Racism

Abstract

Association football has the unwanted distinction of being the only major sport in the world to be persistently affected by racism of some form, whether initiated by fans or players and even managers. Originating in England, the sport’s birthplace, football or soccer, experienced an upheaval in the late 1970s as a new generation of British black players broke through the professional ranks to be met with racist abuse from fans. The abuse seemed to vanish in the 1990s, but flared up all over continental Europe in the twenty-first century. From 2011, racist incidents again became visible in England, prompting us to investigate the reasons for this recrudescence, principally through the observations, impressions and experiences of 2,500 fans, collected via the researchers’ online platform. This chapter uses extracts from data as part of an attempt to explain the sources, development and reasons for the persistence of racism in football. It offers an explanation of football’s racism based on the uniquely intense sense of entitlement the sport excites in its fans.