A Discussion Of The Differences And Similarities Between Social And Virtual Racism In Football

(DRAFT)

INTRODUCTION:

Racism in football has occurred since the sport commenced back in 1863. The community of football has been taking part in campaigns to kick the prejudiced comments out of the game. Some examples of these campaigns are: "No Room For Racism," "Show Racism The Red Card," and most recently, players have taken the knee in the worldwide ‘Black Life’s Matter Campaign. Racism occurs way too often in the sport, that being by fans or on the odd occasion even the players themselves. Although there has been a sign of improvement in anti-racism, there is still a lot of progress. From racism towards ex-Arsenal striker Ian wright made by Irish teen Patrick O’Brien over a game of FIFA to Van Aanholt getting racially abused due to ruining someone’s bet. Racism occurs in all different aspects and needs to be kicked out of the beautiful game.

PARAGRAPH ONE:

The first account of racism to talk about involves Ian Wright. Ian Wright was a legendary striker who played for Arsenal and Crystal Palace and loved to score a chipped goal. The striker faced racism last may after teen Irishman Patrick O’Brien lost a game using his icon card in FIFA. The case recently got taken to court after “the incident resulted in O'Brien being convicted.” (Holt, 2021) After the Irishman understood the seriousness of what he had said “a judge saved the Irish 18-year-old from a felony conviction despite his guilty plea” (Holt, 2021).

The English striker ultimately forgave the Irishman, but he took to Twitter and said he was “Disappointed” (Calvin, 2021) by the final verdict in court, saying that the case was about “Consequences for acts of racism.” (Calvin, 2021) He also added “seeing the judgment, I can only wonder what deterrent there is for anyone else who spouts this kind of vile abuse.” (Calvin, 2021)

Ea Sports did act against the hatred that Patrick perpetrated. In retaliation to his disregarding comments, EA gave him a lifetime ban on FIFA “deleting his FIFA accounts and telling Eurogamer ‘Ian Wright is a member of our EA family.” (Mercante, 2021) The caution that was handed out was a lifetime ban. It was supported by the FIFA community, people were happy that racist comments were being investigated and acted against. Ian Wright said that EA “Stepped up for me bro,” (Mercante, 2021) indicating he is happy with some of the action taken.

He added: “After this attack, they changed their whole policy. And you know with a company like that, the different levels, and can you imagine the legality you have to go through to change your policy? Not only for me, but it is also for their staff, for players, to change your policy. Not only for me, but it is also for their staff, for players, the talent. The people

they partner with. Zero tolerance. Zero Tolerance and action will be taken”. (Mercante, 2021)

Ian Wright saw this move from EA Sports ahead in the right direction and was happy with at least one of the outcomes from this case. This policy was revealed in its Positive Play Charter back in June 2020 and stated: “When we all take on toxicity, we will build meaningful experiences, relationships, and communities.” (Mercante, 2021) Clearly stating racism will not be tolerated in the game of FIFA.

PARAGRAPH TWO:

The second account of racism came in a 0-0 draw between Crystal Palace and Man United at Selhurst Park. Dutch fullback, Patrick Van Aanholt, was the player in the thick of It this time after he messed up somebody’s bet after a last-minute miss to win the fixture.

After the game, the ex-Sunderland man took to social media and constructed a post captioned: “Why we kneel” (Sports, 2021), talking about the recent worldwide campaign ‘Black life’s mater,’ which fellow team-mate Wilfred Zaha took action against last month after announcing he would no longer take part in ‘taking the knee’ as he feels like the protest is no longer successful. The Ex-Man United winger said: “I feel like taking a knee is degrading.” (Guardian, 2021)

The Dutch Fullback provided evidence of the disgusting comments he received from the man who lost his bet: “Go and f**k urself. 1 on 1 and u can’t even score? Stupid” “3.60 odds for Palace 1st goal and u can’t score. U dog sh*t. Why didn’t u break ur f**king neck u monkey” “sh*t player.” (Barclay, 2021) (Lewis, 2021)

The racism puts a substantial more amount of pressure on the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to try and stop this activity from spreading even further. Representatives of all the games have reached out to the CEO of Twitter (Jack Dorsey) and the CEO of Facebook (Mark Zuckerburg) to stop this spread across the sport. (Barclay, 2021)

Van Aanholt is not the only player who has been receiving these racist and horrible comments recently. Other Premier League stars like Antonio Rudiger, Axel Tuanzebe, Reece James, Anthony Martial, Willian, Eddie Nketiah, Romaine Sawyers, Marcus Rashford, Alex Jankewitz, and Lauren James of Man United’s Women team has received these comments as well. (Lewis, 2021) (Barclay, 2021) (Guardian, 2021) (Sports, 2021)

Due to the list of the victims growing bigger, Premier League manager Richard Masters, Gordon Taylor, EFL chief executive Trevor Birch, Fa chief Executive Mark Bullingham, Women’s game leader Kelly Simmons, Kick It Outs Sanjay Bhandari, and LMA’s Richard Bevan and Mike Riley have all signed a damning note to help. (Barclay, 2021)

The damning note said: “The language used is degrading, sometimes violent and illegal. “It upsets the recipients, as well as most people who despise racism, sexism, and discrimination of any form.” A pretty clear note of what the people who fighting want. (Barclay, 2021)

PARAGRAPH THREE:

As the Ian Wright account was in virtual terms, due to it occurring from a game of FIFA, this creates a few differences from the Van Aanholt game that was reactionary from a real-life match of football that was not played through a screen.

First, we need a deeper understanding of what racism is. The English Dictionary is described as “Prejudice, discrimination or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people based on their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” (Wikipedia, 2021 )

The detailed explanation helps differentiate the two different cases. The first difference is that one is an attack on an ex-footballer, who is now a pundit, this being Ian Wright. Van Aanholt is 30 years of age and is a current footballer at Crystal Palace. Another difference is that one of the insult is recorded from a game of FIFA and the other is recorded from a real-life game.

Both FIFA and the Van Aanholt situations had a betting implementation to it though, as you buy FIFA points to get better players and bet on players to complete something so your able to win money. This is the first similarity involved.

Another similarity is that it's the same group of people being targeted no matter what circumstance it appears in, which is worrying as there are different platforms for people to voice their racism, meaning it's harder to track every single individual who is commenting.

From an Article made on a Bayern Munich forum, the psychological side of the sport shows that players are more likely to be aggressive if there exposed to racist comments at a young age. The forum also shows us that the racism being used causes depression among black upcoming footballers. An idea developed in the article says that there needs to be more educational work at the grassroots level and there needs to educational training about racism in sport and society. (Katrin, 2021)

A final thing it elaborates on is the fact social media is the main access to racism and it is what’s creating such negativity. The forum goes onto say that it has its benefits in spreading awareness, but at the same time, it exposes people to cyberbullying and online attacks, and leaks of personal information. (Katrin, 2021)

The fact the first route people take is to disregard someones skin colour as they have nothing else to say about the opposite person shows are signal of backwardness and lack of education, and the lack of judgment needs to be ended soon to make the world a safer place for women and people of colour to roam.

CONCLUSION:

No matter if it is a game of FIFA or footballers on the pitch, racism occurs in the sport daily and attacks the mentality and motivation of talented individuals of different races. It affects some people more than others, but it hinders the development of those with potential and makes people of colour scared to brace the pitch and sometimes even hard to trust their team. The Discrimination shown daily is why different campaigns are being created, and why so many people are needing to educate individuals.

In any situation or at any time racism is not tolerable. There are so many different insults you can use against an individual that won't fight against the colour of their skin. Because they had to fight for years just to get rights, from Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and, Nelson Mandela.

The main fight for black rights started with the civil rights movement between the 50s and 60s and the fight continues 70 years later (EDITORS, 2009). One day racism will be demolished, and the sporting world will be a safe place for the black community.