Communications and Media

Kicking racism from football has been the concern of the football fraternity for many decades. After the Second World War, African families started settling in the United Kingdom and most other euro European nations. Within not time, gifted black players flooded the English football scene with their dazzling talent but rightists and neo-Nazis targeted them with racially motivated abuse, sometimes even threatening them and their families. It is not just black players who are targets of racism in football. In Israel, players or Arabic descent are racially abused by fans in the course of the game. In Africa, Hanif Adams, who is of Indian descent and owner of the Zambian Lusaka Dynamos Football Club was racially abused when he was vying for the presidency of the local football association.

But there has been no racial minority subjected to as much racial abuse as Africans. There is therefore a need to put in place an elaborate mechanism to halt this inhuman treatment of talented professionals whose contribution to this beautiful game is so massive. The FIFA world cup is not as dogged with racial discrimination as club football. Furthermore, club football is so frequent with matches being played every weekend when national seasons are on. Therefore, to tackle racism in football effectively, the best place to start is in club football.

Every football club, especially those in Europe and the Americas, has a unique tradition, history and localized context that determines the nature of their supporters. The racial atmosphere is therefore club specific, necessitating the need for club specific anti-racism efforts. For the management of a club to tailor a case-specific anti racism campaign, the first step is to understand the problem. There has been a misconception that racism is a deep rooted issue originating from outside football clubs domains. However, even if this was the case there would still be a need to start initiatives to tackle this disgusting social phenomenon as it seeps through club ranks. Workshops for key and supporting club staff should be organized to sensitize them on issues concerning race. If all staff within a club were racially aware, the case when Manchester United left-back Patrice Evra was racially abused by a lawnmower operator in Chelsea home-ground the Stamford Bridge in 2008 would never have happened.

Secondly, a club-based anti-racism campaign needs to have clearly defined objectives. It is not enough to just punish football fans who shout racist statements from the stands during a game it is also necessary to reach out at the local community including the minority groups and to develop principles for action. All these initiatives need to be massively published to attract the support of internal and external stakeholders. Fighting racism in football is for the common good, so all objectives cited in a clubs approach should be available to all in the appropriate form.

Football clubs need not just declare their stand against racism they should have clearly written plan and schedule of activities that clearly depicts its dedication to fighting this anti-social and anti-sporting behaviour. The body governing football in Europe, UEFA, has a ten-point plan that can be used as a guideline while formulating a plan of action for clubs not only in Europe but throughout the world. If necessary, the anti-racism campaign should be branded to give it more depth and help supporters identify with it.

Football clubs, associations and federations should engage modern technologies in their fight against racism. Social networking sites, the internet and blogs are some of the most widely used sources of information and communication channels. Initiatives or groups fighting racism should embrace these new technologies and trends while forming networks with like-minded people so that the message can reach as many people as possible. In addition, all stakeholders in the game of football should be directly involved in the fight to kick racism out of football. Fans of course are the most important targets of the anti-racist campaign since it is a cross-section of them that orchestrate racist attacks against players in opposing teams. In addition, match stewards, players and other interested groups should be involved in anti-racism initiatives since a collective effort is more effective than sole efforts.

A tool effective in combating racism is setting up workgroups composed of representatives from different stakeholders including the club, its fan-base, non-governmental organizations fighting racism and the local community. The advantage of workgroups is that different people bring in different ideas and increase the reach of the programs initiated.

Racial education particularly among the youth is important since they are going to be adults in the immediate future and their being racially aware and tolerant is really important to dislodge misconceptions that have been ingrained to people for centuries about the superiority or inferiority of one race over another. The myths and prejudices causing incidences of racial abuse in football are stimulated by external forces and sport is supposed to bring people together to beat these forces. It is therefore a pity if these forces are allowed to operate in avenues that are supposed to fight them. Football has an unrivalled potential of fighting racism not only in sport but also in contemporary society.

Football clubs, football associations and all other groups should rise up to the occasion and set aside special days dedicated to fighting racism in this lovely sport. It does not necessarily need to be a whole day, clubs and stadium management authorities can utilize the time before kick-off to spread messages outlining the magnificence of diversity and the destructiveness of racism. Such initiatives will be most successful if the players are directly involved since even those who have been racially targeted have a large following of fans outside their own race. An example is Samuel Etoo. When he played for Barcelona Football Club up to until last year, he was victim to racially motivated heckling and gesturing, but he had a huge fan base nonetheless. And as he once remarked, racism is something created in the minds of men and anything that has been created can be reversed.

Once anti-racism initiatives have been launched, there should be no holding back. Every time clubs and football lovers talk about this sport, they should talk about racism. The campaign should be kept alive from season to season in the media and any other avenue for mass communication present. Racism is detrimental not only to a players ability to concentrate on the game (which is his profession) but also to individual dignity and to social integrity. We were all created equal and we should celebrate that ant tolerate each other we should never at any given time use the difference in our cultural or racial identities to prejudice against each other.