Tackling issues of inequalities, discrimination, prejudices, and exclusion in football: Kick It Out

A player in the FA (Football Association) League is abused once every 2 half minutes. A staggering figure revealed by Kick It Out’s Media and Communications Officer, Hashima Piperdy at a press conference on November 16th at Westminster University.

Kick It Out, the UK’s ‘equality and inclusion organization’ works closely with profession players, their clubs, fans, grass-root players and communities to tackle different types of discrimination in football. The organization promotes careers in football but also provides mentoring for young people who are looking to play football or who have aspirations work in the industry in the future.

There have been extensive calls from clubs, players and fans to tackle racist attitudes existing within the game. Mr. Piperdy told MA students that Kick It Out was on a mission to rid the world’s biggest sport of all forms of discrimination. He stressed that football (one of the most powerful sports) should take the lead on dealing with issues of discrimination, sexism, antisemitism, racism and prejudices. Football over the years has struggled to get these issues in the game. Hate crime can be found on and off the pitch but it has also can be found on social media.

Kick It Out recently published research findings revealing the magnitude of hate crimes across social media. The study focused on discrimination posted across social media towards fans, clubs and players and was conducted by Tempero; the largest social media management company in the world. Kick It Out currently faces the challenge that incidents of discrimination which occur on social media ( much of which are left unchallenged) are not covered under football regulations.

Between the period August 2014 and March 2015, there has been an estimated 134.4K instances of abuse online. Over 95K posts are directed towards Premier League teams and 39K posts directed towards Premier League players.

The study sorted discrimination into different types of categories:

Race(28%)
Gender(25%)
Sexual orientation (19%)
Disability (11%)
Antisemitism (9%)
Islamophobia (5%)
Age(2%)
Gender Reassignment(1%)

A number of players have come under large volumes of discriminatory abuse for example Mario Balotelli. Over 8K discriminatory posts were directed at him, of which 52% were racist. Seven Chelsea football fans were recently involved in an incident with a black passenger on the underground in Paris. The fans face a life-time ban from the Football Association for their racist chants and prohibiting a black man from boarding a train. The incident was condemned by the FIFA president, UEFA president and the Chelsea Football Club.

Kick It Out has also identified a quicker and non-intrusive way of reporting abuse and discrimination; in the form of a phone app. The app was launched in 2013 and allows persons to instantly report football-related hate. The newest version of the Kick It Out app allows users to attach video, photos and even audio to complaints. Kick It Out states that the updated version of the app is ‘vital to securing disciplinary or criminal action against people committing abuse’.

There have also been cases of racism, prejudice and hate messages among football management. Malky Mackay (former Cardiff manager) and Iain Moody (former head of recruitment) were involved in a highly publicized case for sending discriminatory text messages while employed by the Cardiff City FC. The text messages contained racial, sexual, homophobic tones. Having assessed the text messages, the FA found that the discriminatory text messages sent by Malky Mackay and Iain Moody could not justify a fine as they were covered by the law of ‘legitimate expectation of privacy’. Mr. Piperdy however, felt that the FA statement in defense of Mr. Mackay and Mr Moody was very weak. He informed that Kick It Out intends to follow up with the FA to ascertain whether or not the rule will be changed.

Exert from FA Statement:

‘Having assessed the evidence, and in light of the finding that the communications were sent with a legitimate expectation of privacy, the FA will not be taking disciplinary action against Iain Moody and Malky Mackay in connection with the content of those messages. However, the FA has spoken to both Iain Moody and Malky Mackay about the inappropriateness of terms used in the messages. Both individuals have acknowledged that such terms are not acceptable. Mr Mackay has also voluntarily undertaken equality and diversity training. The FA is in the process of carrying out a complex review involving all stakeholders on how communications, and in particular those involving discriminatory language, which may be viewed as taking place in private, should be treated in the future’.

It is important to note that women are not free from discrimination within the sport. In 2015 a number of players — including Fifa Women’s Players of the Year Nadine Angerer (Germany) and Abby Wambac (America) — filed a discrimination suit. The reason for their lawsuit was the use of synthetic/artificial pitches at the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. All football matches at the Men’s World Cup are played on natural grass. There seems to be some very gross disparities between the type of treatment given to the Women’s team compared to the Men’s team.