Saying no to discrimination....

...is discrimination against people who want to discriminate. :-)

UEFA recently announced its newest initiative to tackle racism in stadiums across Europe. This initiative comes almost exactly one year before an African nation prepares to host the World Cup for the first time (South Africa in 2010). While there is no direct link between the these two things, the reality, in Europe, is that African players are most often subjected to racist abuse and FIFA will need to consider the demographic represented in many of the National fans that may travel to South Africa next summer. So in a sense, FIFA may want to pay close attention to how well these new initiatives function.

Basically, UEFA has mandated that the Referee be give the power to interrupt the game in three stages when they become aware of racist behavior towards players on the pitch. First, they stop the game and have the stadium announcer make a public announcement, if the abuse continues, then the game is to be stopped for 15 minuets, the teams sent into the changing rooms and another announcement is made, if the situation continues, the game is suspended until further notice. I find this approach interesting for a few reasons, not only because it will, in theory, create a public pressure inside the stadium against racist behavior. UEFA is essentially introducing social regulation by punishing everyone for the transgressions of a few individuals. The idea is as ingenious as it is suspect, and the potential for the public to act as a lynch mob should give pause for thought.

No-one who paid the relatively high ticket prices will want to see the game cancelled, or even interrupted, so the logic is that the public will get involved when they see racist behavior on the part of a fan (or group of fans). It is a carrot and sticks approach that will punish a whole village for the transgressions of one of its wayward children. Interestingly, I just watched The Art of Soccer with John Cleese. A portion of the documentary was dedicated to Xenophobia: many of the people interviewed (players subjected to racism, and fans) formulated a similar approach to the one UEFA has now taken. The idea being, if fans see people being racist, they will take action... But as much as one hopes that this action would be a nice group explaining to the racist what they had done wrong, I fear it could be much more violent than that.

But this is also facinating on another level: it is meant to develop normative behavior and is thus a sort of mass brainwashing. The effect that this could have, though I may be giving too much credit to the power of soccer, is of building community. It is, on some level, an extension of the imagined community as much as it is part of Schmitt’s thesis. We are now united against racism, as a community, and we will be held responsible, as a community, if we fail to ensure that racism is controlled.

I bring this up, in the context of the first African World Cup, because it will be fascinating to see how fans from Europe, notorious for highly racists views, attitudes and songs, will behave, and how FIFA will handle the racism. It may be a moot point, because maybe South Africa will simply be too far for these types of fans to travel. But in case it is not, FIFA will need to have effective measures in place to handle such situations, on the field and off. But I also think it is interesting to reflect on this in light of recent comments by Arch Bishop Tutu, who said that it would be the World Cup that will help South Africa grown an additional two inches in stature. South Africa, with its deep history of a vitriolic racism, is facing a massive challenge as host of the worlds largest sporting event. Success and failure, either way, will have lasting effects on the nation as much as on the sport.

Football cannot be used to end racism. We have to educate them. ~ Kaká