Friday 6 March 2015 14:32, UK
Chelsea have been quick to issue a statement saying there is no place for discrimination, including sexism, in football.
The Premier League leaders were responding to footage released recently showing obscene and sexist abuse being directed at their club doctor Eva Carneiro.
And the Blues say such behaviour is ‘unacceptable,’ a message supported by the body Women in Sport which says they back Chelsea’s call for ‘an end to sexist chanting in football’.
The focus of this recent abuse, Carneiro, worked with the British Olympic Medical Institute at the Beijing Games, before joining Chelsea six years ago as reserve team doctor. She started working with the first team in 2011.
She has been the target of abuse by football supporters on a number of occasions and a Chelsea statement issued on Friday reads: "The issue of equality is one we take extremely seriously.
“We abhor discrimination in all its forms, including sexism. Such behaviour is totally unacceptable and we want it eradicated from the game."
Women in Sport have also issued a statement, which says: "As a charity campaigning to transform sport for the benefit of every woman and girl in the UK, we are wholly and entirely supportive of efforts being made to eradicate sexist chanting in football.
“We welcome the efforts of organisations like Women in Football and Kick It Out in challenging the prevailing attitude that sexist language and behaviours should go unpunished and labelled as ‘banter’.
“Women have the right to work in sport, as in any workplace or environment, without fear of abuse or discrimination.
“Sport as a whole has a responsibility to stand up for the rights of those women that work in sport, as well as those who aspire to do so.”
It has been reported that, so far this season, a total of 25 complaints of sexist abuse have been made to either anti-discrimination campaign group Kick It Out or equality group Women in Football.
On Friday, FIFA president Sepp Blatter reiterated his call to have female representation on the executive committee of football's world governing body.
And he criticised the continental confederations for, so far, failing to make this happen by saying: “In 2011, at the end of the Congress, I said we must have at least one woman on the executive committee.
"In all the confederations, there is no woman and that's a pity, we should change in the future."
Blatter has also asked Iran to end its ban on women watching football matches, and he wrote in FIFA's weekly magazine: "When I travelled to Iran in November 2013, I raised the topic at my meeting with the President of Iran Hassan Rouhani.
“I came away with the impression that this intolerable situation could change over the medium term.
"However, nothing has happened. A collective ‘stadium ban’ still applies to women in Iran, despite the existence of a thriving women's football organisation. This cannot continue.”
