EPQ
To what extent is racism an
issue in football?
___
Candidate Name: Auritro Saha
Candidate Number:
Centre Number: 12121
Centre Name: The Sydney Russell School
Total word count: 5108
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Table of Contents
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Racism On The Pitch ……………………………………………………………………………..5
Inequality In Coaching …………………………………………………………………………...7
How major football organisations deal with racism ……………………………………..8
How the state of society affects racism in football ……………………………………...10
Conclusion …………………………………………………….……………………………………...12
Bibliography …………………………………………………….……………………………………13
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INTRODUCTION
First and foremost, this essay will mainly focus on english football and racism within it as this is the
country where the most research has been done on but football related incidents in other countries will be
used to help make relevant points or serve as examples.
Racism is a social plague that has been around for thousands of years with some records dating back to
Ancient Greece and beyond (National Museum of African American History and Culture), this form of
prejudice has an undeniable presence in the world's most popular sport. It can be said that football is a
reflection of how modern society works (International journal of science culture and sports, 2014), it has
the same issues in prejudices (sexism, racism etc.), inequality, corruption and the sport even hosts a
significant gulf between the wealthy clubs at the top of the professional pyramid and the clubs that
struggle to keep afloat with their limited fund, so naturally the issue of racism is a big thing in football
since the sport is so reflective of society. Racism will always be present within football since the game is a
place where multiple ethnicities, nationalities and culture mix; the differences will inevitably lead to
racism from one group of people to another (Human Rights Australia) so it’s important to understand how
serious this issue is in football and the extent of the negative consequences it creates.
The most visible form of racism in football is seen and heard in stadiums, this can be done in many ways
from fans singing racist chants; targeting players with certain ethnicities or players themselves
discriminating against another player due to their background. Racism on the football pitches and
stadiums is the most obvious form of the issue in the game, it’s open for thousands if not millions on live
tv to see and it highlights a terrible side effect of football for all to see. In this essay the consequences of
this clear racism in football will be covered, how it encourages more racism in the stadium through the
leniency of the punishments handed out to the offenders and how it allows others to feel like they can
integrate their racist views more comfortably by seeing others doing it (1TV, 2019).
A lack of racial equality between coaches/managers is a big talking point in football considering the
number of BAME (BAME stands for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) people occupying those positions
is miniscule compared to white people. One statistic that is particularly alarming is the total amount of
BAME coaches in the history of the premier league is 9 (Goal, 2020); compared to the fact that there has
4
been over 240 managers since the inception of the premier league in 1992 (Wikipedia) which means that
less than 4% of all managers in premier league history were/are black (it’s important to note there hasn’t
been any asian managers in the premier league). This inequality doesn't just apply to senior level
managers it can range from multiple roles of leadership in football (from assistant manager, youth coach,
academy director etc) as they all make up less than 10% of all of the people employed in their profession
(Faranet, 2014). Taking into account that in the modern game that players of ethnic minorities make up
well over a quarter of players playing in the top leagues (Faranet, 2014) and that major national teams like
France, Germany and England (The Gryphon, 2020) all have a significant amount of players from an
ethnic minority, the low number of coaches doesn’t correlate and it’s often cited that there clubs actually
prefer not to appoint BAME managers (Reuters 2014). In this essay, it will be key for us to understand
what holds BAME people back from being employed in positions of management in football and what’s
being done by top organisations to lessen the inequality.
It’s important to see how serious an issue really is by seeing how it’s being dealt with by the people who
have the power to make a change; in the case of racism in football a multitude of different parties can
help to lessen racism from FIFA, UEFA, national football associations (like the FA, FIGC etc.), Leagues
(e.g premier league) and even football clubs themselves. However when you consider the fact that reports
of racial abuse rose by 53% from 2018/19 to 2019/20 (Kick it out, 2020), with the 2019/20 season being
shortened due to Covid-19, it shows that these organisations are currently not successful in dealing with
the racism present in the game; in fact their lack of capability and urgency of dealing with this issue is
actually fueling certain people to act on the leniency given to them by hurling out more racism on the
pitch. There is also a incompetence shown by top football organisations in proceeding to deal with racism,
one of the five major leagues in professional football the Serie A released an anti-racism campaign by
promoting pictures of monkeys (Reuters, 2019) which is seen as counterintuitive and ridiculous by many
when seeing that the anti-racism campaign was launched as a counter to the constant monkey chants; this
questionable course of action is one of many made by a lot of football organisations in dealing with the
racist abuse that both professionals in the sport and fans who pay for the tickets. It’s important to note that
the sharp rise in footballers of ethnic minorities should be given quite a bit of credit to the clubs, however
this is probably due more so to the fact that these players are very good at their jobs and their skills will
inevitably serve the football clubs well plus help them tap into markets of potential fans who are of an
ethnic minority. All in all it’s significant to reiterate what is being done by powerful authorities in football
to stop racism and see just how problematic it remains to be.
5
Politics has always had a huge impact on how society is built today, with the racial tensions being stirred
up by shootings of black people and the prominence of black lives matter, football in the major leagues
have taken a major stance in promoting action against racism doing things like taking the knee (Forbes,
2020) or putting activist messages on the footballers kits (Insider 2020). Whilst it can be said that most
football leagues have decided to support the social activism of movements like BLM by either endorsing
it or even starting their own campaigns against racial abuse many fans of sports have other opinions on if
football should support these movements, with some fans purposefully showing their discontent, e.g
booing players taking the knee (Reuters, 2020). This political divide amongst people will result in actions
taken by both sides that may end up being distasteful, like in many cases racism, so it’s noteworthy to
reference the state of racial tensions and activism in society and how it will directly affect racism in
football.
RACISM ON THE PITCH
Racism is the most common form of discrimination (Kick it out, 2020), in professional football. In
professional football there was an increase by 53% of racial abuse reported (from 184 to 282) in 2020
from last season and this was with Covid-19 stopping fans from attending after March (it’s a high chance
that the number of reported racial abuse would be much higher with a full season’s worth of attended
football matches). This is an indication that things are not improving in terms of racist abuse on the pitch.
These past few years, the sport has been plagued by high profile racist incidents shown at all levels
(whether it be international or club level), and it shows us that racial abuse can be given by anyone in the
stadium (referees, players, fans etc.). One incident on the international game was between black english
players and bulgarian fans where the european qualifying group had to be stopped in the 28th minute to
deal with abuse dealt at Sterling (Phil Mcnulty, 2019). The fans taunted the black players in England and
the match was being threatened to be stopped by the officials. This match highlights an obstacle in dealing
with this prejudice on an international level, different countries have different racial tolerances
(Washington Post, 2013), and changing people’s views on things especially race when it’s a part of their
innate behaviour (Mind and Life, 2020); this obstacle gets particularly harder to hurdle over when the
governing body for that country denies that their fans racial views are not problematic for other teams, the
bulgarian FA were ‘angry’ at the charges they faced (BBC, 2019)whilst the coach of the bulgarian
national team ‘didn’t hear’ anything racist by the fans (BBC, 2019). This denial by some organisations
will allow those who have been targeting players of etnic minorities to continue their abrasive behaviour
which makes international games and certain club games unfavourable to go to hence lowering the fan
engagement in stadiums which could be problematic for football.
The effect on players who have been targeted or a part of the racist incidents is also crucial to understand,
as the wellbeing of the professionals involved in the sport will tell us if racism is something that
6
negatively affects them. An example of a player who has been directly affected is Danny Rose, who has
contemplated an early retirement due to issues he faced in the sport due to the fact that he’s black
(Michael Pitt-Brooks, 2019). Danny Rose is one of many players to have been mistreated by fans due to
the colour of the skin, there are many recent incidents that involving other players including when
brazillian footballer Taison was sent of for reacting emotionally to being insulted due to his ethnicity and
race by fans (Reuters 2019a); Malcolm who arrived at club Zenit St Petersburg was greeted with a banner
that implied that black footballers were not welcome to play for the team and when footballer Rudiger was
taunted with monkey chants by rival fans (Tom Kershaw, 2019). In the first instance with Taison, the
racism got to him emotionally and he got punished for doing so, for him to cry and also be banned for a
match would presumably be damaging to his mood towards the sport and when you’re being
discriminated against with authorities, that are meant to protect you as a player, punishing you it damaged
the reputation of the sport to the people who support the league that Taison is playing in. With Malcolm,
the banner that excludes black people for playing for the club could be seen as segregation and it makes
the country that the club is in unfavourable for people of ethnic minorities to come to, plus the feeling of
being alienated by a large group of people will be harsh on the psyche of those players. Whilst the racist
situations involving Taison and Malcolm are based in countries (Russia, Ukraine) that have a deep history
of embracing their national whiteness (Nikolay Zakharov, 2015), in England, Rudiger was complaining
about monkey chants (which is widely known to be a malicious form of dehumanisation towards black
people) (Reuters 2020a); this is problematic as the league Rudiger plays in, the premier league, is viewed
as the most popular football league in the world in a country that isn’t as racist as countries like Russia yet
he suffers insults which goes to show that racism by fans is widespread into the majority of professional
leagues and that players of ethnic minorities will have the risk of being put down by others because of
what they look like no matter where they play and the negative consequence is that other players will have
to just endure this until the racism until something gets done to prevent such incidents. The racism on the
pitch has to lead to governing bodies (like the PFA) in football having to act on helping the players by
offering them counselling after they suffered racist abuse; this should be an indicator of how disturbing
such experiences are for people who are just doing their job playing football as others had to intervene to
support independent men (BACP, 2019).
Whilst fans have been the most notorious source of racism for decades (Vox Rationis, 2021) in football
stadiums, there have been very high-profile incidents including officials and players who partake in this
prejudice. One very famous incident is when Luis Suarez (one of the last decades best players) refused to
speak with Evra because he was a ‘negro’ (Adam Marshall, 2020). Evra’s treatment from this situation is
abhorrent, whilst the incident was being reviewed live the co-commentator accused Evra of being too
dramatic in the situation in which he was the one that has been offended (Adam Marshall, 2020). Whilst
Suarez was handed a fairly strong fine in the length of an eight-match ban, Evra seems to have suffered
the worst consequences of the two, with Liverpool (Suarez’s employers) being ‘furious’ at Evra for
defending himself and fans mailing him death threats (Adam Marshall, 2020), in the end, the player with
the ethnic minority is the one that has been treated the worse and it paints a bad picture on the climate of
7
football, many people will jump in defence of their player even if they did something, that in normal
circumstances, will be deemed as a hate crime.
Anton Ferdinand had an altercation with John Terry (who was at that time one of the best defenders in the
world) where Terry called him a ‘black c***t’, this racial slur was accused of being a hate crime by many
but Terry managed to escape any prosecution in the court whilst, like Evra, Ferdinand was abused online
as an aftermath of everything that went down with him and the Chelsea defender. Ferdinand felt ‘scared’
to share his experiences in detail after the whole event because of the abuse given; Ferdinand waited nine
years, until the social unrest concerning BLM (Black Lives Matter), to feel comfortable enough sharing
his experiences about the racism he received (BBC Iplayer, 2020). The extent of the problem of racism is
highlighted to the fact that players on the receiving end are negatively psychologically affected from
backlash amidst speaking out which is problematic for the perception of the sport as being one welcome
for everyone and that it can deter talented players of an ethnic minority for taking up the sport due to fear
that they may face racism on such a large public scale which will hurt the integrity and entertainment
value of the sport as it can lead to less racial diversity and a drop in quality of the actual football being
played.
INEQUALITY OF RACES IN COACHING
One significant issue is the lack of coaches from an ethnic minority at the top level, especially managers.
There are only 9 black/non-white head coaches of all 92 professional English clubs as of now. Throughout
the premier league’s 28 year history, there have been around 240 managers that have taken over; out of
those 240 managers only 9 managers have been of an ethnic minority, and in 12 of the 27 seasons there
have been only white managers (Daniel Ling and Wikipedia, 2020). This is a very low figure considering
how progressive the game has been in terms of players of BAME, with over 25% making up all the
professional players in the football league system (Faranet, 2014). There also hasn’t been an improvement
in the diversity of coaching throughout the League’s history (unlike players), in the 1998/99 season 7% of
managers were of an ethnic minority and that number remains the same in the 2020/21 season
This low figure is said to be blamed on institutional racism (Naz Ali, 2020), white people will be offered
jobs more than BAME candidates due to biases from clubs. The low number can be attributed to the fact
that society doesn’t have people of an ethnic minority holding jobs in ‘senior’ roles (Jo Faragher, 2020),
the statistics shows BAME people hold just 1.5% of leadership positions across the public and private
sector in the UK, and the improvement from 2014 to 2020 in terms of increase in occupation is only 0.1%.
Whilst this statistic covers all professions, it does highlight an under-representation of leaders of an ethnic
minority and that can correlate to football as well since there is a low number of coaches that are not
white. The institutional racism may come from the old views of ‘white supremacy’ where being of a
lighter skin attributes to a higher intelligence which means that they’re more suited to roles that require a
lot of management skills whereas other races are inferior in doing so (John Phillips Jenkins, 2016);
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football clubs (who employ the coaches/managers) may feel more comfortable in appointing managers of
a caucasian race as it’s historically been the normal thing and they will be seen as intelligent enough to
handle the job to do whilst to appoint a manager of a darker skin tone possesses a larger risk as there have
not been many that succeeded and if they do contain the mental capacity to handle the pressure of being a
manager. This way of thinking of BAME managers being less suited to being a football manager is a
marker that the lack of diversity in the coaching position will remain a problem unless this belief is
challenged by clubs and leagues by prompting coaching diversity, and only if multiple black or Asian
manager succeeds at football clubs all across the 5 major European leagues but with the shortage of
opportunities and actions to aid BAME managers this seems to be an issue, that for now, won’t seem to
rectify itself.
HOW MAJOR FOOTBALL ORGANISATIONS DEAL
WITH RACISM
To help measure the extent of how big a problem is, you will have to see how it’s being dealt with; if the
issue is being countered with relevant resistance (whether by rules, ample punishment etc.), you can say
the problem is being managed to the point where you can see more and more people being deterred from
committing the same offence. However, if there is too much leniency regarding the issue or just no
disciplinary action inflicted when the issue occurs then the extent of the problem can be very large as
nothing significant is opposing it which means that there will be continued repeat offences.
In Football, players and fans alike have criticised the organisations that can hand punishments to those
who give racist abuse (BBC, 2019a), and that there have to be more severe punishments for the situation
of racism to be better (Eren Waitzmen, 2020). the criticism is aimed primarily at the very light
punishments dealt with individuals/groups who are convicted of racially abusing others. A lot of hate
crimes (like racism) can be punishable by prison sentences, in fact, in 2016/17, 83% of any physical
violence, verbal violence fueled by prejudices were found guilty by the jury or judge (CPS, 2020), in
comparison football authorities, rather than legal courts, are given the task to punish individuals and the
common repercussion for fans will be that they are either given life-bans or lengthy bans (FourFourTwo,
2020). While football is for many, is one of the things they’re most passionate about, being banned for
attending matches they willingly pay money to attend is seen as soft compared to going to prison for a
similar offence they commit. The problem that stems from this is that fans who attend matches are more
comfortable in expressing their hateful views because they will not go to prison and any fine or ban they
will receive will be lenient in comparison to a prison sentence and this in the views of many people is
what causes racism in football to remain an ‘insidious’ problem in football that will only get worse (Sky
Sports, 2019). Also, organisations like the FA or FIFA have trouble identifying fans, that do cause
trouble, in the first place due to the lack of technology they possess (Daniel Burdsey, pp 7) so more often
than not (like the case of Antonio Rudiger who claimed to hear monkey chants directed at him) fans who
9
do attack others for their skin colour are often let off the hook since they are not even suspected of
committing the offence in the first place.
Players get even less severe fines as in the Premier League they only get served a six to twelve match ban
and clubs themselves get handed minimal fines (Martyn Ziegler, 2020). The complications that arise when
the football clubs (who employ the players/staff or hold the fans who are accused of committing a racist
offence) are let off with monetary fines that won’t hurt them is that they won’t feel encouraged to deter
others associated with them (as they feel the punishment they face isn’t severe enough to worry about),
which means players are then more likely to be racist in a reaction to events on the pitch knowing that
they won’t be too severely punished by the club and instead receive their support like how Luis Suarez
was backed by Liverpool football club amidst the Patrice Evra racism row (The Telegraph, 2019). If clubs
don’t hold players accountable for their actions like Liverpool FC and many others then it shows that at a
player to club level football is still at a huge hole when it comes to dealing with racism especially as it
highlights that football clubs will prioritise performance of a player both financially for the club and
practically on the pitch over the morals of respecting people of another race. Furthermore, the extent of
the problem of racism can lead outside of football and into society as a whole as many people will respect
and young people will view footballers as their role models, and if they are exhibiting racist actions it can
negatively influence them in doing the same thing as it is been shown that how someone’s role model acts
will affect another person’s behaviour (Paul Hughes, 2011).
For the defence of football organisations, there have been more noticeable efforts of trying to discourage
racial inequality and problems in the game. leagues like the Premier League take initiative by promoting
anti-racism movements like ‘Black Lives Matter’, kneeling, or their very own message ‘No Room For
Racism’ (Sky News, 2020), having these shown on live television for millions to see will influence
viewers to understand that racism is unacceptable in the sport. This is due to the contemporary openness
to challenge racism in today's society (Daniel Burdsey, pp 9) due to more people being more open-minded
nowadays and it can be said that this allows the governing bodies of football to more freely add more
severe punishments (BBC, 2019b), or more openly condemn racist abuse (Premier League, 2021). The
addition of these messages is however claimed to be just simply a reaction to the mainstream media
coverage of Black Lives Matter and a pass for actually taking relevant action in solving the obstacle of
racism in the game (Total Media, 2021). There is a debate to be had when handling crimes when it comes
to rehabilitation vs punishment, punishment can be seen as a way to properly condemn the criminal whilst
rehabilitation is a method to help them become better people and reintegrate them back into society
(Crime and Justice, 2005). The argument in football is whether to hand punishments to clubs or fans like
prison sentences or try and educate them on their views on other races and ethnicities like how Chelsea
FC have released an antisemitism programme that will educate both players and also rehabilitate fans who
have been anti-semitic in the past (Chelsea, 2018). Whilst the issue remains for many people that there is
still not enough proactive action taken by the major organisations to adequately handle racism in the sport
(Sky News, 2020) what can be said is that there is some improvement shown on that front, one of the
10
major criticism the organisations face is the lack of ‘tools’ they have to deal with racism in the modern
age (Daniel Burdsey, pp 7); one of the major organisations, the Premier League, introduced an online
reporting system that allows individuals to report anything racist to do with football on a website
concerning racism in social media or the stadium (Premier League, 2020) or by texts during a match to
increase confidentiality (Premier League) which shows that they are innovating to allow themselves to
identify and tackle these problems. Football clubs themselves are being more proactive themselves like
when Chelsea FC took over the investigation of a racist incident that occurred in a game in December of
2018 and they gave a supporter a lifetime ban or when Sheffield United sacked a female player for being
racist to an opposing player (Eren Waitzman, 2020). What this shows is that the problem of racism in
football is being attacked with more modern methods and more proactivity by some major organisations
that means that the issue is being actively dealt with in an effective manner that means the extent of the
problem isn’t extended to the point that agents with the power to make a change are not tackling it;
however not enough organisations are acting to also sort out racism as whilst the Premier League is
dealing with racism in football in England, UEFA doesn’t have any online reporting system, nor does
many other football associations in other countries whilst it’s positive for one party to deal with an issue,
the problem of racism in football if there aren’t enough parties partaking in placing measures to counteract
those problems that the extent of the problem of racism remains at large as racist abuse can’t be identified
or punished justifiably in other countries/regions.
HOW THE STATE OF SOCIETY AFFECTS RACISM IN
FOOTBALL
Football can be seen as a microcosm or reflection of how society is right now (Ekain Rojo-Labaien,
2014), so to view how the racial tensions in society are will allow us to gauge if racism in football is an
issue that lies solely within the game itself or if it is affected events globally like the BLM movement. It’s
already been said that racism in football is on the rise again in fact at an alarming rate (over a 50% rise
from the 2019 season to 2020 season) (Kick It Out, 2020), this can link to the fact that racially aggravated
crime is also on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic where movements like BLM was in their full
stride and others who are opposed to it, attack that movement (Grahame Allen and Yago Zayed, 2020).
Further actions can also be seen on the pitch, fans will actively oppose the actions of kneeling (which is
symbolised as being seen as a respectful way of opposing an institution that doesn’t treat you fairly, (BBC
News, 2020), either by flying an ‘All Lives Matter banner over a football match (Reuters, 2020b) which is
seen as opposing BLM or just straight up booing kneeling like Millwall fans (Reuters, 2020). Now the
differences in views can either be a cause of people just being plain and simple racist which is a major
issue in football as racists are most likely normalised to the dynamics of having perceived their race
(white) as being more privileged than others whilst also believing that other races (ethnic minorities) are
not oppressed because they haven’t experienced the oppression (Lena Dominelli, pp 25, 2018) that they
have received and unless you put those racists in that experience and environment (that BAME footballers
11
and fans grew up in or experienced) it would mean that they will always be people who will continuously
hurl racist abuse or express their prejudice views during football matches. The political divide between
people will lead to insulting others due to their ‘identitythe identity and what they believe in, insulting
them as a power play to prove that your beliefs are right and attempting to ‘expose’ them in public (Karina
Valentinovna Korostelina, 2014), for many that political divide is maintaining their conservative ideas
that ‘foreigners’ are interrupting or ‘invading’ their culture (Arne Roets & Alain Van Hiel, 2006) and how
a person is brought up affects how they view and treat other people and this is there are many people who
follow football are brought up with these views and unless they change their views to treat others on merit
rather than skin colour or ethnicity (which takes a lot of effort (Lena Dominelli, 2018)), there will always
be a generation of football fans brought up on values that could damage the reputation of the game if they
decide to act aggressively towards others due to their own personal upbringing by being racist in matches.
The media is an integral part of society and how people view it as it’s the main source of information for
many people. With the European football market being worth over 25 billion pounds (Bill Wilson, 2019),
a lot of that money is provided by the media so it's a lucrative market and football media has been accused
of portraying players differently due to their skin colour. One of the biggest victims of this differing of
portrayals is Raheem Sterling (Black english footballer of jamaican heritage), who has said that
‘newspapers fuel racism’ (Katie Falkingham & Mantej Mann, 2018) and this is a claim that can be backed
by the way the media choose to represent footballers of different races. One broad example is the overall
portrayal that the media view black players in an ‘animalistic’ way describing them with common
terminology along the likes of ‘beast’ or ‘animals’, whilst this can be taken as praise what does get swept
under is the fact that very rarely does the media portray black footballers as intelligent or technically
gifted which leaves them to be seen as intellectually inferior, less graceful and more approachable which
can harm the overall images of black footballers to the public (J Jewell, 2018). This stereotypical view on
footballers is also reflected on commentators during matches, studies have shown that black players are
far more likely to be praised on their athleticism and speed (four times and seven times more than their
white peers respectively) and less likely to be praised on their skill, further emphasising a ‘brawn vs brain’
stereotype society already had on black people and white people and this commentary creates an image of
black footballers being more gifted athletically but less hardworking and not possessing any intelligence
which will deepen any negative views people listening already had on balck players (Rory Smith,
2020).Furthermore whilst white footballers are generally represented as wholesome and generous, black
footballers are presented as people who are more focused on buying things that they can boast about. In
two newspaper headlines, Foden (white footballer who plays for Manchester City) is said to be buying a
house for 2 million pounds for the benefits of his mother (which is true to what he actually did), this
headline puts Phil Foden in a positive light as a family man who loves his mother towards the public, in
contrast Tosin Adarabioyo (black footballer who also plays for Manchester City) also bought a new house
for just over 2 million pounds for his mother however, unlike how the media treated Foden, Adarabioyo is
instead met with a headline that paints him as a brash spender who just unjustifiably brought a new home
‘despite no premier league starts’ whilst choosing to leave the part that could put him in a positive light
12
towards the public rather than the negative one he was actually put in (Katie Falkingham & Mantej Mann,
2018). The difference in representation is openly damaging for the player of the ethnic minority which
leads to them being treated differently by the public as they would have consumed a more adverse
representation of them in the media and it showcases that racism in football has a significant additional
layer on top of it with the media and unless the majority of the media remove any bias in reporting players
there will always be people who are unnecessarily hostile towards players because what they have
consumed form the media is that players of an ethnic minority are different in a bad way towards the
players who are not.
CONCLUSION
Taking into account all the evidence and research presented, it allows me to conclude racism is an issue in
football that relates to the situation of racial tension in society, and the rash nature of football fans and the
tribalism they possess (Carmo Leal, Luiz Moutinho et.al, 2008) makes them more hostile towards other
players and fans in the form of racism.
Racism in football is present on many fronts whether it be through social media, the news or on the pitch
so the extent of racism is significant on many fronts and whilst the acceptance of ethnic minorities in
football has definitely improved from the 1900s where banana skins were thrown at black players
(Mandeep Sanghera, 2018) and how monkey chants were acceptable for the majority of those associated
with football (Vikram, 2019 )there is still a huge amount of racism that remains and it will take a lot of
effort from many fronts (like footballing associations and fans) to improve the integrity of the game and
that process will be very long.
13
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