Players Who Cover Their Mouth When Talking During Matches Should Be Sanctioned, Says Clarence Seedorf

Clarence Seedorf believes players who cover their mouth when talking during matches should be sanctioned.

The 45-year-old former midfielder, who played for Sampdoria, Real Madrid and Inter Milan during a 22-year career, has been speaking about combating hate speech in the game.

Last month, Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela covered his mouth when he allegedly racially abused Rangers player Glen Kamara.

He denied the claim but has since been suspended for 10 matches for "racist behaviour" towards his opponent in the Europa League clash.

In a recent meeting, Seedorf suggested stopping players from covering their mouths by implementing some rules, including a sanction (yellow card) for doing so.

"There is a lot of talk but not enough being done. The need is obvious and very urgent," Seedorf said.

"From a players' perspective, I have seen stuff with players speaking and covering their mouth during matches. There were some racist situations in the last weeks or months where the players among themselves had hate speeches.

"Those things can be very easily attacked by implementing some rules.

"When we're talking about sport it has to be completely transparent, so why would I cover my mouth if I need to talk with my adversary?

"If I want to talk to my coach or a team-mate, all fine, but when I approach the referee or another player in any sport, you are not allowed to cover your mouth, it has to be a sanction, a yellow card."

Image: PA

Seedorf also believes there should be a limit to the exposure the media gives to abusers.

"I would like to see a reflection of what we're fighting within those institutions (UEFA and FIFA)," Seedorf added.

"There is no equality, there is no inclusion whatsoever in the main organisations themselves. That's where we need to start and lead by example.

"Then you have a much better position to ask other people to change.

"We should limit the exposure the media gives to abusers. It cannot be (right) that we hear and see for days what a small group has done in a stadium.

"Obviously it needs to be noted, it needs to be out there. Then I would like to see, instead of an 80-20 visibility of what they did in the stadium, I would like to have 80 per cent (of the focus) on what happened after the sanction was implemented, after they captured that person, the group, and what the punishment was."

Topics: Football, Clarence Seedorf

Jack Kenmare

Jack Kenmare is a writer at SPORTbible. He's interviewed some of the biggest names in sport, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pele, Carles Puyol and Tim Henman. He dabbles in all things sport but football is his biggest passion. He was once hit in the head by a wayward strike from Nicky Butt and lived to tell the tale.

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