The Ugly Game - Racism in Football

The beautiful game you call it? Well, we all love football that's true. It brings us joy, it brings people together but football can sometimes be a very ugly game too. An ugly game where racism hasn't left the field.

Racism still happens in not just football but modern day society. The sad death of George Floyd in the United States has sent outrage across the globe and rightly so. Floyd died whilst being arrested in Minneapolis, USA. A white officer knelt on his neck for 9 minutes. Floyd was unable to breathe and tragically lost his life.

"The only disease right now is racism that we are fighting." - Raheem Sterling

In football, players, fans, officials and managers get abused because of the colour of their skin, nationality or ethnicity. It has been around in the English game since the 1970's. Decades on, racism has been tied down to the ground in the UK. Kick It Out and Show Racism the Red Card are still doing their bit to tackle racism and kick it out of the game.

Uefa and FIFA have said they will no longer tolerate racism but in some stadiums around Europe and even the rest of the world, you'll still hear about the disgusting scenes. That's right, our beautiful game is ugly.

"If you've never been racially abused, you can't understand what it's like...

you feel helpless." - Ian Wright

Awful Scenes in Sofia

In October 2019, England travelled to Sofia in Bulgaria to play in a European Championship Qualifier match.

England's starting lineup had three black players in Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and debutant Tyrone Mings. Every time they touched the ball, a small section of Bulgarian supporters in the stands would make loud monkey chants. The group of around 50 men dressed in black, were also seen making political facist gestures. These so called fans looked so proud and seemed as if nobody would take offence to it.

When hearing the monkey chants, Mings even turned around to a match official, got his attention loudly shouted "Hey! did you hear that?"

The game stopped twice due to the abuse and England were close to walking off the pitch. The stadium announcer warned the fans that if the racism was to carry on, the game would be abandoned. The group of disgraced supporters left the stadium before the end of the game and England went on to win 0-6 against Bulgaria.

The punishment for the Bulgarian FA was to play their next two matches behind closed doors and a £73,000 fine. Any chance you could ban them from qualifying for the next World Cup, Uefa?

That would shut them up.

"I have nothing against monkey's but I'm totally sure that a monkey is smarter than a racist." - Mario Balotelli

Speaking of Fines...

In January 2019, Millwall were fined £10,000 for the racial abuse in the stands in their FA Cup game against Everton. Six months later Huddersfield Town were fined £50,000 for a stunt that advertised a betting company.

It just goes to show that we can hold up our 'No To Racism' banners all we like, but it feels like barely anything's been done about this. We've been trying to kick racism out of football for years but we keep finding ourselves tackling these situations over and over again. The punishments are not brutal enough.

Millwall beat Everton to progress in the FA Cup in 2019 but why couldn't the FA just kick Millwall out of the competition? Oh you're saying there would have been an odd number for the next round in the tournament? Well give the spot to Everton.

In February 2020, a teenage Bournemouth fan was given a three year ban for racial chants at a game against Tottenham in November 2019. Ban him for longer. 10 years? 20 years? For life?

It's like racism has been shown the yellow card, not the red one.

"When countries get fined, It's what I spend on a night out in London. What do you expect?" - Danny Rose

Incidents in 2019

The independent recorded 33 racial incidents that happened in men's football in 2019 alone. 33 incidents across Europe. That's on the pitch, off the pitch, in the stands, in the media and on social media.

In the women's game, former Tottenham player Renee Hector was abused in a game by Sheffield United's Sophie Jones in a Championship match. Jones received a five game ban and was only fined £200. Eventually in March 2019, her contract was terminated.

Renee Hector was sent baby pictures of gorillas online and abused because of her weight. Sickening.

"The online abuse affected me really deeply, but it wasn't just me, it affected my family and really affected my mum." - Renee Hector

What now FIFA?

About Kick It Out

Kick It Out is an organisation that has been going since 1997 but started off as a campaign in 1993. It is English football's equality and inclusion organisation. Funded by the Premier League, EFL, English FA and Professional Footballers Association - Kick It Out works throughout football, education and community sectors to challenge discrimination.

Show Racism the Red Card

Founded by Ged Grebby, Show Racism the Red Card is the UK's largest anti racist educational charity. It started in the North East of England and then expanded to Wales, Scotland and then overseas.

In 1996, then Newcastle United goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, made a £50 donation to the charity after some kids shouted racial comments to him at a petrol station. The former goalkeeper is now the honorary president of SRtRC.

I was putting petrol in my car at the garage and these kids started shouting racist abuse. Then after a bit one of them realised who I was and told his friends. Then they came over looking for autographs. That really hurt." - Shaka Hislop

Shaka knew he could make a difference as a professional footballer. He made an appearance at the charity's first ever event at a school in the North East of England. Shaka shared his stories to the pupils about his experiences. SRtRC does workshops at schools to this day and educational events at football clubs.

By Ed Ettridge