FIFA, world football's governing body, is doubling its minimum ban for racist incidents to 10 games, and will start inviting players to make victim statements at disciplinary hearings, according to its new disciplinary code. Stricter handling of discrimination allegations is a key theme of the redrafted FIFA disciplinary code which comes into effect next week.

"Topics like racism and discrimination have been updated, putting FIFA at the forefront of the fight against this appalling attack on the fundamental human rights of individuals," the organisation said in a statement on Thursday. The minimum ban for players or officials rises from five to 10 games, and victims can soon be heard in person by FIFA judging panels.

To modernise and improve its work, FIFA worked with football's leading discrimination monitoring group, London-based Fare network.

The new code now includes specific language including sexual orientation as a discrimination issue, bringing it into line with FIFA's statutes applying to 211 member federations worldwide.

"The changes to the disciplinary regulations are significant and we hope will allow FIFA to be more categorical in the way that they take action against discrimination of all kinds," Piara Powar, executive director of Fare network said in a statement. "We welcome the clear reference to homophobia," he added. "FIFA has sanctioned acts of homophobia quite extensively in Latin America in particular, but the previous rules were not fit for purpose and were challenged at CAS in several cases." Read more via Al Jazeera