Tag: Football

Discrimination casts a shadow over football

The English Football League kicked of last week but the opening weekend was marred with a number of incidents of racist abuse. Like any other employer in the UK, a professional football club has a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to protect its staff from racial abuse. The Equality Act makes no distinction as to the type of workplace, a football player is a member of staff and the football pitch is a workplace.

On Saturday 3rd August, Southend United’s Jamaican striker Theo Robinson claims he was abused “in front of family, friends and their kids” at St Andrew’s, the first match Coventry have played in their ground-sharing arrangement with Birmingham City.  Similarly, Stoke City’s James McClean, Barnsley’s Bambo Diaby and the sister of Fulham’s Cyrus Christie were also victims of what’s been described as “unacceptable discriminatory abuse”.

Anti-racism charity Kick It Out said “On the first weekend of the season, these incidents should be a reminder for everyone in football that racism and discrimination cannot be ignored. Clubs and the football authorities must be relentless in calling out this disgraceful behaviour, and be prepared to issue strong sanctions and education sessions to any supporter involved. Discrimination casts a shadow over football in this country, and we will not stop highlighting the problem while it remains rife in the game.”

Whilst in this case the racial abuse is coming from a minority of fans in reality a football fan is a customer of the club and a consumer of the clubs product or service. As such, this is no different from hospital staff receiving racial abuse from a patient or service user. In such cases, NHS Trusts work to support staff and reduce racial abuse happening and football clubs must do the same. However, we hear much more outrage from the public and political leaders when NHS staff are racially abused. Why then are footballers, as well as other sports men and woman, seen as fair game to abuse at work?

Certainly, the money involved in football infuriates many fans, especially when they are being charged £40 a ticket and another £50 for a replica club shirt. They see the elite football players earning the big bucks and see themselves as effectively their employers. Oddly, if they were the employers then by law they should treat their staff better. That said, we know that when a football team is doing well the fans sign their praises from the stands but when things are not going well a minority of fans abuse the players, regardless of ethnic origin. This abuse from the stands has almost become a ‘norm’ but race is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act and harassment on the basis of it is illegal, just as would the abuse of a disabled member of staff, or an LGBT+ member of staff. In fact, I am sure the ongoing situation with racial abuse of players is contributing to the lack of any visible LGBT+ professional football players. Unfortunately, LGBT+ players are not confident enough in being accepted by all fans that they have to hide that aspect of their lives away and as such lead an unauthentic version of themselves, in itself this can lead to anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

So what are clubs to do? In reality, expulsion from the ground and permanent exclusion from all football grounds is a strong deterrent. Clubs must demonstrate their commitment to stamping out racial abuse but those fans that do not racially abuse players must also be given the confidence to challenge the abusers and show them that this behaviour is not okay.

Either way, the Equality Act 2010 protects all staff from abuse in the workplace and unless clubs do more to protect their players from racial abuse they could be in breach of the Equality Act and subject to legal action.

JD

Invisible banana skins thrown at black people every day, says John Barnes

Is racism in sport something that the education sector can tackle?

The football charity Kick it Out, football’s equality and inclusion organisation, work extensively with clubs and fan community groups to reduce racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination through its education programmes.

However, by targeting a captive audience, so to speak, can schools, colleges and universities help organisations, like Kick it Out, challenge racism in sport? As an experienced educator, I am confident that racism is comprehensively challenged in classrooms up and down the country. However, if our educational institutions challenge racism when they hear it… it asks further questions as to why sports professionals are still subjected to racism from people who have been through our educational system. That said, as an experienced equality, diversity and inclusion professional, I am not confident that all workplaces in England would effectively challenge racist attitudes if they heard it in the workplace. As such, if racism is not challenged in the workplace as much as it should be then it is left solely to our educational institutions to drive an zero tolerance policy on racial abuse and racism in general.

More importantly, education is what is needed to help dispel racist attitudes and negative stereotypes amongst those learning skills for the workplace. In that way, we slowly influence the workplace where old fashioned racist attitudes can be challenged and hopefully diminished. A further knock on effect of this would be the impact it has on those who attend sporting events. That said, will sports fans themselves ever be in a position to feel suitably empowered to challenge racist abuse when they hear it in the stands?

Racism in sport recently hit the headlines again with extensive national press coverage when Raheem Sterling was allegedly on the receiving end of racial abuse during his side’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea. It’s worth noting that in this situation Raheem Sterling is at work and as such is entitled to protection from harassment under the Equality Act 2010. Subsequently, if the allegations are found to be true, the player was racially abused at work and Chelsea football club are duty bound to investigate the incident and report there findings, taking appropriate action where appropriate.

Below is an thought-provoking article from Mandeep Sanghera, BBC Sport, highlighting the similarities between Raheem Sterling’s recent experience at Stamford Bridge and that of fellow Jamaican-born England international John Barns. Barnes famously back heeled a banana skin off the pitch in a game at Everton in 1988 and tells BBC Sport that the problem has not gone away since his playing days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46504433

JD