Racism in Football

Racism in Football

Football ('soccer') is the world's most popular sport. In every corner of the globe, matches are played with great fierceness and intensity among people of all ethnicity, race and social status. International matches have long been a sport identified with national pride and identity, likely because it is the one competition undertaken in all nations. Local matches have likewise developed a sense of passion among followers that is also quite intense.

There is a dark side to this notion of pride and passion, however. Whether in international competition or the league play, the fans, players and clubs have had a history of using racial epithets and slurs on opposing players. This has not only caused a great outrage in the football community, it threatens to have a negative impact on the sport, as well. While racism continues in football today, the international community has begun to take action to combat and prevent it.

Economics and racism are deeply intertwined in sport and football is no exception. Racism effects football in at least two key ways. One is the collective effect of the effort to combat racism, negative publicity and loss of property and life by racist perpetrators. The other actually has a more significant, if complicated, impact on the sport itself: Racism in the sport is on its economics. Racism destroys the competitive balance in football, which in turn reduces the size of the economic pie for the individual clubs and the sport as a whole. The paper addresses both of these effects.

Introduction

Racism in football is most readily associated with racism in football stadiums among football fans. Fans and players are all too familiar with the refrain of racism against black players: throwing bananas and making monkey like chants, using racial slurs, racist signs, banners and flags and in many cases physical violence towards the players and other fans. The racism, per se, is not only in the form of anti-black rhetoric, but also anti-Semitic and pro-fascist.

In many instances, the prejudices of the fans translate to (or are mirrored by) those of the clubs in themselves. Statistics show overwhelmingly that certain clubs do not sign players due to their skin color, ethnicity or religion. In so doing, that club compromises its ability to field the best possible team. These teams tend to lose more games than they win. Statistics also show that the clubs which do not discriminate in their method of selecting players based on skin color, ethnicity and religion tend to excel in the standings with great regularity. Looking at the big picture, the teams that discriminate not only compromise their own success, but the hamper the competitive balance of the league which, in turn, harmfully effects the entire league's economic viability.

History of Racism, Intolerance, Hooligans and Violence in Football

Intolerant behavior is not a new phenomenon in the European and world football circuit. Over the last forty to fifty years, a segment of fans has emerged which seem intent on wreaking havoc in the stands of football matches. They have the turned the stadiums into a battle zone where fans of the opposing team are the 'enemy.'

At home games, these fans have felt the need to defend their turf against the enemy, and as visitors, these fans felt the need to 'conquer' enemy territory. This has led to an enormous amount of viscous and deadly riots, which aside from the actual damage inflicted have given football's reputation a visible black eye indeed. These fans have come to be internationally known as 'Hooligans.' Hooligans have also become the lasting image of European football for millions of people world-wide.

Though it initiated in England, hooliganism has spread to continental Europe, particularly to Germany, Belgium, Italy and Holland. Thus, a culture of violence and police presence is now a part of European football culture. According to police estimates, violent incidents occurred at 10% of all games in these countries in the 1990s and about 10% of football fans in these countries are prone to violence.

In the 1980s and 1990s, incidents involving hooliganism became more widespread, larger in scope, and more deadly. During this period the term 'soccer riot' became a part of popular American vernacular. One of the more notorious incidents occurred in 1985 in Belgium when 39 spectators were killed and 400 injured during a clash between fans of FC Liverpool and Juventus Turin. Even a high profile event such as the World Cup has resulted in gruesome violence, as when in 1998 German hooligans brutally attacked a French policeman, inflicting serious brain injuries.

Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, the stories of racial and ethnic-based violence and abuse in the name of football have become more even more prevalent, widespread, prone to mob violence. This point is illustrated by the several examples. On November 23, 2006, after a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Hapoel Tel Aviv in Paris, a black spectator was chased by about 150 Paris Saint-Germain supporters through the streets of Paris. A Paris Saint-Germain supporter was accidentally shot and killed when a black undercover police officer, who had to come to the aid of the accosted fan, found it necessary to use his gun and fired a shot.

After February 2007 match between Catania and Palermo in Sicily, hooligans killed a local policemen by throwing stones and an explosive device at him. Only a few days later, violence erupted in Germany following a game when 300 hooligans mobbed the police, attacking 39 policemen and inflicting serious injuries on several of them. Finally, in April 2006, fans of the visiting Chemnitz team attacked Turkish-owned stores in St. Pauli. During the game about 200 Chemnitz fans chanted anti-Turkish epithets which invoked memories of the holocaust. One of the chants by the Chemnitz fans was "Hoo-Na-Ra, which is the slogan for "Hooligans, Nazis, Racists," a network of right wing groups that operates in various German cities.

Modern Movement of Right Wing Infiltration

One of the alarming shifts regarding recent hooliganism is that recently it has become more mainstream and less confined to the working classes and other fringe groups. Because hooliganism has been often linked to incidents of racism and anti-Semitism, it has become popular among right-wing extremist groups. This is even more troubling because the nature of the right wing element many times only has a political agenda.

In other words, the traditional hooligan attends a football match to watch the match and the violence ensues. Right wing groups attend matches, in many cases, only to spread their message of intolerance and hate and the football match is nothing more than the occasion which brings together a large crowd and media attention. Another key difference between hooligans and the right wing organizations is the drive to recruit by the right wingers.

Perhaps the most despised right-wing group is the "Ultras Sur" operating out of Spain. They have a history of supporting their team and at the same time, abusing and intimidating the opposing team's black players. They have even been responsible for games being re-scheduled, as when the English refused to play a game in Madrid due to the conduct of the Ultra Surs there in 2004 and the game was consequently rescheduled for Seville.

This is only one example of direct involvement of right wing groups, according to the American Jewish Committee, there are right wing groups using Football as a platform for their agenda in most European companies.

For these various reasons, national and international Football federations have found it necessary to band together to address the problem of racism in football head on.

Competitive Balance in Football

Competitive balance in all sports, including football, is critically important. A growing body of research has analyzed the need and impact of competitive balance in major pro-sports league around the world. The North American leagues were the first to consistently address this. Whether in the form of revenue sharing, salary cap or luxury tax, the North American leagues realize that the success of each individual team is connected to the financial and on-field well being of every other team.

Football leagues, especially the club leagues in Europe, have only recently understood the far-ranging importance of competitive balance, which has be defined as:

"A balance between sporting capabilities. The more balanced the teams, the more uncertain the outcome of each match" (Michie & Oughton 2004).

"Proper CB should be understood to exist when there are no teams chronically weak because of MLB's financial structural features. Proper CB will not exist until every well-run team has a regularly recurring hope of reaching postseason play" (MLB report (2000) the Blue Ribbon Panel)

"One of the key ingredients of the demand by fans for team sports is the excitement generated because of uncertainty of outcome of league games… in order to maintain fan interest, a sports league has to ensure that teams do not get too strong or too weak relative to one another so that uncertainty of outcome is preserved." Quirk and Fort (1992)

These definitions should be balanced by the popular notion that it is good for a league and all of its teams if the teams from the larger markets are relatively dominant, but not at the expenses of competitive balance:

"The optimal level of balance in a sports league is a function of the distribution of fan preference, fan population base, and fan income across host cities. "The league will maximize revenues when teams from large, rich, and fan intensive cities win more often" Zimbalist (2002).

European football clubs have historically not had a great competitive balance. According to one study done in 2006, of the previous 10 seasons, the champion and runner-up from the premier leagues from Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and England were the same top two clubs in those countries two-thirds of the time. The typical European premier league has 20 teams. Thus, 10% of the league accounts for 66% of the final match appearances, while 90% of the league account for the remaining 34%. Thus historically, European football does not enjoy much competitive balance at all.

One recent trend has been for extremely wealthy owners to buy clubs and immediately transform a clubs fortunes. One great example of this is the ownership of Manchester City, now in the hands of Abu Dhabi United Group, which purchased the club from the former prime minister of Thailand for over EUR 220 million. Manchester City instantly joined the fray of teams who could afford to and were willing to spend big-time money on big-time players. While, this has allowed a few additional teams to become instantly competitive, it still does not create or foster a competitive balance, rather it simply shifts the balance of haves and have-nots by one additional club.

This has led to significant problems for clubs who have tried to compete with the more wealthy clubs and are unable to. In Spain's premier league, La Liga, the top two teams are clearly Barcelona and Real Madrid. Other teams, like Valencia and Villarreal who have tried to compete, end up in financial trouble with tremendous debt and sometimes unable to make payroll.

This is the essence of a lack of a competitive balance, where to try to compete casues financial ruin.

Foreign Players and Domestic Economy in European Football

The European leagues have blossomed in the last 15-20 years. Revenue has increased exponentially as broadcasting rights have afforded the leagues greater revenue and exposures. This has created a free market for the best players in the world within the European leagues. The larger teams, such as Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea from England's premier league have dominated the league in two inter-connected aspects in recent memory: League success and foreign-born players. Often times, the premier foreign players are non-whites from Africa, South America and Asia.

The league trends are obvious and concrete, larger and richer teams can more readily sign foreign-born talent because they have more money. This influx of superior talent keeps these teams near at the top of the standings. The team success creates additional revenue by way of merchandise, ticket sales and television money. The teams with more money can afford the best players…Therefore, a repeating cycle and self-perpetuating cycle is created which works against the notion of competitive balance. Currently, there is a wide gulf in the value of the most and least valuable teams.

Putting it all Together- Economic Impact of Racism on Football

Football's Current Economy- European Champions League

It is clear that big-time football is a big money sport. In the most recently completed UEFA Champions League season (2008/09), the 32 participating teams divided up a total purse of over EUR 580 Million, with each team receiving at least EUR 6.8 million, but most receiving well over twice that. An additional EUR 28 million was provided to the national associations of the European countries who have clubs participating in the UEFA competitions. Another EUR 33 million combined was paid out to the teams participating in the 2008/2009 UEFA Cup completion.

The high payouts stems from lucrative TV contracts and UEFA's recently devised centralized marketing scheme which divides the TV money among the teams that reach the quarterfinals of the Cup competition, based on the value of each teams TV market. This system has been in place and has proven to be an enormous success for the UEFA and all of the clubs that participate in its Cup competition. UEFA has announced plans to introduce the centralized marketing revenue plan into the Champions League effective with the 2009/10 season.

The overall economic picture is even brighter in many cases. Research commissioned by the league's official sponsor, MasterCard, reveals that clubs with the largest fan bases, such as Manchester United FC and FC Barcelona, the figure rises to EUR 46.14million, with the league champion earning as much as EUR 110.35 million. This figures are higher than the ones quoted by UEFA above as result of adding in the ticket sales; commercial and marketing revenues, including sponsorship and sales of merchandise, food and beverages; and increased squad value.

MasterCard's researcher, Professor Simon Chadwick said: "In uncertain economic times, sport's universal appeal remains strong, making it one of the most lucrative industries to be involved in. The competition continues to be an important source of revenue and commercial activity for clubs, especially for those that qualify for the knockout phase of the competition."

This inevitably makes a significant contribution to the annual turnover of the clubs involved. Moreover, revenues earned from UEFA Champions League football will be especially important to clubs as the moment, given difficult operating conditions across the world."

Television revenue and media coverage of the sport continues to be on the rise. In May of 2009, the UEFA Champions League final garnered more TV viewers (109 million) than that year's Super Bowl of American football (106 million) for the first time ever and in so doing, became the most-watched sports event of the year.

One of the main reasons for this appears to be UEFA's having better attracted viewers from Asia and the Pacific region of the world. The NFL viewership remains overwhelmingly domestic (i.e., within the U.S.), while the UEFA draws huge ratings from around the world outside of Europe.

Football's Economic Impact- the World Cup

The 2006 World Cup, played in Germany, provided tremendous revenue for the country's economy. The four-week tournament grossed EUR 399 million in revenue, added EUR 2 billion to German retail sales and produced over 50,000 new domestic jobs. Ticket sales generated EUR 40 million for the German treasury and even the German football associations reaped EUR 56.5 million. Germany welcomed 15 million more visitors to the tournament than original estimates suggested.

FIFA, the Federation of International Football Associations, is the governing body of international football, including the world's most prestigious competition, the World Cup. It received a payout of EUR 40 million from the Germany as its portion of the World Cup proceeds.

Combating the Racism Economically

The economic impact that racism has on football in Europe and elsewhere is very hard to measure. A cursory review shows that there is little or no impact on the sport at all. The popularity of the sport is rising throughout the world and the impact of greater television ratings and viewership is only adding to the sport's coffers. The measures being taken to combat racism are relatively benign at the moment. Generally, punishments consist of very small fines, in light of the revenue numbers cited above are being doled out to the clubs of the offending fans, and there is always talks of penalizing clubs by having them forfeit in points and play 'closed' home games, which means allow no fans to be present.

There is an inherent problem with really solving problem: The bodies which would be enforcing a code of conduct would suffer financially if the most practical and effective punitive measures were taken. As is evident from the MasterCard study above, the single greatest factor in the financial health of most European Football clubs is their inclusion in the Champions league. If clubs were hindered in their ability to qualify for or advance in this league, the economic impact to them would be devastating.

There are several ways to use this principle to eradicate racist behavior among fans. Clubs with offending fans can be required to play a reduced number of home games, be allowed to sell less tickets, not be allowed to sell UEFA or FIFA sanctioned merchandise, be penalized Champion league points or be ineligible for Champion League or UEFA cup play. When these sanctions are regularly and strictly enforced, club owners closely scrutinize the makeup of their fans for the sake of their own financial well being. This approach is not new to civil rights history or to football- one of the main factors causing the end of apartheid in South Africa was FIFA's refusal to include them in World Cup play due to apartheid.

However, it is very doubtful that the governing body of European football will take these extreme measures because everyone of them requires UEFA to make a severe financial sacrifice as well. As a result, it is probably necessary to resort to the traditional, and in this case mostly ineffective, method of teaching and preaching tolerance and education. In this regard, many national governments, national associations and private organizations have taken the lead in trying to bring about change and reform in the state.

FIFA has been accused of taking a soft line approach to dealing with racism. On its website, it takes a position that can be seen as backing up these criticisms:

FIFA has been aware of the racism problem for some time but recent events, especially in Europe, have given the need for concerted action an added urgency. While the main emphasis of the practical measures will inevitably remain at national and local level, FIFA has recognised the unique role it has in co-ordinating opinions and expertise from all corners of the globe to share experiences and to find effective solutions & #8230; trend also coincides with a deeply worrying increase in extreme right-wing activities outside the football stadium.

"The solution to this problem, as to any other, lies firstly in identifying it and acknowledging its existence," says FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter. "Anyone who complacently maintains that racism is impossible in their territory is not only wrong but irresponsible."

While FIFA is saying the right things publicly, its actions are viewed as weak compared with the muscle many believe it can flex. As an example, with Germany's poor track records with regard to its race relations in the sport, FIFA could have withheld the World Cup from Germany or required it to show a certain level of initiative and progress prior to its hosting the Cup. Perhaps the draw of Germany generating enough revenue to distribute EOR 40 million to FIFA was to appealing to pass up.

Examples of the typical punishments doles out to the clubs of offending fans include

FIFA fining the Croatian FA 30,000 Swiss francs (which prompted England vice-captain Rio Ferdinand to angrily tell the BBC that "football authorities need to take a look at themselves")

And UEFA fined Zenit about $58,000 for the fans' behavior in March 2008.

In 2006, after England's black players were racially abused during a friendly against Spain in Madrid, the organization fined the Spanish football federation just EUR 65,000. Later, Spanish officials themselves imposed a fine of only 9,000 euros ($13,800) on Zaragoza after the Eto'o episode at their La Romareda stadium."