Sports are often said to bring nations together, and help us connect with other cultures to celebrate common interests. At least that’s how they are being promoted, and how billions of dollars that are spent on the industry are justified.
Let’s take football (what U.S. Americans call “soccer”), for example. UEFA is, with billions of euros, the single most influential football union in Europe. According to their website, “football is a well-acknowledged tool for promoting diversity and inclusion, as supported by the United Nations, European Commission and Council of Europe agencies.”
And while the sport itself might indeed be a tool for bringing people together despite their differences, the events organised by UEFA, and the amount of racist, homophobic, sexist, or xenophobic incidents, are far from a meaningful unity of fans and players.
The most recent incident in the European Championship is a frightening example of how the football fanbase doesn’t seem to be sufficiently familiar with UEFA’s message of an inclusive culture and practices in football.
After Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka each missed their penalty shots, the three black players faced numerous racist comments on social media, including monkey and banana emojis and the n-word.
Already early to the tournament, players were booed at while taking the knee in solidarity with the BLM movement.
According to UEFA’s website, “UEFA encourages an inclusive culture and practices in football. It endorses the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of each individual, while embracing differences such as ethnicity, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, culture, national origin, income or ability”.
However, in the same year, UEFA rejected Munich City Council’s application to illuminate the stadium in rainbow colours before the match between Germany and Hungary. Hungary had approved an anti-LGBTQ law weeks before the match. UEFA reasoned that it was a politically and religiously neutral organisation, and the rainbow colours would be a direct criticism towards Hungarian politics.
These are only a few examples of discrimination in football. Incidents of hate speeches and xenophobia are not new to the sport. In an open letter, German footballer Kevin-Prince Boateng describes his experiences of racism from a young age, and his unmet expectations from FIFA to take actions against racism in the sport.
FIFA, being the international organisation governing global football, is regularly accused of corruption. A lot of the money goes into marketing and establishing an image, obviously. But with several billion dollars at their disposal, and a monopoly on global football, the organisation doesn’t seem to be motivated by public criticism to address the social and political issues in the sport, some of which being created by FIFA itself.
UEFA and FIFA need to be held responsible for creating an actual inclusive and welcoming environment in the sport. The pressing social issues need to be addressed with more aggressive campaigns and clear public statements. A healthy environment for everyone can’t be achieved by keeping out of politics unless it benefits the cash flow. But only on the level of UEFA and FIFA can we actually achieve change. Also the clubs forming these unions need to exert more pressure on them, not least to protect their racially and sexually discriminated players.
Kevin-Prince Boateng took brave and important steps in utilising his position to tackle these problems, and more football stars will hopefully join him, because at the end of the day, there is no football without them.
And for the fans that made players the stars they are: there is no power in the game without your validation. Be aware of what you are supporting, and whether the organisations you are supporting are holding up their end of the deal to meet your interests.
Sometimes the bigger win might be walking off the field.
