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Soccer is deeply ingrained within European sports culture. Alongside this long-standing history of the sport is an often left undiscussed issue of racism. The popularity of soccer has inevitably led to high cases of racism by fans towards players, manifesting through in-person and online outlets. The lack of interest in these issues perpetuated by fans, management, and players alike has created a never-ending cycle of racist damage and trauma toward these players. This blog examines how racism within soccer persists within fan cultures by examining its history and current presence on social media and exploring the impact racist attacks have on players. 

History of Racism in Soccer 

The start of international soccer began in 1863 when the Football Association was formed to regulate local and national games (Back, 1999). The majority of players were white working-class men; however, a few black players were also in the professional league. Due to the low number of black players, white supporters did not show racial malice towards minority players (Back, 1999). In England, the rise of racism came about after the Second World War (Goddard, 2009). Shortage of work in many European countries led immigrants to Great Britain in search of a better life. During the 1970s to 1980s, the peak of the immigration surge, racism in soccer increased (Goddard, 2009). There was a rise in professional black players, many born in England; however, they were racially abused by the largely populated white fans. Black players faced an increase in explicit racism where supporters created racial chants, threw bananas at players, and made monkey gestures. Mark Doidge, a principal fellow and a trustee for the British Sociology Association, specializes in soccer fan culture (Doidge, 2018). He says that fans are easy to blame for this pervasive racist culture in soccer (Doidge, 2018). The media targets fans and marks them as racist and violent. It is convenient to blame fans when this problem is seen among players, coaches, and referees. Due to the rise of racism, in 1993, an international level anti-racism campaign called “Kick It Out” was formed (Penfold, 2022). Shortly after, other privately sourced campaigns like FARE and Never Again conducted research and provided resources to educate people about racism in soccer (Penfold, 2022). Soccer’s fight against racism has been going on for over 30 years, yet the battle has not been won. 

Fan Culture 

Soccer in Europe is a sport for the common people and the working class. Workers with minimum wage jobs work six days a week, and on Saturdays, they let out all their excitement and frustration during a soccer match. This is the root of the sport; however, society is now trying to change and condemn racism alongside this. On the contrary, soccer has not changed, nor have the fans because racism is deeply rooted in European soccer fan culture. 

In a study by Muller van Zonnen, he did 20 extensive interviews with fans and coaches to understand the effects of racism in Amsterdam soccer clubs (Müller, 2007). Interestingly, Amsterdam does not have many cases of racism; however, the researchers found that fans in Amsterdam openly agreed that they participate in racism (Müller, 2007). One typical result was that these fans said racist remarks to influence the game’s outcome (Müller, 2007). This type of explicit racism is unlawful in Amsterdam, yet it seems that soccer matches are a safe space for these racist groups to gather. 

With the rise of the Black Lives Movement and other anti-racist initiatives, explicit racism has decreased; however, implicit racism through social media has been much worse (Dixon, 2016). The online mediums are weaponized for racist attacks against players of color, increasing every year. Brandwatch, an England-based digital consumer agency, researched UK anti-racism charity Kick It Out (Kassimeris, 2021). Their study found that between November 2018 and 2019, there was a 600-900% increase in online racial abuse attacks toward Europe’s soccer teams on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook (Kassimeris, 2021). Professional black individual players are more prone to these attacks. For example, Mario Balotelli, an Italian national team player, received more than 8,000 hateful posts making him the most targeted individual (Kilvington, 2019). Online racist abuse increases during major tournaments. When England lost the 2020 European Championships final in penalty kicks, racist fans targeted three black players, Bakayoko Saka, Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho. They messaged them with hundreds of monkey emojis. Still, people tend to defend these racial aggressions with ignorant lines such as “wow, monkey emojis are not even racist 😡” or “it is an emoji of a cute animal 😂.” Unlike offline racism, online racism tends to be long-lived, indirect, and not openly acknowledged. There is no form of accountability online, so abusers target players without receiving any feedback. 

Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have promised to moderate hate speech on their platforms. This is an ongoing debate since proactively policing hate speech is not working (Cleland, 2014). Social media companies refuse to share data, and there is no governing body that regulates their actions. Whenever fans blame these companies, it is often months before they respond and take action. Soccer clubs and soccer communities need to work with social media companies to protect their players from being racially abused. 

Impact On Players  

  Regardless of offline or online racist abuse statistics, how it impacts players are often overlooked. Despite the accolades, FIFA world cup winner Roberto Carlos said racism affected him the most (AllThingsSeleção, 2020). He was called a chimpanzee throughout his career, and spectators threw bananas at him. Fans even carved out the word monkey in his car. Roberto Carlos was seen crying in the locker rooms due to multiple incidents of racist abuse(AllThingsSeleção, 2020). Other incidents include Mario Balotelli threatening to leave the game after fans chanted “Nerone, brucuali tutti!” which translates to “Negro, burn them all. Many like Danny Rose, a national team player from England, have similar sentiments after these ongoing incidents of racist abuse. He stated, “I have got five or six more years left in football, and I cannot wait to see its back” (Lane, 2019). It is devastating to see players being racially abused every week. Plans must be implemented to protect colored professional soccer players. 

Combating Racism

There have been a few groups that have devoted efforts to combat racism. In 1993, a campaign called “Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football” was launched (Penfold, 2022). Their goal was to create an educational community to encourage an inclusive environment to eliminate racial discrimination seen in soccer. Stand up speak up is an establishment run by World Cup winner Thierry Henry who created an intertwined black and white bracelet to raise awareness about racism in soccer (Penfold, 2022). Profits will go to different anti-racist groups (Penfold, 2022). Educational ideas to combat racism can only go so far. There need to be efforts to advertise inclusive events and merchandise during every soccer match. Since people love soccer, it is essential to try and change the racist thoughts of fans during match day and advocate for professional players to speak out about racism. Soccer can be used to bring fans together and create a positive groupthink mindset to establish change. 

References

AllThingsSeleção. 2020. “Never Forget in 1997 Roberto Carlos Tried to Speak out after Being Racially Abused at Camp Nou. Pep Guardiola Responded to the Media by Saying ‘He Shouldn’t Be Talking‘Barcelona Fans Then Sang ‘Roberto Carlos, F*Cking Chimpanzee’ & Scratched the Word ‘Monkey’ over His Car. Pic.twitter.com/wylldcll6i.” Twitter, Twitter, https://twitter.com/selecaotalk/status/1267126333420834816?lang=en.

Back, L et al. “Beyond the racist/hooligan couplet: race, social theory and football culture.” The British journal of sociology vol. 50,3 (1999): 419-42. 

Cleland, Jamie, and Ellis Cashmore. 2014. “Fans, Racism and British Football in the Twenty-First Century: The Existence of a ‘Colour-Blind’ Ideology.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 40 (4):638-654.

Dixon, Kevin, Jacqueline Lowes, and Tom Gibbons. 2016. “Show Racism the Red Card: Potential Barriers to the Effective Implementation of the Anti-Racist Message.” Null 17 (1):140-154. 

Doidge, Mark, and Martin Lieser. 2018. “The Importance of Research on the Ultras: Introduction.” Null 21 (6):833-840. 

Goddard, John, and John O. S. Wilson. 2009. “Racial Discrimination in English Professional Football: Evidence from an Empirical Analysis of Players’ Career Progression.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 33 (2):295-316. 

Lane, Barnaby. 2019. “15 Racist Incidents from across the World of Soccer That Made 2019 One of the Sport’s Most Shameful Years Ever.” Business Insider, Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/the-shameful-list-of-soccer-racist-incidents-in-2019-2019-12. 

Müller, Floris, L. van Zoonen, and L. de Roode. 2007. “Accidental Racists: Experiences and Contradictions of Racism in Local Amsterdam Soccer Fan Culture.” Null 8 (2-3):335-350. 

Kassimeris, Christos. 2021. “Discrimination in Football” Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003055280 

Kilvington, Daniel, and John Price. 2019. “Tackling Social Media Abuse? Critically Assessing English Football’s Response to Online Racism.” Communication and Sport 7(1):64-79 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2167479517745300). doi: 10.1177/2167479517745300.

Penfold, Connor, and Jamie Cleland. 2022. “Kicking it Out? Football Fans’ Views of Anti-Racism Initiatives in English Football.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 46 (2):176-198.