Discrimination in Football

Christos Kassimeris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367518073
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000391176
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Discrimination & Race Relations
• Index: Social Sciences

While football does not generate discriminatory behaviour, it often replicates the very same social issues that concern any given society. Evidently, football has witnessed an alarming increase in the number of disturbing incidents on the grounds of racism, ethnocentrism, sectarianism, homophobia, and sexism. Given the variety of forms that discrimination can take, it is imperative that football addresses with effect all such anti-social phenomena in order to continue to promote notions pertaining to social inclusion, equality, and cultural diversity – all central to the game's philosophy and overall popularity. Assessing the nature and causes of discrimination in football is key to identifying the much-needed remedies, but also because discrimination poses a serious challenge to long-established practices deeply rooted in democracy. Discrimination in Football provides a comprehensive and in-depth investigation into these key issues affecting football today.

This new book will appeal to academics and students with an interest in social science, law, sport, and humanities as well as football fans and professionals in the football industry.

1 Introduction

The introductory part to the Laws of the Game, published by the International Football Association Board, stresses that the game of football must be attractive and enjoyable to all those involved, regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. Race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and gender are key to any legal document designed to combat discrimination. Prohibited by most international human rights instruments, discrimination concerns those practices and policies based on a perceived superiority of a social group over another. Societies, at large, have a long history of reproducing prejudiced attitudes, overgeneralised beliefs, and oversimplified opinions common to members of a particular group in some way associated with a sense of power, authority, or advantage over other groups. An integral part of those same societies, sport not only has had a tremendous impact on politics, culture, identity, business, and technology, it is known for fostering ethical values such as equality, respect, and integrity too. Football, arguably the most popular sport in the world, is no stranger to promoting issues pertaining to ethics and morality; however, issues relating to race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and gender have blemished the popular game.

Racism in football has many different shapes and forms, some are visible and/or audible, others more covert. Coaches deploying black players on the wings because they possess speed, fans throwing bananas and making monkey noises, and banners displaying fascist symbols are common practice. And while much of racial discrimination in football is undeniably purposeful, there is also much ignorance about it. Spanish journalist Salvador Sostres, for instance, compared Ansu Fati of Barcelona Football Club with a gazelle and a black street seller escaping the police in his attempt to praise the player’s skilled movement. Nationalism, too, damaged the popular game whenever football was manipulated to project nationalistic ideals. Epitomising tension among different nations are the football rivalries between the United States and Mexico, England and Germany, or South Korea and Japan. Football also served ethnocentrism when fascist and communist regimes exploited the popularity of the game to advance their perverse sense of nation-building. And yet football’s greatest achievement was harnessing nationalism to expand the world over when the British first introduced the game to a variety of different cultures. Likewise, religion manipulated football to either integrate or segregate different social groups, whether at local (club) or national level. Generally, sectarianism in football persists in any given society divided along religious lines. As for discrimination based on either sexual orientation or gender, both homophobia and sexism continue to defy the game’s openness and diversity. In professional football, no more than a dozen male players have made the decision to publicly announce their homosexuality, a clear indication that the masculine culture of the game leaves no room for anything but heterosexuality. Instead, the women’s game is far more open and diverse, considering that many more lesbian players have openly declared their sexual orientation, some also captaining their team. The male-dominated culture of the game was, until recently, equally opposed to women playing football. Patriarchal societies never even hesitated banning women from playing the game, as was the case in England and Germany, for football was apparently incompatible with feminine nature and physique. Yet endorsing the contribution of women to the development of the game should not be confused with issues denoting equal pay and treatment. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup champions filed a gender-discrimination lawsuit against their very own US Soccer Federation, but the federal judge ruled against the players of the US Women’s National Team. Overall, most forms of discrimination are prevalent in football, since racism, nationalism, sectarianism, homophobia, and sexism continue to unsettle the game’s governing bodies, and thus the need to examine them. Only the COVID 19 pandemic succeeded in curbing much all forms of discrimination by means of keeping the fans away from stadiums.

To this end, chapter 1 examines the phenomenon of discrimination in football as addressed by the game’s international governing bodies. Discrimination in football is, evidently, a serious matter of concern that commands the attention of all governing bodies and tackling it with effect requires the concerted efforts of all those involved with administering the popular game. The Statutes of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), football’s supreme governing body at international level, stipulate those at anti-discrimination measures available for all six regional football confederations to adopt and implement accordingly. FIFA and the six confederations are responsible for organising and regulating football, as well as for preserving the guiding principles that epitomise the game. Given the mass appeal of the game, governing football is often confined to the financial aspects of the game; nonetheless, the social qualities of the game are considerable too. Overall, chapter 2 presents an overview of the workings of football’s international governing bodies vis-à-vis the many different forms of discrimination that blemish the game.

Chapter 3 is devoted on racial discrimination for it was racism that first drew the attention of football’s governing bodies at both international and national levels. Despite the many anti-racism resolutions, policies, legislative measures, and campaigns, eliminating racial discrimination from the game of football has been overwhelming, just as its manifold shapes allow racism in football to persist and even overshadow all other forms of discrimination. Ranging from far-right banners and monkey chants to online racist abuse and the practise of racial stacking, football has had a long history of racial discrimination. Nevertheless, racial discrimination in football was first addressed at the FIFA Extraordinary Congress of 2001. Interestingly, FIFA’s Good Practice Guide on Diversity and Anti-Discrimination explicitly states that one racist comment does not necessarily make a person racist, thus further complicating an already obscure relationship between racism and the popular game. From a similar viewpoint, chapter 4 assesses the impact of nationalism on football. The game of football has the capacity to reinforce national identity and infuse national sentiments, therefore, given that the game was organised and regulated in Britain at the same time as industrialisation was taking over the world, the notion of nationalism was transformed. Large-scale urbanisation, better living standards, a renewed social structure, and a considerable movement of population, all resulting from the industrial revolution, contributed much to the development and promotion of football. Coinciding with the time of nation-building and new communities being formed around factories, football was suitably developed to represent them all at local and national levels. Ever since, football continues to serve the ideals of nationalism and, more recently, populism. Likewise, chapter 5 examines the intricate relationship between football and religion. Football, as with religion, has the capacity to transcend territory and unify people, and just as religious people congregate at houses of worship, football fans gather on match days. Despite the many similarities between football and religion, nonetheless, the two mass phenomena are often at odds for religion that is also known for its capacity to segregate and exclude – such is the case of religious sectarianism in football.

Equally disturbing is discrimination based on homosexuality and gender (sex). Chapter 6 explores the issue of homophobia in football, given that sport allows much room for reproducing stereotypical male characteristics. Those qualities stereotypically attributed to females are often suppressed for boys to become men, since in the context of the “nature versus nurture” debate boys and girls – societies dictate – have to act like men and women, respectively. Given that aggression, endurance, and all things physical highlight sport, anything less than masculine is not welcome, just as the participation of women in sport has only recently become more widely acceptable. Sport has, therefore, contributed much to the construction of masculinity and has also underlined the importance of heterosexuality. Evidently, the male-dominated game of football is often uninviting to less than masculine males, thus producing the necessary grounds for homophobia to become more apparent. Likewise, chapter 7 delves into the politics of gender in football. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup witnessed considerable success. More successful, of course, was the US Women’s National Team for having won the competition; however, the world champions were soon obliged to file a gender discrimination lawsuit over the matter of equal pay against their own federation. Gender discrimination in football has a long history, given the male-dominated culture of the game. Against this background, chapter 6 explores various aspects of the role of gender in football and evaluates the US Women’s National Team’s legal dispute. Finally, chapter 8 produces an outline of the various anti-discrimination organisations and related projects that aim at tackling discrimination in football. The elimination of discrimination from football is certainly a difficult task for it involves anti-social phenomena deeply rooted in societies across the world, but also because most cultural aspects of football are predominantly male (masculine) and white. Overall, chapter 8 highlights the significant contribution of several organisations committed to eliminating discrimination from football, while also producing a brief account of several football-related projects in different countries around the world.

Karl Planck’s 1898 essay, Fusslümmelei, reflected his perceived ugliness of football for the physical education professor from Germany despised both the game and its English origins. He even drew a parallel between the half-starved workers who played the game in England as pastime and the animal-like movement of the players to characterise football as an “English disease” (Umberto Eco, too, considered football a degrading sport). While the term “English disease” was later ascribed to the disturbing phenomenon of hooliganism, Planck was certainly more accurate when he noted that football stripped humans of their dignity. Although Planck’s argument relating to dignity was based on his perception of football likening players to our distant relative (the ape), his views are nowadays far from irrelevant considering the degrading treatment of players and fans with a particular background. Discrimination in football commands attention not merely because it discolours the principles and spirit of the popular game, but it also challenges the notions of integration, equality, dignity, and diversity – all key aspects of community cohesion. Certainly, equality and diversity, as far as integration policies are concerned, are central to the aspirations of the modern state; nevertheless, the revival of extreme nationalism and the re-emergence of fascist formations, gender inequality, homophobia, as well as racial and religious discrimination pose a grave threat to long-established democratic institutions and practices. Today, the game’s governing bodies appear concerned with the rise of extreme-right groups and ethnocentric attitudes, just as racial discrimination has largely contributed to delinquency in both society and football matches, thus overshadowing similar – and equally problematic – anti-social phenomena. Football does not generate anti-social behaviour; however, the game’s popularity and overall appeal have rendered football a powerful vehicle for promoting discrimination within society. Football stadiums have been converted into political arenas for fans willing to exploit the sport’s capacity to draw large crowds. Evidently, the politicisation of football and, as occasion serves, the footballisation of politics are intertwined phenomena for the popular game of football that has often been manipulated to substitute for politics whenever necessary to stimulate division in society. All things considered, discrimination in football is, undoubtedly, a compelling force that commands proper attention.

2 Governing Discrimination

Introduction

The first obstacle in addressing discrimination in any context is the sheer absence of a definition from all prominent international human rights documents. Designed to protect all persons indiscriminately, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights only helps identify in Article 2 those characteristics that constitute the source of the different forms of discrimination, namely “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status”.¹ The same is repeated in the exact same order of words in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 26) and, again, in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (Article 14), with the notable exception that the latter also makes reference to “association with a national minority”.² Although probably not an exhaustive list of the different types of discrimination, the institutional and cultural significance ascribed to those characteristics suggests that discrimination in any given setting is purposeful – albeit inadvertently perhaps – for it is directed through certain practices, and even policies, towards (marginalised) social groups that do not share the same background with the professed dominant group. The impact of institutional and cultural values is also reflected in the type of structural discrimination, since both encompass those norms, rules, and attitudes that separate “us” from “them”. The structural type of discrimination, as attributed to natural persons, will obviously serve this study well, but so will organisational discrimination. Satisfying the conditions for both direct and indirect discrimination, organisational discrimination, too, reproduces the very same stereotypes as in structural discrimination but is instead attributed to collective agents, organisations.

The framework within which those international organisations entrusted with governing the game of football operate, particularly the policies employed to help increase diversity, is certainly worth exploring here to better contextualise the phenomenon of discrimination in football. According to Javier Duran González and Pedro Jesús Jiménez Martín, there are three main types of racism that apply to the game of football, namely, impulsive racism, instrumental racism, and institutional racism. Impulsive racism is shaped by factors outside of football and is expressed spontaneously through emotional instincts via verbal and physical abuse, whereas instrumental racism is a conscious act whereby racism purposely becomes a tool for denigration. Institutional racism, on the other hand, concerns those socio-cultural practices that hinder the participation of people from a distinct background and is, therefore, an obstacle to diversity. Although the work of González and Martín is focused on racism in football, substituting racism for discrimination should not upset the validity of their typology. Rather, it develops a broader model that allows more room for examining all forms of discrimination currently witnessed in the game of football.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), football’s world governing body, recognises 211 member (national) associations and six confederations, all formed by the national football associations, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The FIFA Statutes (2019) stipulate that each confederation has the obligation to “to comply with and enforce compliance with the Statutes, regulations, and decisions of FIFA”,³ while also stressing that the Statutes of the confederations “must comply with the principles of good governance, and shall in particular contain, at a minimum, provisions relating to the following matters: a) to be neutral in matters of politics and religion; b) to prohibit all forms of discrimination …”.⁴

Decorating the cover of the FIFA Good Practice Guide on Diversity and Anti-Discrimination report (2017), as one might expect, is a football-related picture. Captured right before the FIFA World Cup quarter-final match between France and Germany kicked off in Fortaleza (Brazil), the picture portrays two match officials alongside members of the two national teams holding on to a banner that reads “Say No To Racism”. Surely an intentional choice, since all quarter-final matches were selected by FIFA to promote its anti-racism campaign, the picture highlights the fact that representing the two European nations were several foreign-born players. On the occasion, the starting line-up of the French national football team featured Mamadou Sakho and Patrice Evra (of Senegalese descent), Paul Pogba (Guinean), Blaise Matuidi (Angolan/Congolese), Hugo Lloris and Mathieu Valbuena (both half Spanish), Karim Mostafa Benzema (Algerian), and Antoine Griezmann (German/Portuguese), whereas the starting eleven of the German national football team included Jérôme Agyenim Boateng (half Ghanaian), Sami Khedira (half Tunisian), Mesut Özil (third generation Turkish-German), and Miroslav Klose (Polish).

To the short-sighted, the cover page is a celebration of multicultural societies, one that epitomises the rationale of a report addressing matters pertaining to diversity and anti-discrimination. But while the colourful cover helps underline the benefits of anti-discrimination campaigning regarding race, ethnic origin, and religion, the picture presents only a narrow view of the kind of diversity that football currently enjoys. Other types of discrimination that blemish the modern game of football, such as discrimination based on grounds of gender and/or sexual orientation, are obviously absent. Although the setting of the picture allows no room for female football players, since the FIFA World Cup competition relates to the men’s national football teams, it is the fact that no female referee has ever officiated a FIFA World Cup match that should be, perhaps, a matter of concern. Even the brief note at the bottom of page three that reads, “for the sake of simplicity, this FIFA Good Practice Guide only uses the masculine form, but is aimed at every person, regardless of gender”, was probably employed to serve some legal dimension of the report rather than to address its moral character.

FIFA first addressed matters relating to discrimination, racism more accurately, during the 2001 Extraordinary Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As per the resolution that was soon after ad...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Governing Discrimination
• 3 Racism
• 4 Nationalism
• 5 Sectarianism
• 6 Homophobia
• 7 Sexism
• 8 Anti-discrimination
• 9 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index