Prejudice And Racism In Soccer

Racism in football, or more commonly referred to as soccer, is the most detrimental

element in the sport. It is widely regarded as the world’s most popular sport, or “o jogo bonito

(the beautiful game)” as branded by Brazilian football legend Pele. According to a majority of

the new modern­thinking world, racism is a roadblock that should have been surpassed long ago

in a game as popular and worldwide as this one.

The issue of racist abuse in European soccer and the abuse of soccer players who

play there obviously happens to get its origins in Europe, mainly because of the predominantly

white demographic in these places. Despite the dense areas in which it has originated, this racist

behavior has become a worldwide problem due to the overall

international popularity in which
the sport has found itself with due to the international World Cup set most recently in Brazil.
This issue primarily affects not only the direct victims of the actual racist abuse, who happen to
be the players, but it also affects a major portion of the fans alike.
The background of this issue comes from blatant xenophobia and colorism that
often goes unpunished in a modern day society, especially of that found in Europe.

These

countries, such as England, Germany, Italy, France, and certain parts of Spain, have always had

white privilege due to being predominantly white countries. This is not to say that said countries

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lack culture or color, but the fact of the matter is that there is one common hierarchy that puts

certain races or colors above others. This problem is deeply rooted in the European ideals of

white dominance and the tier of races, with fair skinned being put at the top of the pedestal and

darker or black skinned being placed at the bottom.

This specifically affects players, who are the victims, but it leads to an increase of

worldwide racism. Being a worldwide and internationally recognized sport, it is a sport for those

of all ages from all corners of the globe. The older fans have seen racism in their own houses and

have seen it be deemed acceptable by society, therefore practice racist tendencies outside of the

home. The younger fans, however, keep the world from improving and taking a step further.

Being so impressionable, it’s easy for a child to see racism and practice it, not knowing

the
gruesome history behind monkey chants and throwing bananas. This will keep racism at the
stadiums going for generations with no hope of dying out as older audiences get stop appearing
at stadiums.
The issue of racism in soccer is a huge problem.

A problem like this tends to lead others

to the belief that the white race is in fact the dominant race. If racism continues to go unpunished

as it always has, it will be just as big of an issue as it always has been. If the amount of racism

increases, the amount of attacks based on skin color or based off of one’s country of origin will

increase as well. With a rise in racism, it is obvious that the amount of hate crimes and racially

motivated attacks ending in fatalities amongst people of color would have a dramatic increase as

well.

The problem is an issue for mainly people of color, not only fans of the sport. For

instance, en route to a Champions League match at Paris Saint­Germain’s Parc des Princes,

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Chelsea fans forcefully pushed a black man out of the metro. Whether he was a fan of the

opposing team or not is unclear. What is clear is the fact that the British fans were attempting to

segregate the train and refusing to let him ride the train solely based on his skin color. This is

clear because as they stood in the way of the closing door, they were chanting “We’re racist,

we’re racist and that’s the way we like it!” (Robinson 1). As a result of massive media

attention,
Chelsea’s governing board has banned several recognizable faces from entering their stadium,
the Stamford Bridge.
Colored people suffer in a multitude of ways. If the problem of racism or racist abuse is
not solved with efficient time, much less solved at all, every single person of color will continue
to be discriminated against. Not only will they be discriminated against, but their lives will be
put at risk by radical believers in white dominance. They will always be looked at as a lesser part
to those who are not considered to be people of color.
Although this seems to be a problem with little hope or even no solution, there is one
organization at the head of it all. Not only are they in charge of the well­being of players, they
are also the head of representing the sport and often boast of soccer being a “worldwide sport, no
matter the color, gender, or belief system” (FIFA 1), the organizer of the sport in most instances,
does have this power. It is possible to solve the problem in the World Cup or other international
games, but it chooses to undermine the issues and disregard them as sensitivity. UEFA is in
charge of European club soccer. CONMEBOL is the organizer of South American soccer, while
CONCACAF has control of North and Central America.
The main reason the problem has yet to be solved by FIFA is because of their current
standing president, Joseph Blatter. Because he is known to be racist and sexist, once saying
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“female players should wear “tighter shorts”” (Venetis 1), he obviously puts the safety and
problems of colored players at the bottom of his list of priorities. He undermines the severity of
the problem and therefore is a huge playing factor in the reason that racist abuse has gone
unpunished and has yet to be addressed or solved in it’s proper manner.
There are several solutions to help in assisting in the battle that European soccer has
against racism. One of the very simple, yet very effective solutions that can be used is enforcing
the rules against racism more strictly during games rather than brushing it to the side or ignoring
it. One problem that has always been a roadblock in the battle against racist abide has always
been the discrediting of the act. Several people have always said that racism isn't that big of a
deal or that it is a small problem being projected as something bigger than it is, however this
only hurts the campaign to fight racism. Another useful solution is simply battling racism by
getting rid of the ignorance of some people and simply educating them instead. One reason this
is more effective is because it's more of an incentive for people to keep the racist comments to
themselves rather than voicing these said opinions for all of the soccer fans to hear.This would
be a strong factor in helping to keep stadiums clean and it helps to keep the game fun and
lighthearted, as it was always meant to be. The reason that educating people isn't nearly as useful
as enforcing the rules is is because it can be proven useless if someone is stubborn and stuck in
their ways. This is very commonly the case when dealing with bigoted racists. No one is racist
by nature, therefore helping people "unlearn" their bad habits is possible, but very hard,
especially when they have been stuck in their ways for nearly a lifetime. Financially, it would be
a small amount of money to simply hire more security and staff for the games. In fact, due to the
creation of heavy fines, it would be possible to pay the staff without cutting into any of the
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organization's funds. In all actuality, it is not only possible, but very likely that there would be
more funding going into the organization just because people would literally be forced to pay
hefty fines as a consequence to breaking the rules. This makes it not only financially possible,
but financially efficient and can help the organization flourish in even more wealth. Legally,
those people who have chosen to initiate racial abuse in stadiums and those who agree to
participate in it may already be in violation of the law depending on the location of said racism,
therefore the law is on FIFA's side, not the racists'. For example, the law states they are in legal
rights to “criminalize the following intentional conduct: Public incitement to violence or hatred
directed against a group of persons or a member of a group defined by reference to race, religion,
color, descent, or national or ethnic origin” (Papademetriou 1). Speaking on the matter of morals
and morality, there have never been any sort of reasonable controversy in regards to making laws
against racism, therefore, there is no conflicting morals when deciding to pass this type of law. It
is considered feasible and capable of being carried out because with more provision from the
local authorities and a larger amount of security being provided during games, enforcing the
anti­racism laws should be carried out just like any other rule is, such as stealing or any other
criminal activity. This simple solution would have successfully solved the problem of racist
abuse in the game because making laws is always proven useful when fighting against all
immoral problems. Although making laws is effective, this solution is even more so due to the
fact that the laws are already made and ratified, therefore all that is needed is simply
enforcement. This comes at a cheap cost in comparison to the massive fortune of FIFA. The
main outcome of this solution would be that the rules are beginning to be followed more
obediently by the fans due to the amount of people unable to pay the fines if they did choose to
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ignore the anti­racism laws that would be enforced more strictly. The proposal is obviously
better because it is more cost effective, even if that is not a problem for such an extravagant
organization such as the likes of FIFA. However, it is millions of dollars cheaper for the
organization. For instance, it can cost anywhere from $10­$20 million to launch a campaign in
the United States alone. Upscaling from the national level to the international level that FIFA is
used to, it would not be unlikely to see that number double or triple just to reach a reasonable
amount of people and get an acceptable amount of exposure. A solution that has been proposed
time and time again is increasing the amount of rules. This has been proven ineffective because
the fact of the matter is is that no matter how many rules there are in any situation, people will
always refuse to follow them if they are not being enforced by an organization or any sort
authorities. Because the rules were not enforced at the time, the rules were deemed invalid by the
people and therefore have been chosen to be ignored as if the rule had not been created in the
first place. Enforcing the rules is going to be more effective than previous solutions because
despite the number rules, without enforcement, the rules mean nothing.
There are several people who are deeply in opposition of making laws against racist
abuse in soccer games. One of those people who oppose the making of more anti­racism laws are
racist bigots, such as former head of FIFA, Joseph Blatter. He has made sexist comments before
and many of his other views were seen as having a racist undertone. Because of his semi­racist
statements and the blatant disregard of the racially motivated abuse claimed by some of the
colored players, he was voted out of office by the governing board. One of his racially
questionable opinions is that he claims that there “is not a problem with racism” (Edwards 1).
Because of this flawed belief, he was planning on doing absolutely nothing about the race
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problem before he was suspended as FIFA President. There has been a very large amount of
recurring racist events by repeat offenders while under Blatter’s 17 year reign. Some of these
repeat offenders are the Italian soccer club, Lazio, ex­Greek under­21 player and captain,
Giorgos Katidis, and one of the most popular Dutch clubs, Feyenoord. Lazio has always had a
history of being one of Italy’s most notoriously anti­semitic and racist soccer clubs and is
infamous for it (Schwelitz 1). Giorgos Katidis is a Greek player who celebrated a game winning
goal by doing a Nazi salute. He was thus banned from ever representing his country again.
Although this punishment seems more than fitting for the crime, it was done personally by the
Greek football federation, not by orders of FIFA. BBC reported that “[Giorgos Katidis] was
banned for life from playing for any national teams by Greece's soccer federation” (BBC 1). A
recent instance Feyenoord exposed their racist side was before their February Europa League
exit. In a heavy tension game against Italian side, AS Roma, the club’s fans were reported to
throw objects including “giant inflatable banana that was allegedly thrown toward Gervinho”
(Swaby 1). Many times, these incredibly racist acts tend to go unpunished. This means that
means that these types of racism will continue until the end of the sport. With the solutions that
have been proposed, they will not only stop racism in it’s nasty tracks, but it will also stop any
future acts and any other racist occurrences from happening. The solutions presented in previous
statements are far superior because they give everyone who is involved in the game a fair playing
ground. These simple yet effective solutions allow for soccer to continue to thrive in it’s
condition and will therefore be a way to end racism in this sport. Some of the other types of
people who tend to want to object to laws against racial abuse in stadiums are the people who
happen to commit racially motivated crimes during soccer games. These types of people may
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undermine the severity of the problem, much like Blatter has done. They may also deny the
actual proven instance that there is, in fact, a problem in the first place. Some of the other things
people say to justify the discriminatory actions are that it’s just in the spirit of the game. They
claim that it’s just a sports tactic so that they have a way to distract their opponent. This is flawed
and does not justify anything because there is no reason to racially abuse anyone. The safety of a
person’s life is always worth more than a simple soccer game, no matter what the “importance”
of said game. Not only dark skinned people can be discriminated against. For example, there is a
large amount of evidence that supports the fact that erasing someone’s culture is also a damaging
form of racism. This is a problem because it still erases a vital part of someone’s identity,
therefore makes it seem as though a person of color, white passing or not, is not really much of a
person at all. The other solution, which is ignoring the issue, is ineffective because it just creates
another problem. With the other problem, it would also need several solutions and therefore
would solely have the purpose of wasting the time of everyone involved in the game. It would
create an unnecessary cycle when instead, the original problem can be nipped in the bud.
Because the other solution is free as well, they would come mutually free of cost for FIFA. The
fact that solution is financially beneficial for both parties only makes it more unreasonable the
fact that the solution has yet to be put into action. Money is not the problem though, as FIFA is
arguably one of the most wealthy sports organizations in the world, “[FIFA] pull in $5.72bn in
revenues and record a profit of $338m” (Rice 1). Morally, however, there would be more trust
with people of color and with FIFA. People would be far more willing to jump on board with
FIFA’s anti­racism campaign if it seemed as though they were actually concerned with the
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well­being of the colored players, rather than a simple coping mechanism to make it seem like
they are attempting to do something like their current campaign suggests.
All in all, according to most of the modern age of football fans, racism should have been
overcome a long time ago. For example, FIFA should make more of an effort to enforce the rules
they make. They could also increase the amount of supervision of the stadiums during games,
especially with those including infamously racist clubs or countries. In the end, this would result
as an open environment for those who aren’t commonly accepted in society today. Thus, racism
in the sport not only prevents football from progressing as a “unifying sport” as it claims to be
time and time again, it takes several steps back into Europe’s troubled past.