Spotlight on Sport

 


By Jamel McFarlane 

When you think of racism in sport, what comes to mind?  

 

What sports do you think of?  

 

Cricket? Rugby? Football?  

 

My mind always goes to football. Despite the recent high profile racial scandal cricket recently went through. This only happen because Azeem Rafiq spoke out about the racial abuse he faced during his time at the Yorkshire Cricket Club but also the fact that Scottish Cricket was called institutional racist by an independent investigation. 


Why do I think of football? I do not think it’s because racism in football happens all the time. I believe this is not because football itself is that institutionally racist anymore, but because football is one of the most watched sport in the world. It does not help that a lot of social media discussion are normally around football. Football is on throughout the year so the media coverage and the spotlight is always on it. 


Seeing racism in football is not a new thing. Racism does not just happen in football, it is in other sports. Even if it is not on the field, it can be in the stands as well. Long and Spracklen (2010) say that in the 1980s and 1990s things were so bad that Black and Asian supporters would avoid going to games because they would face racial abuse at games. 


Racism has been used by fans to make players from the opposition nervous and this is seen to be acceptable. One of the keepers that played in Spain pointed out that insults towards black football players from the rival teams are done to make them nervous and to lower their morals and confidence. (Llopis Goig, 2013). Why do fans feel it is acceptable to do this? It's funny because now it not as easy to shout racial abuse at players during a game because you can get banned from a stadium for it. Unfortunately there are people out there that will do send it to players after a game on social media. They hide behind fake accounts and thinks its ok to hurl abuse at players and most of the time they get away with it. 





Last year Sky Sports News and Yougov conducted a survey about racism in football. The survey showed that 62% of 1200 British supporters were concerned about a player receiving racial abuse at the games. With 32% of those stating they were very concerned. 


How can someone enjoy football while wondering if a fan who could be sitting around them shout racial abuse at a player? 


‘Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football’ (Known as today as Kick It Out) was created in 1993/94 season and it was used to try and get the message out against racism and promote that there should be equal opportunities for everyone. This is an example one of the many charities that are working on getting all forms of racism/discrimination out of football. Show Racism the Red Card is another charity that is anti - racism and using the high profile status of football to publicise its message. 


But what are other sports doing to better? After the racism scandal exposed by Azeem Rafiq, an investigation was done into cricket by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). They found that there was "deep-seated" racism within cricket. They go on to say the example of the language used in correspondence with the committee and attempts to "discredit" Rafiq in the media are evidence of a "long and difficult road" ahead for cricket. 


We are focused on getting racism out of our sports. But how can we do that effectively when the governing body does not reflect the diversity of the players that play the sport? For me the board room of each governing body should have more diversity. This will probably help governing bodies become better equipped when dealing with issue around EDI. (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion). Governing bodies should not be scared to investigate into suspected racism cases. They need to be proactive, they need to step out of their comfort zones and investigate properly.    


The fans that watch football games are like you and me. They are people that have jobs, families and the younger fans are children that go to school. Some of the fans come to games and ruin it for everyone else. They make monkey noises, the shout the N word to black players. They send racist messages to players because they made a mistake or miss a scoring opportunity. These are the people of society we need to educate. When Sancho, Saka and Rashford missed their penalties at the Euros or when the England team travels to a country that does not deal with fans that shout racial remarks, I just think here we go again. Or I wonder how bad is it going to be this time.


As someone who has been involved with sport all my life, I know that sport can bring people together. 


Nelson Mandela once declared that: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”


I wonder if Nelson Mandela was alive today, would he say the same thing?  


Maybe sport does bring people together but maybe we need to change the way sport looks. 


Maybe governing bodies need to do more educate all those involved with sport. 



Bibliography


Long, Jonathan, and Karl Spracklen, eds. Sport and challenges to racism. Springer, 2010. 


Llopis-Goig, Ramon. "Racism, xenophobia and intolerance in Spanish football: evolution and responses from the government and the civil society." Soccer & Society 14.2 (2013): 262-276.


https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/12383739/racism-in-football-most-fans-worried-about-witnessing-players-receive-abuse-according-to-yougov-survey-for-sky-sports-news


https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/12515386/english-cricket-warned-to-clean-up-its-act-on-racism-or-lose-public-funding-following-parliamentary-report

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