb was among seven senior world football directors detained by Swiss police on the eve of FIFA Congress in Zurich in 2015 and subsequently extradited to the United States in the FIFAGate case. He is still awaiting trial.

A year later the anti-racism commission was scrapped. That decision has haunted the game ever since with many federations only too happy to turn a blind eye – and ear – to racist behaviour from fans and leaving referees unsupported and reluctant to apply the in-match protocol.

Now, after the racist targeting of Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr in LaLiga, FIFA claims it has seen the light.

Infantino announced earlier this week that the Real Madrid striker will head a special commission made up of players to fight racism. He was in Barcelona to meet the player ahead of Brazil’s friendly against Guinea.

FIFA’s president said he had “asked Vinicius to lead this group of players [composing the special commission] which will present stricter sanctions against racism.”

Promising that there will be “no more football with racism,” he insisted that “matches must be stopped immediately when this happens.”

Infantino added: “We have to listen to the players and know what they need to work in a safer environment. We are very serious about this.”

Maybe. Time will tell.

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