When it comes to racial abuse in football, it seems to come from two different ways, which are racial abuse through social media and racial abuse that is directed to the players during a game. With the racial abuse through social media, this has had a massive increase in the last year with a study by Kick it Out showing that “the reports surrounding online abuse rose from 74 reports in 2022 up to 281 reports in 2023, which was in total an increase of 279%”. .
When it comes to racial abuse in both online and in the stadiums, it was revealed that “Kick It Out received a record 1,007 reports of discriminatory behaviour last season, an alarming rise of 65.1% on 2021-22” (Guardian, 2023)
One of the most well-known examples of this came after the Euro 2020 final in where three England players (Bayako Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jaden Sancho) were subjected to a horrific amount of racial abuse through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. It was later reported that “The UK Football Policing Unit received 600 reports of racist comments sent to England's black players after the defeat and judged 207 to be criminal” (BBC News, 2021). This also led to a minimum of eleven arrests that were attributed to the racial abuse as well.
A more recent example of this came after the game between Brighton and Sheffield United on the 17th February 2023 when Sheffield United player Mason Holgate was subjected to racial abuse on the social media platform Instagram after the game in which included comments and message containing monkey emojis and racial abuse.
While when it comes to racial abuse during games in where a fan would either shout racial abuse at a player or they would do a racial gesture towards the player. A recent example of this came in the game between Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry when the Coventry player Kelsey Palmer was subjected to racial abuse from the Sheffield Wednesday fans which included shouting racial abuse and doing monkey gestures.
The issue surrounding racial abuse within football is not just prevalent in the United Kingdom, but it is also wide in other countries including both Spain and Italy. A recent example of this has come from Italy during a game between AC Milan and Udinese at the 33rd minute when the AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan was subjected to racial abuse from the Udinese fans and it led to the AC Milan team walking off the pitch with the players returning to the pitch ten minutes later. He reported that he was subjected to hearing “monkey noises and chants from the crowd the moment he took the ball for his first goal kick, and again on the second goal kick”. (CNN, 2024).
While in Spain, Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr received racial abuse during the game against Rayo Vallecano in where it was captured on the Day After programme in where “a Rayo supporter appeared to aim a monkey gesture in the direction of Vinicius during the match, in what is another shocking episode for Spanish football” (OneFootball, 2024)
With these issues surrounding racial abuse, the players who were abused had come forward on social media platforms like Twitter to speak out about the racism that they suffer online, this would usually be in the way of either writing a post about the racist abuse or they would post images and screenshots of the abuse that they have received wither through comments or through messages.
Finally, When focusing on the issue of racism within football, work from Colin King (2004) and Long & McNamee (2004) produced at least four different ways in which the issue of racism was integrated into the overall culture and nature of football, which can come from either the fans who are attending the games, people on social media or even within the teams and management themselves, the topics that was spoked about were biological racism, imagined meritocracy, competition & testing, and what is known as the insider-outsider paradoxes.
What can be done?
When the issue surrounding racial abuse comes up, there are always ways to investigate how the issue surrounding racism in football can be sorted and put to an end. One example of a resolution that has been put forward came from the president of Fifa who has “called for the implementation of an automatic forfeit of games for teams whose fans commit racist abuse”. (BBC Sport, 2024), which would cause an automatic forfeit if there is a case of racial abuse from fans during a game. But this has come with some pushback as it has been reported that the English FA has “no plans to implement this ruling and instead continuing to use the three-step ruling that is currently implemented in England” (Guardian, 2024) which involves stopping the match, stopping the match again and then on the third count, abandoning the match altogether.
Finally, another form of action comes from action by both local and national authorities becoming involved. An example of this came from Spain in where the Spanish authorities punished seven Valencia fans, who were all between the ages of Eighteen and Twenty-One surrounding racial abuse from their trip to Real Madrid back in May. This included that four of the fans were “fined 60,001 euros (£51,700) and given a two-year stadium ban for hanging an effigy of Vinicius near Real's training ground in January” (BBC Sport, 2024). While the remaining three fans were “5,000 euros (£4,300) and banned for one year for making racist gestures during Real's game at Valencia on 21 May” (BBC, 2024).
References
BBC News (2021) Euro 2020 racist abuse - 11 people arrested. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58094408 (Accessed 20 February 2024).
BBC Sport (2023) Kick It Out: Record-high reports of discrimination up 65% in 2022-23 season. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/66168427 (Accessed 17 February 2024).
BBC Sport (2023) Vinicius Jr: Seven people punished over racist chants and effigy of Real Madrid player. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65816425 (Accessed 20 February 2024).
BBC Sport (2024) Football racism: Forfeit matches when fans are racist - Fifa's Infantino. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68046422 (Accessed 18 February 2024).
CNN (2024) AC Milan football match delayed in Italy after alleged racist chants from crowd. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/20/europe/ac-milan-football-match-racist-chants-italy-intl-hnk/index.html (Accessed 20 February 2024).
Guardian (2023) Reports of discrimination reached record high last season, says Kick It Out. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/12/reports-of-discrimination-reached-record-high-last-season-says-kick-it-out (Accessed 19 February 2024).
Guardian (2024) English football has no plans for forfeits over racist abuse despite Infantino plea. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/jan/22/english-football-has-no-plans-for-forfeits-over-racist-abuse-despite-infantino-plea (Accessed 18 February 2024).
King, C (2004) Race and Cultural Identity: Playing the Race Game Inside Football. Leisure Studies 23(1): 19-30.
Long, J & McNamee, M.J (2004) On the Moral Economy of Racism and Racist Rationalizations in Sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 39(4): 405-420.
OneFootball (2024) Vinicius Junior was subjected to racist abuse during real Madrid’s match with Rayo Vallecano. Available at: https://onefootball.com/en/news/vinicius-junior-was-subjected-to-racist-abuse-during-real-madrids-match-with-rayo-vallecano-39080321 (Accessed 21 February 2024).
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