Racism has been a major problem in this world for thousands of years, dating back as far as the Ancient Egyptians. It now goes on every day, out in the streets, on social media and out on the fields and courts of sporting arenas. Racism in sport is also very prevalent, because it is a major issue that our sporting professionals are subject to discrimination and abuse because of their race, and a change needs to happen in order to protect them from this unnecessary abuse.

There have been many players to take a stand against racism, with the most recent being a campaign over in Britain. Manchester City player Raheem Sterling has been strongly preaching and reaching out to fellow professional players to make a stand against racism in football. The Manchester City coach has hopped on board with the idea, and the global campaign ‘Kick it Out’, has also been assisting in the cause. However, this problem can’t be fixed if fans and the general public don’t hop on board to support the cause. Discrimination should not be tolerated, and the Football Association MUST act to stop players being exposed to this toxic behaviour from opposing fans. Sterling also posted on social media about an incident that occurred in an online article. Two players, Tosin Adarabioyo, a young black footballer, and another young City player Phil Foden, both purchased multi-million homes for their mothers. The headline that they posted about Adarabioyo read: “Young Manchester City footballer, 20, on £25,000 a week splashes out on market for £2.25m despite having never started a Premier League match”, while Foden’s article read: “Manchester City starlet buys new £2m home for his mum.” The article makes the young Adarabioyo seem like he is spending his money when he shouldn’t be, maybe because the article writer could be racist and doesn’t give all players an equal chance. Sterling’s fellow Premier League was also racially abused this year after a foul he committed, and ‘Kick it Out’ posted after the game saying that UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) needs to start giving bans or kicking fans out of stadiums, because giving out fines has not been working.

The Utah Jazz, a professional basketball team in the NBA, handed out a lifetime ban to a fan that yelled racist comments at Russell Westbrook. The review supposedly showed that the fan told Westbrook to “Get on his knees like he is used too”. Westbrook was also fined for his retaliating comments, but the comments made by the fan were absolutely atrocious, and the NBA and Utah Jazz handed out perfect consequences. Other sports leagues around the world need to act and tackle the problem head on instead of letting fans do and say whatever they want.

There is many more effective ways of fixing the problem, and if all fans play their part, racism can be limited or completely negated from sports around the world. Bans can be given out to racist fans, and this strategy will help because fans will feel threatened and not want to lose their right to watch games. Fines can be put in place, but this isn’t as effective as bans, because a fan can still return for another game and do the same thing if they didn’t lose their lesson. Putting more security guards around the stadiums is also an effective strategy, and if they were to hear a fan racially abusing a player, they could threat to escort the fan out of the stadium, or they may actually escort them away if they do not behave. The last and most widespread strategy is to create or support campaigns to help stop racism in sport. All fans, even if they don’t attend sports, can help to stand up for what is right, and they can do this through raising awareness through social media, which is what many players and advocates do due to the internet being such a great way to appeal to all audiences. Some campaigns that advocate for racism in sport are:

• Football Federation of Victoria’s ‘Don’t Stand By, Stand Up!’ campaign.
• ‘Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football’
• ‘Racism. It Stops with Me’
• ‘Show Racism the Red Card’

People must get on board to help stop our favourite players being abused and discriminated by this disgusting behaviour. With everybody’s help, racism in sport can be stamped out for the good of everybody.

Bibliography:

Press, T. (2019). Mitchell, Jazz back Westbrook, say Utah won’t condone racism | NBA.com. [online] NBA.com. Available at: https://www.nba.com/article/2019/03/13/westbrook-mitchell-jazz-respond [Accessed 3 Jun. 2019].

Aimee Lewis, C. (2019). Raheem Sterling: ‘It’s 2019. I think there should be a real punishment for this’. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/26/football/england-montenegro-racism-raheem-sterling-gareth-southgate-fa-football-spt-intl/index.htm  [Accessed 3 Jun. 2019].

The Age. (2019). Infamous AFL racism incidents. [online] Available at: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/infamous-afl-racism-incidents-20170411-gviw4p.html [Accessed 3 Jun. 2019].