Representatives of Croatian football and government authorities have come together for the first time to launch a national programme against discrimination in football at an event in Zagreb.

The House of Human Rights in Zagreb hosted a launch of the 'Power of Tolerance' programme which will see activities at all First Division League clubs during the Football People weeks this October and a series of workshops for football supporters after the period.

The programmes, being led by the Regional Youth Info Centre of Rijeka (YASA) in cooperation with the Association of First Division Football Clubs and Hrvatski nogometni savez (the Croatian FA), will begin with a focus on club activities between the 18 and 20 October with all players and referees wearing the slogan "Stop racism and Intolerance" in Croatian. They will also present banners with the slogan "Power of Tolerance".

The launch saw representatives of the Croatian FA, the Association of First Division Clubs, representatives of FC Dinamo Zagreb, FC Hajduk, FC Rijeka, the government Ministry of Sport, and supporter representatives.

Representatives of the Fare network met with the Croatian FA and FC Dinamo Zagreb after the launch to discuss recent developments in the country.

Nasrin El Gharni of YASA said, "We are very pleased that we finally have co-ordinated action in Croatia and with a level of institutional involvement. These are first steps which will lead to greater activities in the future.

"There have been number of incidents in Croatia this season, we are working with all clubs at the top on educational messages and will work directly with supporter groups."