"THE FAIREST MAN IN SWEDEN"
Fair Play
On 13th April, at the Annual General Meeting of the
Swedish Football Association, Thomas Wernersson
receives Sweden's 1995 Fair Play award as a tribute
to his intervention during last season's league match
between IFK Göteborg and AIK Stockholm.
The former Sweden and IFK Göteborg goalkeeper is
now the General Manager at the club which, apart
from its two UEFA Cup successes, has made its
mark in the UEFA Champions League.
There was friction between two groups of rival sup
porters before the game and, once play got under
way, this was translated into verbal exchanges and,
finally, some ugly racist chanting aimed at AlK's
Pascal Simpson, a goalscoring midfielder born in
Sweden and who celebrates his 25th birthday on the
5th of this month. Thomas Wernersson reacted immi-
diately. Fie grabbed the stadiumspeaker's micropho
ne and, apart froma asking his own fans to stop the
chanting, he told them their behaviour was totally
unacceptable. His action not only stopped the racist
chanting. It changed the whole atmosphere in the
stadium and there was no more trouble either during or after the match.
In giving him the award, the jury's citation emphasised that at a time whem racism is
worryingly increasing in society and in sport, Thomas Wernersson s action stood out as
"a powreful gesture of Fair Play" which emphasised the responsibilities of leaders in
sport. "He proved that a vigorous reaction," said the judges, "can wake up the suppor
ters, change unsporting behaviour and make them see sense."
The award also means a cash prize of 50,000 Swedish kronor (about 10,000 Swiss
francs) for the Swedish association to invest in a Fair Play campaign aimed at Youth
football.Thomas Wernersson's success is all the more noteworthy as Sweden's Fair
Play Trophy is not a purely footballing award, but one sponsored by the National Sports
Federations in connunction with the Sportswriters' Association. The first footballing win
ner was Björn Nordqvist in 1977 while he was back at home with IFK between spells of
"exile" at PSV Eindhoven and Minnesota Kicks. Since then, the award has gone to IFK
Göteborg (1981), Torbjörn Nilsson (1985), Tommy Svensson (1994) and, in 191, to Pia
Sundhage who wins her 140th cap for the Swedish women's team against Spain in a
European preliminary match next month. Thomas Wernersson thus becomes the sixth
football personality to win the Fair Play award in its 20 years of existence - and he has
won with an outstanding gesture. Nice one Thomas!
Thomas Wernersson, as the IFK
goalkeeper, proudly clutches the
UEFA Cup in 1982 after having
beaten Hamburger SV in the final.
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