Racism is ruining the beautiful game, and it has an infinite number of variations in its expression. Incidents of verbal abuse are widespread both on and off the pitch. Sometimes it is the players who are abusive, as was the case when a Slavia Prague player, Ondřej Kúdela, insulted Glen Kamara, a Finnish player of Sierra Leonean descent, using racial slurs during a Europa League match in March 2021 (See video below).
Sometimes the abuse comes from the fans: Antonio Rudiger, a player for Chelsea, claimed he heard monkey sounds coming from fans at Tottenham and yet, an investigation led nowhere, and the offenders were not punished.
Social media provides another, often more virulent platform for discriminatory behaviour in the world of soccer. In July 2020, Wilfred Zaha, a player for Crystal Palace in England, was sent racially discriminatory messages on Instagram by a twelve-year-old who was taken into custody by police (See his tweet below - Warning of sensitive content).
Indeed, online abuse is so rampant in the UK that the top league engineered a media blackout from May 1 to May 3rd, 2021. Racial discrimination also takes more implicit forms: there is a lack of representation of ethnic minority groups in boardrooms and top coaching positions. Furthermore, Danny McLoughlin, a researcher for RunRepeat, determined in a study that commentators on soccer matches tend to praise “players with lighter skin tone as more intelligent, as being of higher quality, and harder working than players with darker skin tone.” In contrast, “players with darker skin tone were significantly more likely to be reduced to their physical characteristics or athletic abilities -namely pace and power - than players with lighter skin tone players were.”
This is the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body members that gave Ondřej Kúdela a ten match ban for "racist behaviour," and a three match ban to Glen Kamara for "assaulting another player" in reaction. Notice anything about them?
Racism also exists in sports journalism: Raheem Sterling, a Manchester City player, exposed distinctions made in the reporting of young players’ spending that reinforces racial stereotypes about young Black men and their money. The headlines for two news stories about young players buying homes for their mothers could not have been more different. The story about a home purchased by a young Black footballer follows a headline that suggests the player showed poor judgement in ‘splashing out’ on a £2.25 million mansion, when he had only just started his career. The headline for the story about the white footballer’s home purchase makes no such insinuation but calls the player by name and notes only that the ‘starlet’ bought the home for his mother – a fact left out of the Black footballer’s story (See Sterling's post below).
The governing bodies of soccer such as FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) and UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) claim to have ‘a zero-tolerance policy’ towards racism, and yet incidents seem to have underwhelming consequences for its offenders. The examples mentioned above are highly covered by the media, but a major concern that is often left undiscussed is arguably that which affects the most people: racism at a grassroots level. Kick It Out, “English football’s equality and inclusion organization,” received 94 reports of discrimination in the 2019/2020 season. This was lower than the 113 received in the previous year, but there were far fewer matches due to the pandemic. By comparing the numbers at equivalent periods, the number of reports increased by 11%. A poll launched by the same organization “showed that 39% of fans surveyed had witnessed or heard an act of discrimination within the last year and 14% of people had witnessed abuse within the last week alone.”
The ability to track and compile such reports and statistics is an important first step in addressing the problem. According to Max Mauro, a professor at Solent University in Southampton, in the chapter “Tackling racism and discrimination in grassroots sport” of Sport and Contested Identities: Contemporary Issues and Debates, the issue of racism and discrimination is anything but simple, and monitoring incidents allows for a better understanding of the “plurality of racisms.” To properly implement an effective tracking system, the accessibility to reporting for all those involved and the awareness of methods of reporting is essential to be effective in addressing specific incidents. For example, as opposed to requiring a report by a referee, all players, coaches, and observers should have the capability to file their independent account of an incident, to be subsequently reviewed and dealt with.
Monitoring incidents allows for a better understanding of the “plurality of racisms”
The next step is addressing the consequences of a racist incident. Currently, the system of punishment tends to revolve around bans for a period or a varying number of matches. UEFA’s Disciplinary Regulations stipulates in Article 14 on Racism and other discriminatory conduct:
"Any person under the scope of Article 3 who insults the human dignity of a person or group of persons on whatever grounds, including skin colour, race, religion, ethnic origin, gender, or sexual orientation, incurs a suspension lasting at least ten matches or a specified period of time, or any other appropriate sanction."
This approach to dealing with racism is reactive as opposed to Germany’s model which takes a more proactive position. As Mauro observes, the German leagues promote education through “fair-play training courses, carried out with individual players or whole teams following the decisions of the disciplinary body. These courses are, in the main, mandatory, but players can attend them on a volunteer basis.” Among the workshops they use are “hypothetical discrimination cases taking place in the context of a football game and [they are] asked to choose among different responses to the incident.” This sort of engaging educational activity should be applied in grassroots soccer from youth to senior leagues. The type of training should be relevant for a variety of age groups, and it is important that the content employed evolves based on real-life scenarios.
As noted, incidents of racism regularly involve children, some as young as twelve years old, and these are not isolated incidents. Tracking the problem and shifting the focus of consequences from punishment to education are imperative steps to reaching the long-term objective of eradicating racism in soccer.
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