Sociology Report

Football’s Cancer

SZABIST

Azam Naz
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Thesis Statement: Racism is football’s cancer

INTRODUCTION
‘…so any suggestion that racism has ceased to have a disfiguring impact on football

would be dangerously naïve. To cite one obvious example, barriers have been

broken on the park, but many remain intact within the stadiums. The still tiny

numbers of Asian and Afro-Caribbean citizens who go to football grounds speak

eloquently of a continuing belief that to enter one is to trespass on hostile territory

(Hill 2001 p.21)’

This report is to investigate and clarify the situation regarding racism against black

people present in the sport of football. Racism has crossed every border and presented

itself in hidden and apparent manners on and off the pitch of football.

The report will mention various cases and present different statistics regarding famous

football bodies like FIFA and European Football to strengthen the view point that racism

against black people is a growing threat, both to the nature of the charismatic game and to

the psychology of those who follow it.

Football being the world’s most watched sport, plagued by racism, presents an

opportunity for race discrimination to be amalgamated into the societal structure; hence

readers of this report will find interest in the knowledge presented and hopefully will

make efforts to overcome this on growing problem.

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History of Racism in English Football

Even though Football holds it’s origins in the 13 th and 14th century. Modern day Football

is said to be created in Great Britain. In October 1863, 11 representatives of London

universities and schools, held a meeting at the Free Mason Tavern to set up rules for the

matches they were contesting which led to the creation of a footballing association, later

in December 1863 the football association was separated from the rugby association to

give rise to an independent footballing association. The international body FIFA was

established in 1904.

Cohen (1988) suggested that by virtue of its imperialist phase, racism is constitutive of

the “British way of life”. This was evident in the sport of football, as the nation refused to

participate and cooperate with ‘lesser’ footballing nations and it was not until 1950 that

England took part in the world cup finals presented by FIFA.

Arthur Wharton, is believed to have been England's first black professional league player

(Vasili, 1993 & 2000). He was of Euro-African descent, coming from a middle class

family. He entered the professional game in 1889, having joined Preston North End.

This particular piece of information suggests that there was a 26 year gap between the

entrance of the first ‘black’ player in the premier league, from its originating date.

Furthermore between 1919 and 1939 only a few number of black players were noticeable

and those who excelled in skill and quality were not presented with equal deserving

opportunities.
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In the case of Jack Leslie, a London born, Anglo-African player who represented

Plymouth Argyle, performed exceptionally well by scoring over 400 goals between 1921

and 1935. He was once, informed by his manager, Bob Jack, that he had been selected to

play for England. However, he was never to make the national team. 'He must have

forgotten I was colored' Leslie remarked ruefully later (Vasili, 2000: 62).

On a continuing note the 26 year gap understates the lack of black players in the premier

league, as a significant amount of increase in black players was not witnessed until 1970.

"Young blacks in Britain grew up in communities which were often already

influenced by the attachments and loyalties to local football teams. So many of the

older stadiums in the urban areas were close to those industrial complexes and their

working-class communities which had traditionally given them such loyal support

throughout the century. It was then perfectly natural that many young blacks

should gravitate towards supporting their local teams in the major cities. It was also

predictable that many of these youths would seek in football - and in other athletic

activity - the challenges and success which seemed elusive in other walks of life".

(Walvin, 1986: 71)

The positions of professional managers were not protected from racism in any part of

Europe.

The first black manager to gain a position at the highest level was seen in Scottish

football with John Barnes managing Celtic. He only managed the club for six months as

he was sacked in January 2000 BBC (2009).

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In Premier League English football, the only black managers were foreign people with

Ruud Gullit (Chelsea and Newcastle United) and Jean Tigana (Fulham) until Paul Ince

managed Blackburn Rovers in 2008.

Current Situation

Black footballers of late have made a special name for themselves by displaying their

potential and skill in the sport of football, however the department of sociology of

University of Leicester has estimated that out of the 2000 professional players in England

and Wales, only 300 are blacks.

A research by Stephen Bradbury (2001), suggests:

‘About 10% of young players (14+) who are based in club youth Academies and

Schools of Excellence are reported to be black.’

‘According to our estimates based on club replies, about 13% of all professional

players at FA Premier League and Football League clubs during the 1999/2000

season were UK born black players. This may suggest a slight fall recently in the

recruitment of players from black British backgrounds, though the data here, over

time, are probably not always completely comparable and reliable.’

Discrimination is not only too presented towards the players by managers and the football

association in general, but also towards the players by fans and the managers by the

football association.
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World renowned players like Samuel Etto, Thierry Henry, Michael Essien, Didier Drogba

and Carlo Kameni, have all been subjugated to racist remarks by the fans, the stadium of

Zaragoza in Spain has been described to be the home of the most openly racist fans in the

sport. Incidents of fans chanting ‘Monkey’ and throwing bananas at certain black players

has plagued their image in the footballing industry.

Regarding the administrative positions in European football, the recruitment procedures

at a large number of football clubs seem effectively ‘closed’ to outside applicants,

including members of minority ethnic communities. Many clubs (35%) still admit to

using methods of ‘word of mouth’ or personal contacts in order to recruit senior

administrative staff. This is likely to discriminate against applicants from minority ethnic

backgrounds and it almost certainly helps to maintain a strongly ‘white’ senior

administrative core in professional football.

Fewer than one-third (31%) of all clubs, according to our returns, have written equal

opportunities policies, despite this being a specific recommendation of the Football Task

Force.
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Theoretical Analysis

‘...there are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, that

allow us to divide them into a small set of races, in such a way that all the members

of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not

share with members of any other race. These traits and tendencies characteristic of

a race constitute, on the racialist view, a sort of racial essence; and it is part of the

content of racialism that the essential heritable characteristics...account for more

than the visible morphological characteristics—skin color, hair type, facial features

—on the basis of which we make our informal classifications.’ Appiah

By this definition of racism a racialist is one who maintains that people who appear

similar on the basis of certain inherited physical characteristics (such as skin color,) share

a distinctive "racial essence" that is responsible for a range of psychological and

behavioral traits and tendencies . And this suggests an explanation to the managers’

behavioral pattern when it comes to selection of black players. They

consciously/unconsciously link black players to be less capable of playing the sport.

This concept has been visible in various remarks made by several coaches regarding

black players;

Atkinson referred to Chelsea's Marcel Desailly as a "fucking lazy nigger" in an off-

air conversation with commentator Clive Tyldesley after the end of the game, which

Chelsea lost 3-1.

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Spain's national manager Luis Aragonés called Thierry Henry a ‘black shit’.

But this concept does not provide any explanation to why fans would indulge in using

racist remarks towards players representing their home cities or even those from outside

their localities.

It is in my opinion that one can not analyze such an incident from a macro perspective,

rather one needs to understand individual behavior and social relations between people of

common understanding. And for this purpose the figuration approach is best suited.

‘At the level of individual psychology, more or less intense feelings of antipathy and

prejudice, and, at the level of social interdependence and interaction, patterns of

discrimination, exploitation, tension and conflict between what tend popularly to be

understood as “racial” or perhaps “ethnic” groups, have contributed to some of the

most horrific happenings of the 20th century’ (University of Leicester, 2003:7).

However, even though racism rises from individual perception, one can not ignore or

deny the lengths to which these perceptions have influenced different people. Also how it

has accumulated itself into a disease like body that spreads across the sport.

In the modern era, people all over the world are constantly engaged in activities that

affect the lives of other people of whose existence they are frequently unaware

(Murphy 2003, p.342).

One can also say that these actions of racism are in cases actions without intent, where

people submerge to the influences of those around them or those they haven’t physically
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interacted with just to conform to social pressure and this process is both conscious and

unconscious in nature.

Conclusion
With the information mentioned in the report, one is informed about various cases of

racism in the sport of football, it shows that this is not a small matter and needs to be

addressed and tackled properly. The football association has made an action plan and has

promoted actions against racism in various advertisements, however as my thesis

statement suggests Racism is like cancer, it is not something that can be removed by

exterior actions, it is something that needs to be handled from the inside, that means the

grass root level of football needs to be influenced and racism needs to be removed from

those particular levels as well, so as to the whole chain reaction of actions against racism

actually become effective.

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References:
http://www.le.ac.uk/snccfr/resources/factsheets/fs4.html

http://www.le.ac.uk/snccfr/resources/factsheets/fs6.html

The new football communities – Stephen Bradbury

A Sociological Study of Race and Managerial Positions in English professional

Football - Ian Cook

Commission for Racial Equality, PFA, The Football Trust (1994), Lets Kick Racism
out of Football

Cohen, P. (1998) 'The perversions of inheritance' in P. Cohen et al (Eds) Multi-

Racist Britain, Macmillan

Racism, Football and the Internet by Carlo Balestri

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/ron-atkinson-quits-itv-after-his-racist-
remarks-are-heard-on-air-560834.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2004/oct/07/newsstory.sport5