Brazil: point deductions for racist behaviour introduced into the CBF's competition regulations

"The Brazilian Football Confederation is the first in the world to adopt the possibility of sporting sanctions against a club for racist behaviour in its 2023 General Regulations for Competitions," announced the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) on 14/02/2023.

"The CBF will strictly punish racist offences in football. This new measure will take effect from the start of the Copa do Brasil on 22/02/2023. The fight against racism is urgent. Measures have been discussed for decades but never put into practice. We have decided to go further with sanctions and we can now withdraw points from a club in one of our competitions," said Ednaldo Rodrigues, president of the CBF.

"Any offence of a discriminatory nature committed by a club's managers, representatives, professionals, players, technicians, staff members, supporters and referees in the competitions managed by the CBF will be sanctioned and the case will be forwarded to the Superior Tribunal de Justiça Desportiva (autonomous sports justice body, financed by the CBF) which will decide on the application of the point deduction to…