Soccer, racism and discrimination
The Euro soccer tournament is in full swing! The celebrations associated with this great sporting event will not overshadow some of the darker aspects of the game: "Racism persists in this sport, and this will of course be expressed during the Euro", as Marco Martiniello, a researcher at CEDEM, the Centre d'étude des Migrations of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Liège, puts it.
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ow widespread is this phenomenon? Is it evolving? "It's difficult to answer that question. What is certain is that the number of cases reported is evolving, but so are the ways in which they are recorded."
Marco Martiniello has observed this evolution over the years, particularly in the context of the European Monitora project, of which Cedem is a key player. The aim of Monitora is to monitor discrimination and racism in sport. A report (see link at the end of this article) was recently published on trends and practices in this field in four countries: Finland, Italy, Belgium and Hungary. It is entitled "Monitoring Discrimination and Racism in Sport".
Belgium puts racism in soccer under the microscope
In Belgium, a country that has seen constant immigration in the 20th and 21st centuries, the issue of immigration and racism is very present in society, and is the subject of a relatively inclusive approach in public and political debate. Legislation exists to counter discrimination and racism. The above-mentioned report states that, in the context of sport, soccer is one of the main sporting disciplines where standards and instruments exist to combat racism and discrimination. The soccer law, which contains obligations for both organizers and the public and applies to all soccer matches, both national and international (www.belgium.be), was revised in 2023; perpetrators of acts of racism or xenophobia are liable to administrative fines in the same way as perpetrators of acts of physical violence.
On the ground, in Belgium as in other countries (Italy, for example), a number of players are playing an important role in this context. At Belgian federal level, UNIA is the public body responsible for preventing, protecting and defending the rights of everyone in all areas of society, including sport. It carries out what researchers call active monitoring, i.e. actions and practices that are either purposely designed as monitoring activities, or in which monitoring functions derive from other activities such as research and scoping. UNIA also carries out communication and awareness-raising activities. Other players are also active at a more local level, such as the Observatoire de l'éthique dans les activités physiques et sportives of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles and sports federations and clubs throughout the country.
According to the study, monitoring at these different levels helps to establish a culture of equality and respect, but also and above all to develop the knowledge needed to identify complex and less obvious forms of discrimination, particularly among operators in the field such as sports clubs, coaches, sports practitioners, etc., but also among the media and information sector.
Ethical referents in clubs and federations
Questions of ethics, discrimination and racism are both vast and complex. How can we identify and classify the different forms of discrimination? In Belgium, sports federations are invited to appoint ethics referents to gather information on problematic situations/contexts... but these referents must have the appropriate experience and training to carry out their mission.
In parallel with this "active monitoring", another way of monitoring acts of racism and discrimination in sport singled out by researchers is "passive monitoring": this involves making it possible for the public, victims or witnesses, to report cases of discrimination. In Belgium, the RBFA (Royal Belgian Football Association) has set up the "Come Together Action Plan" for 2021, based on five pillars: listening to people confronted with racism in sport; representation and inclusion of diversity within soccer associations; training on diversity and anti-discrimination, prevention and awareness-raising; measuring diversity, discrimination and racism; communication on anti-discrimination activities and support instruments. By 2021, no fewer than 590 proven cases of discrimination had been reported by the RBFA; 85% concerned racism and 15% homophobia. While not all of these cases have been followed up by action (the RBFA is only competent for its members), and are in a way the tree that hides the forest, for researchers the "Come Together Action Plan" is a laudable attempt to set up a generalized monitoring system. It's no coincidence that it has been developed within the framework of a particular sporting discipline: soccer.
Racism: an ingredient of soccer by nature?
In 2019, Cedem and Standard de Liège held an international online symposium on ways to combat racism in professional soccer.
To the question: "Is soccer a vector for racism or a tool for bringing people together?", in a carte blanche for Le Soir in 2021, Marco Martiniello gave a nuanced response: "On the one hand, soccer is seen as a fundamentally warlike human activity, which by its very nature would encourage tribalism, nationalism and racism. On the other hand, we prefer to see soccer as an activity that brings communities and peoples closer together, and can accompany them on their journey towards a society free of racism. Soccer is thus seen as a school of respect, inclusion and anti-racism. The reality is less clear-cut and more complex. From a sociological point of view, the world's most popular sport can be seen as a mirror, albeit an often distorting one, of human societies. We can observe some of the social, economic, political and cultural dynamics that characterize society as a whole. If racism is present in the world of soccer, it's because it's present in society at large, and not the other way round."
