The Not so Beautiful Game.

"Is football's battle with racism lost to social media?"

There is no doubt that football is one of the most popular sports in the world with multiple top flight divisions all across the globe, while England’s Premier League remains the fans favourite with an astonishing 4.7 billion viewers annually and being televised on live television worldwide. After being founded in 1992 the Premier League has produced some of the most memorable moments in the entirety of sporting history and continues to provide endless entertainment to fans globally. Despite being an important part of the modern-day sporting world, football has also become a community that racism has impaired and appears to provide one of the largest communities in which racism is openly expressed. But how and why is it such a big issue?

Aside from being so valued by many, the beautiful game is infested with a small minority of “fans” that pollute the football community and abuse the players that dedicate their lives to improving the levels of entertainment that football provides. Sadly, the abuse is present across the world, regardless of the skill level, whether it’s top flight or non-league teams.

But this outrageously violent plague is nothing of the past and continues to tear the confidence of young aspiring footballers. Recently there have been multiple counts of abuse via social media platforms (such as twitter and Instagram) towards Manchester united players after an unfortunate defeat to Sheffield United on Wednesday 29th January 2021, the most extreme cases aimed towards the prolific talents, Axel Tuanzebe and Marcus Rashford MBE-who has rapidly gone from fan favourite and national hero to twitter abuse

from hater despite displaying some astonishing performances that everybody (even rival fans) can sit back and appreciate but one fault has led to his own “fans” subjecting him to “humanity and social media at its worst”, as described by the player himself. He shot back at the internet trolls when he tweeted: "I'm a black man and I live every day proud that I am, No-one, or no one comment, is going to make me feel any different. So sorry if you were looking for a strong reaction, you're just simply not going to get it here”.

The number of players that suffer from racial abuse is nothing to be disregarded but there are multiple players that are exposed to incessant injustice, such as Wilfred Zaha, Mario Balotelli, Paul Pogba, Romellu Lukaku, Mohammad Salah and Dani Alves, the list is endless but one main target is Manchester City and England star, Raheem Sterling, who has been subjected to multiple racist encounters. Whether it be from fans at a game or on social media, the exceptionally talented winger just cannot escape the perpetual hate. Aside from all of the difficult situations he has had to face throughout his life, Raheem has become a player that his younger self should be proud of, being one of the highest paid players in England (on $300,000 a week with City and multiple sponsor ships, including huge deals with Lucozade, Gillette, Clarks footwear and Nike), a great role model, influencer and also, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best players in the world currently. He continues to push the boundaries and set the standards high for future generations.

Almost identical to Sterling’s situation but in the 1990’s, was that of Liverpool and England’s number 10, John Barnes (born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica) who was a victim of many counts of Racism. One of the most unforgettable moments being when he bravely stepped up to take a corner kick in the Merseyside derby and had to ignore the banana peel that had just landed at his feet and that the away fans were screaming at him and making monkey sounds towards him. It was extremely difficult for a black football player to defend themselves in the 90’s but this fuelled many groups to make a stand against racism as they saw Barnes as “the voice of reason to make a change” he claims. Even though Barnes faced such demoralising moments during his career he still believes that racism in football is just a fraction of that in other industries because he believes football is one of the very few industries that allows young black players the chance and opportunity to make such a big name for themselves.

Racism is extremely difficult to put to a stop with the only efforts to reduce it has been, seemingly, pointless t-shirts and pocket money fines along with short bans from games for people who have proven themselves as the complete opposite of a fan. Although, in recent months there has been many movements and gestures in place to help prevent it as much as possible, one being the Black Lives Matter movement (or BLM) which has been put into place since the tragic death of George Floyd in May off 2020. The BLM phrase was made into “no room for racism” in terms of the premier league in attempt to combat discrimination, the players and match officials all take the knee before the start of a match to show their support for the movement for racial equality, though many players across all leagues refuse to perform the gesture, while Zaha stated that “it’s just become part of the pre-match routine”. The players will also have patches on the sleeves of their kits with the quote “no room for racism”.

There is no room for racism anywhere.

Written by George Oldroyd

Artwork by Melike Uzum