A FIFA expert panel has said that it wants players to exchange more handshakes on the field to improve sportsmanship.
The motion comes after the furore over Luis Suarez's refusal to shake Patrice Evra's hand at the recent Manchester United-Liverpool clash. Suarez had recently served an eight-match ban for racially abusing the Frenchman in the reverse fixture four months earlier.
Franz Beckenbauer, chairman of the Task Force Football 2014, said that a meeting recommended players should meet opponents in the centre circle after matches.
“At full time I think it would be a better image … when leaving the pitch together and not refusing a handshake,” Yahoo reported Beckenbauer as saying. “They should be role models and should behave like role models.”
The Kaiser said of the Suarez-Evra incident 11 days ago: “This is the first time I ever saw it myself. I think we simply have to stop it,” he said in comments translated from German.
However Suarez's hadshake refusal isn't the first such snub in English football. Prior to Chelsea's league game against Manchester City two years ago, Wayne Bridge refused John Terry's offer during the pre-match handshakes after revelations concerning an extra-marital affair Terry allegedly had with Bridge's ex-girlfriend and mother of his son.
Meanwhile, Samir Nasri blanked William Gallas during last season's north London derby after friction between the pair intensified during France's disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign. And even as far back as 2005, handshakes were avoided prior to Arsenal entertaining Manchester United at Highbury, following an expletive-laden row in the tunnel between captains Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane.
Beckenbauer did advise against any potential disciplinary action for players who refuse to abide by FIFA’s fair play code, saying that the governing body should first remind players and coaches of their responsibilities.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter was himself embroiled in controversy over such sporting gestures, when he suggested that players racially abused should settle an on-pitch confrontation by shaking hands at the end of a match. He later apologised for making the suggestion.
Blatter respond to Rio Ferdinand's opprobrium after his comments in November:
Pre-match handshakes in the Premier League began from the 2004/05 season, complemented by the league's own anthem.
Today prime minister David Cameron called on football authorities to "crush racism in football" at a Downing Street summit.