Gabriel Nneoma

IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS Impact of Intimidation and Violence in Sports – Racism in Football Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation 1 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS RACISM IN FOOTBALL What is referred to in modern-day as football began in Britain in the 19th century. Although similar to 'folk football" that was played in medieval times and without a set of uniform rules, the adoption of the sport as a winter game between schools made room for its standardization and establishment of uniform rules (Matthew, 2013). The football game can also be seen as an alliance between two teams with eleven players each, in which players try totactically move the ball using any part of their bodies except their hands and arms into the opposing team’s goal.Football, among other games, is governed by some principal rules. Today, football is seen as the most popular ball game in the world considering the number of participants and spectators. It can be played almost anywhere in the world by different races and tribes.It has become a special subculture with its peculiarities, code of conduct, symbols and troubles. Racism is one of them. Football has an exceptionalplace in characterdevelopment in several diverse settings. The way nationalism, ethnicity, racial identities and racism come into play in football is so overwhelming; though violence at sporting events especially in team sports has been in the system and in different forms.Unfortunately, the football game has been flooded with a lot of intimidation and violence among players but most especially from fans. This mainly occurs when a player misses a desired target or expectation of the team and at times when a goal is scored. This paper will mainly focus on racism in football with illustrations from recent trending activities and ideas on how to check or tackle the menace of racism in the world of football. Racism in this context can be said to be an abuse of players or officials in football because of their skin colour, ethnicity or nationality(Laruccia&Valdenise, 2016).There are 2 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS diverse forms of discrimination in sports and some are based on race, religion or ethnicity. These discriminations in turn result in violence and anti-social behaviour in sport.Racism has cut across all works of life, inclusive of sport in general and football in particular.Racism in football is of equal serious concern for fans and footballers, and it has been trending for a long time in the game.Black players encounter inequity on every level: public (anti-black racism from fans in stadiums), private (abusive direct messages on social media) and institutional (lack of management and coaching opportunities). The act of racism is at times visible during match commentary of sports broadcasters who questionablyand perhaps unintentionally treat black and white players differently. Football is the people’s game and as a sport that is so universally popular, any issue that crops up has a widespread impact. The popularity of the game is exactly why supporters' racism has become a more pronounced problem in stadiums and social media when compared with other sports. The present-day reality of the game is that black players are treated differently especially when they play in the same team as whites. Recent findings also show that the media treats black men differently from white men (Stuart, 2021). Confirming this, sports pundits "Ian Wright and Alan Shearer had a discussion lately on racism in football; Shearer, the white ex-England international striker asked his black ex-teammate Wright: Do you believe a black guy gets treated differently to a white guy? Wright’s response was unequivocal: Without a doubt, Al!” (Stuart, 2021). In various European countries, there have been increased incidents of footballers who are immigrants, blacks or from minority sets who are always the recipient of racist comments and abuse. A good reference to racism in football is what happened in the just concluded Euro- 3 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS 2020.Marcus Rashford, a 23-year old English player had a racial attack following the Euro-2020 final match loss to Italy. He took England's third penalty during the tournament and lost the opportunity.Marcus has an English nationality but is black-skinned. He received a lot of hate and racial abuse on social media following England’s penalty shootout defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 finals. After England’s defeat in Euro 2020, social media was flooded with images showing wall paintings in honour of Rashford in his hometown defaced with hateful messages. Marcus has bagged series of victories in his football career; he has won the FA Cup, EFL Cup, FA community shield and European league. He also previously scored on his England debut in May 2016, becoming the youngest English player to score in his first senior international match; yet he was still badly treated and racially abused due to his penalty loss during the Euro 2020 finals. Jadon Sancho and BukayoSaka also black-skinned who played the same match in the same team with Marcus faced the same online racial abuse after losing their penalty shoot-out while their Italian counterparts in the same match who are white-skinned lost two of their penalty shoot-outs but did not experience any abuse. There are other cases where black players are thrown banana or banana peels in the field as a representation of "black monkey". Such acts are sometimes performed by an opponent's fan when a goal is scored by a black player as a disgusting sign or racial abuse on blacks. An example is the Tottenham fan who threw a banana skin during the north London derby at Arsenal in 2018. The banana peel was thrown by AverofPanteli from the away end when PierreEmerickAubameyang scored for the Gunners, who won 4-2. The court later concluded that it was a targeted gesture to throw a banana skin after a goal was scored by a black player and racial element was found in the action. 4 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS Racism in football has a detrimental impact on the players especially on how we see and value black talent. Black players are highly impacted negatively when they play in the same team as whites regarding the abusive nature of the treatment they get in the course of the match either when they score or miss a goal. This is a great violation of the ethics of football, there should be equality seen among players in the team whether white or black-skinned. There should be the same level of treatment from coaches, commentators, fans and even among players themselves. No one should be seen as superior to the other. A player's fundamental rights should not be tampered with because of the colour of skin; football is a game of wins or losses or even draws and players and fans should be instructed to accept any of these in good fate. There are so many factors that contribute to racism. A dominant reason is the inherent beliefs of some white persons that they are more superior to a black person; hence blacks are highly degraded when they are involved in an unpleasant situation in the course of the game than the whites. Racism has been defined as “a system of advantage based on race” (Feder, 2020). Most football fans of the European clubs are not willing to accept defeat especially when it comes from the blacks and this gives rise to abusive behavior and post, participants easily forget that penalty shootout is nobody’s game; it’s only a game of chance. The inability of countries and associations involved to enact a strict law that monitors and penalizes defaulters as regards racism is another serious factor that contributes to an increase in racial attacks on black players. Although some football associations are coming up with penalties andfines on racists, these efforts seem not enough considering the ravaging effects of racism. Most of the racial issues in sport are perceptible back to the pseudo race sciences that emerged in the 1800s, and particularly to social Darwinism (SAHO, 2019). Social Darwinists proposed that white humansare the most advanced race in phrases of intellect, morality and character, and as such, do not require much 5 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS body prowess. Black humanshave beentaken into consideration to be the least evolved, inherently violent, lazy, intellectually restrained and mannerless - thereby necessitating that they possess morebodilyagility than white humans. This encouraged the notion that black people were well suited to physical activities more than cognitive tasks. It becamevisible as making them natural athletes. This assertion often legitimizes brutality by the state. Different clubs and or countries have rules that govern racism in their footballing and sports sector. For example, the rules that govern racism in the United Kingdom is known as "Disciplinary Regulations". This disciplinary regulation was embedded in the UK Equality Act of 2010 which makes it illegal to treat an employee unfavorably due to their race. FIFA also has a rule in form of a disciplinary code that proposes a fine of CHF30,000 (£23k/$30k) on any team whose supporters are found portraying racism attack or abuse. Further punishments can be stadium closures, bans and points deductions - depending on the severity of the offence (Stuart, 2019) and this will be based on the – may also be applied based on the harshness of the offence. Racism and violent actions at sports proceedingsespecially at football matches, jeopardizes elemental European ethics, human constitutional rights and the role of sport as an instrument to communicate positive morals. A hike in the number of racial incidents in football especially in European teams calls for critical attention of the European Union and the European footballassociations to rise to the occasion by tactically sticking to solutions that can give positive results in the fight against racism in football and even on a wider scope. Relevant associations/institutions such as the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Sports Philanthropy Network, Sports Ethics Committee, etc need to intensify their counselling support to victims of racial abuse as this will also be instrumental to the reduction of stress, 6 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS anxiety, depression and other mental issues that can result from racial attacks and abuse.Those within the sports media industry have an integral role to play in this effort and should be made to undertake more robust and meaningful education programmes which can assist them in identifying racial stereotyping and discrimination within their practice.Big Tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.should put in place adequate and strict protocols to deal with discrimination and racial abuse on their platforms.Anti-racism campaigns should be taken seriously by football clubs and national teams. Every football club or national team should sensitize their players and fans on the danger of racial attacks, and the prevailing grievous consequences that will be meted out on defaulters. The “KICK IT OUT” English football’s equality and inclusion organization should be highly encouraged in their campaigns. To improve the situation and reduce racism, there should be grassroots sensitization: every parent should enlighten their children on the uniqueness of every race and that there is power in togetherness. Slogans and club jargon thatspeaks against racism and emphasized equality should be adopted by clubs. A typical example is the ManchesterUnited's "All red All Equal" slogan supporting equality for all races. Every corporate organization should give blacks equal treatment as whites. Also, there should be bold antiracism messages and inscriptions at the entrance of every sports complex so it remains fresh in everybody's memory and consciousness. Messages such as "Fight against Racism" or any other appealing inscription that appeals to the locals can be adopted. Every club or national team should create a department that will specifically carry out a racism sensitization campaign on members and fans. Jingles should also be developed and published by media companies in the fight against racism. There is a need to also organize high-level seminars regularly to harp on actions to prevent and fight violence and racism at sports events. Unless these steps and more actions are taken seriously, we will continue 7 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS to see black people being treated differently on the pitch, in commentary boxes and in the larger society. Racism in sports has also been evident in Cricket. Indian players were racially abused by fans in the course of their game with Australians in Sydney in 2021.Mohammed Siraj complained of racial abuse during the third Test against Australia in Sydney. Play was paused for about ten (10) minutes on day four after Siraj approached an umpire to lay complain about the issue before police stepped in to take six male fans from their seats for interrogation (Hindustantimes.com, 2021). A parallel occurrence of racism is also evident in the case of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American man, who was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States while being arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. He was mishandled by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin, in a manner that led to his untimely death. His killing resulted in very heavy protests which involved many elites including former president Barrack Obama with his wife and some other members of the Democrat Party. Several towns in the suburbs of the United Statesprotested in remembrance of Mr Floyd and they had to take a stand against racial injustice. The incident made waves and extended to workplace equality unconscious bias and the legacy of slavery. This also led to the introduction of “Black Life Matters”.This watchword chanted by many around the world, Black Lives Matter, has orchestrated a network of grassroots organizations, and a moral group of activists fighting against racial decimations. Racism is a ravaging menace in the world of sports and also in a wider scope and has to be tackled by all and sundry. If it's not adequately checked, freedom of association will be completely ruined and this will continually impose a negative impact on all works of life. The 8 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS underlying fact is the inequality mentality and superiority complex that is paramount in whites. Fundamentally, everyone is equal no matter the race, skin colour or religion and should be given equal rights and opportunities. There is a need for those in authority and with large followership, such as politicians, sportspeople, musicians and actors, to use their influence to emphasize antiracism messages among those who support and follow them. It is very crucial to speak up and condemn racism. Any race can top the ladder in society: Barrack Obama is black but reached the peak of authority in America. We are highly affected by our peers, family, friends, colleagues and peers so you can condemn racism by talkingpositively about your relationship with people from different cultural backgrounds within your circle. 9 IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS 10 REFERENCES Hindustantimes.com. (2021). Cricket - ICC condemns incident of racism during in Sydney Test, seeks report from CA. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/icccondemns-incident-of-racism-during-india-australia-sydney-test-.html , Accessed August 4, 2021. Feder, S. (June, 2020). Stanford psychologist identifies seven factors that contribute to American racism. Stanford website https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/09/seven-factors- contributing-american-racism/ , Accessed July 30, 2021. Kitching, G. (2015). The Origins of Football: History, Ideology and the Making of ‘The People’s Game’. History Workshop Journal. Vol. 79, pp: 127 - 153. Laruccia, Mauro &Martyniuk, Valdenise. (2016). Racism in Football: A Narrative Path. Advances in Journalism and Communication. Vol. 4, pp: 103-112. doi: 10.4236/ajc-. SAHO. (2019). Pseudo-scientific racism and Social Darwinism. https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pseudo-scientific-racism-and-social-darwinism , Accessed July 29, 2021. Stuart J. (May, 2021) Newcastle and Arsenal legends Alan Shearer and Ian Wright on the impact of racist abuse. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastlearsenal-legends-alan-shearer- , Accessed July 30, 2021. IMPACT OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE IN SPORTS Taylor, Matthew. 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