The yellow-card campaign introduced in 1988 has proved its value and while about to be revitalised, it will continue to remain the most visible symbol of the highly effective programme to sensitise the world to the ethics and morals of sport. It is a vocation which must never be neglected.
Football needs to take the offensive against the wrong-doers.
FIFA was most shaken by the revelation during the 1995 World Youth Championship in Qatar that outsiders had been approaching the young players from some teams with offers of incentives - for winning. This apparently harmless behaviour was far less benevolent than it appeared at first sight, when it became evident that the individuals involved, from south-east Asia, had not only already taken contact with young players in previous FIFA finals and lured them into situations which could compromise them in future, but had also had links with betting syndicates in their home part of the world. It appeared more than mere coincidence that at more or less the same time, inquiries were continuing into allegations of corruption by south-east Asian manipulators of leading players in English football. Punishment is one means of dealing with problems such as these. More productive in the long-term is to undertake a systematic programme of education from the lower ranks upwards, and this has been the policy adopted by the new Working Group for the Good of the Game, introduced by the FIFA President after the Qatar incident and now attached to the FIFA Committee for Security and Fair Play.