Racism is simply discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity.
Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Racism in football has been widely covered by the media as well as academic and professional studies.
In European football, racism operates at the institutional and fan cultural levels. The top levels of authority are majority white and give jobs as coaches or other positions to other already-known white men, there are stereotypes about coaches of colour.
In Spain, Racism in Football dates back to 1992, when Rayo Vallecano goalkeeper, Wilfred Agbonavbre suffered racist abuse.
Famous former footballers like Samuel Eto was also racially targeted during his time at Barcelona. The fans making monkey-like chants whenever Eto had possession of the ball and peanuts were hurled onto the pitch. Ronaldinho suffered similar abuses but less intensely.
Many African footballers have been victims of racial abuse.
In January 2023, Vinícius Junior was targeted when a statue of him was hung outside Real Madrid’s training ground.
Again, sometime in May 2023, Real Madrid’s game against Valencia was stopped after Vinícius was racially abused.
Although, three people were arrested in connection with the incident, Vinícius was allegedly racially abused by Barcelona fans in October 2023 in an El Clasico match.
Most recently this March, Vinícius suffered racist abuse in a match against Osasuna leading Real Madrid to complain after the referee did not detail the incident in his match report.
The International Football Federation (FIFA) needs to do better in addressing racism in football by creating new measures to deal with this menace.
Nigerian football star, Leon Balogun had recommended the need for a collective response from players to racism.
FIFA has to collectively make sure that racism is completely rooted out of football.
Chinedum Anayo