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Luc Ho
May 5 2015
ESL 53C
Professor G. Shibata
The End of Racism in Soccer Over many years gone by, we can see racism and discrimination are still existed everywhere all around us from time to time. It can be on the newspapers, social network or through personal experience. It seems like we simply accepted racism as a part of our lives. Racism and discrimination in soccer has been created from the fans, between players, and also in the clubs. Especially, racism between the fans and players has been well documented. However, there is a way to eliminate racism and discrimination easily by encourages and recruits more black soccer players.
According to Travis Waldron in “Black Soccer Targeted with Thousands of Racist Social Media Posts,” “Racism, sexism, and homophobia was once a major problem, however it has now been replaced by something far worse, social media.” The report, according to “The Guardian”, found that 88 percent of abuse takes place on Twitter. Kick It Out director Roisin Wood told The Telegraph on 14 April 2015, “It is really shocking, we knew there was an issue but even we were shocked by how many the players have received. For one player to have received over 8,000 abusive messages is phenomenally awful. You cannot accept players getting that level of abuse so we want to bring this expert group together to see how we can address this.” Evidence of this abusive message can be seen with African- American soccer player striker Mario Balotelli. He has consistently faced racism from fans and even club officials throughout his career. Studies have shown, according to, “The Guardian” that, “In total, racism takes 28 percent, sexism takes
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25 percent, and homophobia takes 19 percent accounted for the majority of discriminatory posts aimed at players or specific clubs.” The abuse still persists on social media. Online webpages such as Facebook, Twitter, and other networks allow teams and leagues to connect with fans and build an online communication. Although this is an ideal way for fans to connect with players, it is an open door for people who have nothing nice to say. They can post anything they hate, say anything they want, and even comment to everything they dislike.
One of the ways to solve this majority problem is to recruit players with multicultural backgrounds. With a more diverse team, the players will be more comfortable and they will support each other if there are any racial comments. Coaches and training camps need to inform fans as well as players that there are many successful African- American soccer players in the past, who have reached their dream and participated in the world championship soccer game. One of the ways to solve this problem is to encourage African-American soccer players and show them that there is nothing that can stop them from achieving their dream. Clubs need to recruit as many African- American soccer players as they can to play in a same team so that they will not feel alone. They can empower each other and influence other members to love the sport the way they do.
Encouraging African- American soccer players is not enough to end racism in sports because the fans and club officials need to know more about them