Racism & the de-humanization of the sport we love.

A look at the massive problem that's tainted the game with shocking statistics to help understand the severity of racism in football.

[THREAD]

14th September 2020 – Le Classique:

Thauvin’s goal is the difference in a tightly contested game. Tempers threaten to flare multiple times with fouls from both sides peppering the pitch. At injury time, the long simmering tempers finally came to a boil.

2 players on each side were sent off for a scuffle. Neymar was also sent off moments later for a slap on Alvaro. Visibly seething, he screamed out to the referee on the side-line and the camera behind him in quick succession, calling the Spanish defender a “racist”.

Two days later Neymar was dealt a two-game suspension while Alvaro is still being investigated for his role in the incident.

Unsurprisingly the Alvaro-Neymar incident, though high profile, isn’t a one-off case. Kick It Out, a non-profit organisation based in England published data showing a substantial increase of reported cases involving racism, from 319 in 2017/18 to 422 in 2018/2019.

Racism is the most reported form of discrimination in football constituting a whopping 65% of total reports. These are also statistics from ONLY the English league system. The Italian league is notorious for having multiple incidents involving racism over the past few years.

There are possibly thousands of cases more that don’t get reported due to fear from being ostracised by the fans or even due to lack of support from the clubs they play for.

Racist fans are increasingly becoming a problem a lot of them are able to hurl abuse amidst the relative anonymity of the massive crowds football games draw. They hardly ever suffer consequences unless outed by other supporters, which is rare.

Studies have shown that minorities who are exposed to racism could suffer severe mental health issues and are more likely to suffer from depression & anxiety than minorities who haven’t faced similar incidents.

Often teams on the receiving end of racist abuse do not leave the pitch because it would result in a forfeit and lost points. Part of this is where the problem lies because the racism issue is bigger than any football game.

For long the UEFA and many federations have claimed a “zero tolerance policy” towards racism which couldn’t be further away from the truth. While fans have certainly been banned from games, federations are reluctant to punish racist players severely.

Federations & clubs are fined paltry amounts for reports relating to racism. There isn’t any consistency with regards to the durations of bans being dealt out and quite often players could suffer bigger bans for minor indiscretions.

But racism is a deeper issue than just abuse. Casual racism plagues not only social media but also football commentary. Players of colour are often categorised as physical, powerful and pacey even if their other attributes outweigh the ones being highlighted.

A study reported by The Independent showed that commentators are 6.5 times more likely to associate the word “power” with black players and are 3.4 times more likely to associate “speed” with them too.

White players get more of the “intelligence” praise at 62% and a similar % for praise regarding “work ethic” for the same demographic. 63% of “intelligence” criticism was aimed at black players. Nearly 68% of negative comments were aimed at darker toned players.

Another study of British soccer broadcasts found that focus groups of blacks were more likely to identify “media sport racial stereotypes” than whites, who neither had awareness of racial stereotypes of black athletes nor accepted the reality of them.

The media is heavily responsible for propagating and normalising racist behaviour by writing critical articles of players of colour whilst often ignoring similar misdemeanours of white footballers. Raheem Sterling for years has been taunted and harassed by British tabloids.

Racism cannot be weeded out in one shot. There has to be a systemic change and that will only happen when fans speak out and demand quick-fire, consistent and strong decisions from the governing bodies. Docking of points should be considered & stadium bans have to be dealt.

Players should be willing to take strong decisions and be allowed to walk off the field if subject to racist abuse. Clubs & fans should back their players. Federations and FIFA have to be relentless in their punishments.

Football deserves better. Football can do better.