I am an avid (European) football fan. I watch roughly 7-12 matches of football a week. A couple weeks ago, I was watching a football match, and something happened that has unfortunately been occurring quite regularly in the sport.
This match was being played in Italy, where the majority of the people and fans are white, and of course native to Italy or at least a relatively close country in Europe. In other European countries like Italy, the teams have a lot of African-born players. It is quite usual to find at least one African player in almost every team throughout the top 50 teams in Europe. Although generally usual, throughout this match I was watching, it was quite distinct the number of home fans that were booing certain African players of the opposing team whenever he had possession of the ball. I didn’t think much about it as I generally assume this type of behavior to be associated with off-pitch antics and a strong and loyal fan base. I, for instance, boo players that leave my teams for another for more money or disrespect my teams. Throughout this match, I assumed the same in this case. I began to take greater notice when one of the African players went for a corner kick, and all the fans in that section started throwing cups and other objects at him. It’s ridiculously immature and disrespectful. The usual instinct is to believe these fans are being insensitive and racist towards the player. Although I’ve seen plenty of similar tendencies with other players just out of hatred for the team they play for, this was clearly different.
What caught my greatest attention was when one of the players took to social media after the match, declaring he was racially abused the entire match by the supporters in the stadium. Whenever he was close to a side of the pitch, he heard racist Italian comments and remarks. The team released a statement regarding the situation, the team with the abusive fans launched an investigation and the fans in question have been banned from the stadium for life, and the league banned the team from hosting fans for their next match. A good and timely response, and it’s been getting better every year in all of the major football countries (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France). However, as good as the responses are, the rate at which it occurs does not seem to go down. I see a problem with racism in football at least once every month, and maybe more than that. It’s way too much, especially when you put into consideration the amount of time and effort countries have been putting into fighting racism.
Although this story brings to light the fact that an opposing fan will be more likely to instigate racism and intolerance towards different cultures, it unfortunately is not the limit of some fans. This past summer, England made it to the final of the Euros against Italy. The match went to penalties, and England lost after missing 3 of their 5 attempts. All three missed attempts were by black players, and what followed was an absurd amount of racism and attack on these three players, not from Italian fans, not from general football fans, but from native Englishmen. I saw most of it in the moment, and not one negative comment gave any respect to the players, any acknowledgement for their hard work to make it so far in the tournament, and generally promoted a correlation between their missed penalty and the color of their skin. I found this particularly disgusting, and was happened after was an international recognition of the issue, and applause and admiration for these three players. It is important to highlight this story in addition to the base story of the African in Italy due to the fact that fans of any team will go after players for more than just their association with an opposing team, and Europeans have an inherently built in discrimination of Africans.
It is clear that an African going to Europe will automatically not fit in. In a continent that is overwhelmingly white, intolerance levels against Africans that immigrate right across the continental border is unbelievable, and I have been witnessing it for years. Some of these players are young teenagers who are excited to have a chance of a lifetime to play football in a continent that values it more than anything, play for a world renowned club and have fans respect your name. Instead, I’ve seen countless times one of these players suffer one or two mistakes in their debut, and immediately face racism and discrimination, not only by opposing fans, but by their own. It is ridiculous to see an (North or South) American or another European play at these same teams and make the same mistakes or play worse than their African counterparts, and face no banter or mockery for their race, culture, or nationality. When a white player plays poorly, fans get angry for the way they played. When an African player plays poorly, fans blame the performance on his race. In turn, I see way more African players get demoralized and end up on the bench on their teams, and eventually their career does not live up to be as exciting as it once was set out to be in the prospect stages. It is clear that the systemic nature of Europeans lingers from the last century where African countries were controlled and Africans were treated as an overall inferior and incapable race. Europeans have grown into a role of believing Africans are lesser than them, and it almost comes off as natural to some fans to disrespect an African player quicker and more often than they would a white player.
We can see how this situation mirrors many of the things we have covered thus far in class. For starters, it is clear that this correlates with the theory of othering. An African player is automatically part of the minority in Europe, and especially when joining clubs that have historically almost no black players, they are going to face difficulties. Europeans, and specifically white Europeans, have accustomed themselves into a superior role over Africans and their entire continent due to history. This also correlates to what we read in The Leavers recently, where Africans have great difficulty to leave their countries and establish themselves in a completely new environment, only to then be faced with more difficulties of having to fit in, facing discrimination and intolerance from lots of people as they are immediately forced onto the big stage. It’s double the amount of pressure, adjusting to a new geographical location as well as adjusting to gaining more fame and attention at the same time.
Things need to change, but I don’t know what more can be done. Leagues punish teams with disrespectful fans and in turn those teams ban those fans. There is constant emphasis to “Say No To Racism” throughout European football, but it’s seen all the time. It’s worn on the shirts of players in every match, flags are presented at the start and finish of games to end racism, and players even take a knee at the first second of every match in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The systemic nature against Africans in Europe is just as bad as it is to African Americans in the United States.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – JULY 14: A general view of the mural at Trafford Park is seen on July 14, 2021 in Manchester, England. A Giant mural in support of the three England footballers Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka has been unveiled in Manchester. The England stars were targeted with racist abuse online after they missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final leading to defeat by Italy. (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images)
Teams wear jerseys with “Black Lives Matter” on the back as they take a knee before kickoff. (Photo by Peter Powell/Pool via Getty Images)