Race and Soccer
There is no doubt that sport not only serves as a form of amusement, but also it might be a tool to convey serious messages. It is often used to improve the quality of life simply by raising awareness. Sport brings up many important topics and challenges the stereotypes people have. The goal is to not only to provide emotions, but also to eliminate any form of discrimination by bringing people together. Sadly, the idea of equality is not always respected and there are a lot of situations when players are hurt and are forced to leave the field with tears in their eyes.
Last year, on the 19th of February, during the Serbian Super League game between Partizan Belgrade and Rad Belgrade, Partizan’s midfielder Everton Luiz was forced to leave the field after being abused by Rad supporters, who every time he touched the ball, were pretending to be monkeys. Shortly before the end of the game, the insulting banner was waved, targeting Luiz, who left the field crying. After the game, he gave an interview and commented on what he had to go through. “I’ve been suffering racist abuse during the entire 90 minutes and also was upset by the home players, who supported that. They were all attacking me. I want to forget this as soon as possible. I love Serbia and the people here,that is why I cried. But please say no to racism.”
Saying “no to racism” is actually the name of the campaign started by UEFA, where soccer players say “no to racism” in their mother tongues. According to the official UEFA website, “The No to Racism message aims to increase public awareness of intolerance and discrimination in football, as well as developing ideas and strategies on how to fight them. On the club competition match day dedicated to the campaign, team captains wear No to Racism armbands, anti-racism messages are played over clubs' public address systems and a video containing player testimonials backing the campaign is shown in stadiums. A No to Racism pennant is also prominently on show, held by players. At the start of every match, 'No to Racism' banners are prominently displayed on the pitch.” What is more, referees are strongly encouraged to punish every racist behavior present during games. So far, punishments have been too lenient, but without a doubt it is a move in the right direction.
In 2013, UEFA released another campaign called ‘Respect’, where not only soccer players or coaches, but regular people no matter of their gender, age, disability, nationality or skin color, exchanged their jerseys. The aim of this campaign was to encourage tolerance and respect.
Racism is without a doubt still present in soccer, because it has been rooted in our society for so long, that it is really hard to eliminate it. According to former Manchester City player, Mario Balotelli it will not be easy to fully defeat it. He states that “You can't delete racism. It's like a cigarette. You can't stop smoking if you don't want to, and you can't stop racism if people don't want to. But I'll do everything I can to help.” And campaigns promoting tolerance and respect are for sure a good start.
Notes https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/mario_balotelli
Soccer player left the field in tears after suffering horrific racist abuse. (2017, February 21). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/02/this-soccer-player-left-field-in-tears-after-horrific-monkey-chants-now-hes-speaking-out-against-racist-abuse
U. (2017, February 22). Respect- No to racism - Social responsibility - Inside UEFA – UEFA.com. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/social-responsibility/respect/no-to-racism/index.html?redirectFromOrg=true
