SPORTS
Racism reports on football increases 67.3% since last year
In October, a match between England and Bulgaria was halted twice because of racism and made headlines all over the globe
Izabelly Lira and Maria Clara Braga
During the 2018/2019 football season, 184 cases of racism were reported, increasing from 110 occurences presented on last years’ season. That shows a 67.3% of growth on the number, according to an annual reporting summary by Kick It Out, an organization that promotes equality and inclusion on football. The improvement could be proved by a racist event that took place in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, at the Vasil Levski National Stadium, on October 14th. During a match between England and the home team, bulgarian supporters were monkey chating and reproduzing Nazi salutes against english players.
In response to that, the Bulgaria Football Union (BFU) was fined 85,000 euros and ordered to play one match behind close doors by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Meanwhile, English players took social media to address the situation. Raheem Sterling, one of the targets of the racist behaviour during the match, tweeted:
Supporters from both countries have different opinions on the matter. Bulgarian student Hristiyan Bakardzhiev, 21, says that what happened during the match was a set up and it blew up, shaming his country.
Jitesh Patel, a 20-year-old English student, says that acts of racism speak a lot about where their commiters come from. According to him, Bulgarian supporters have a history of racist behaviour.
Bakardzhiev, on the other hand, says that although his country is considered racist, it is still very welcoming.
Nevertheless, Patel says the behaviour during the match was disrespectful and it didn’t correspond to UEFA’s “No To Racism” campaign.
The media coverage
Bakardzhiev and Patel also think different about the way mass media covered the story. The english student says that press did a good job on portraying the situtation, and that the way they did it helps to spread the word against racism.
On the other hand, the bulgarian supporter says that english media overreacted whilist covering the story.
Sports journalist Breiller Pires says that the press should not only talk about racist offenses, but contextualize it in society’s structural racism that naturally reflects on football: “a lot of people think that racism happens only on isolated cases in stadiums. However, it is journalists’ job to say that offenses to a black player are not dissociated from social beliefs that, to their core, are racist”.
Most of the times, media approches to racism cases on football are corrupted by sensacionalism or hardcore fans reporting about their clubs, says Pires. He also says that because most of the sports divisions in media companies are runned by white journalists, media has a hard time reaching deep on racism situations.
UEFA against racism?
UEFA has a very famous “No To Racism” police. A statement from the Union reads: “The fight to eliminate racism, discrimination and intolerance from football is a major priority for our organization. UEFA condemns such deplorable behaviour and has always shown zero tolerance for any form of racism and discrimination. The campaign against discrimination, not just in and around football, but in European society as a whole, is a key tenet of UEFA’s social responsibility programme”.


However, sports journalist Breiller Pires says that these campaigns rarely result in firm actions against racism. He uses UEFA’s sanction against Bulgaria as an example: “the white punishment historical only proves the Union’s racism tolerance”.
Other cases
On Brazilian website Football’s Racial Discrimination Observatory is possible to find other acts of racism towards black players. From 2012 stories to most recent ones, the following got a lot of media attention.
Italian-Welsh player Mario Balotelli heard racist chants during a match between Italy and Croatia on 2012’s Eurocup. UEFA fined Croatia’s national team in 80.000 euros because of its supporters offenses.
In 2013, in Italy, during a friendly match between Milan and Pro Patria (a fourth division team), player Kevin Boateng left the pitch twenty-six minutes into the game, followed by his Milan teammates, after hearing racist chants. The player kicked the ball towards the section of the audience from where the offenses were coming from and, even though players from the other team asked him to stay and continue the game, the match was over.
In 2014, brazilian Daniel Alves, at the time playing for Barcelona, was a target of racism by Villareal’s supporters. Bananas were thrown towards him and, before he executed a corner kick, he picked one of them from the grass and ate it.
In 2014, then Barcelona player Neymar was called “mono”, which means monkey in spanish, during a match between his team and Atlético Madrid. The next day, the offenses were committed via the internet: tweets with the same insult were directed at the player.
During a match between Palmeiras and Nacional from 2016’s Libertadores, brazilian player Gabriel Jesus was a target of racist behaviour by Nacional’s fans. At the time he did not commented on the fact, but had the support of his team on legal mesures.
In 2017, during a match between AS Roma and Lazio, german player Rudiger suffered racist abuse by his opponents’ supporters. He asked to leave AS Roma to play in England after hearing monkey chanting at that game. Besides the supporters, Lulic, a player from Lazio, also made racist remarks to Rudiger. He was ordered to apologize publicly and fined 10,000 euros.
Reporting racism
Kick It Out’s annual reporting summary also show how supporters report racism and other discriminatory acts:

On the organization website it is possible to find a “Report It!” section, in which those who have been targets of racism on football matters can tell their stories.
