sport, racism in

   Sport in Britain has long suffered from racism, and despite progress over the last few decades, it remains tainted by the problem in the 1990s. The most obvious racism has appeared in football, partly as it is the sport most covered by the media. Apart from the casual abuse, football has also been targeted by hard-core fascist groups, such as the National Front and Combat-18. The history of football in the 1970s and 1980s is littered with spectator abuse of players and other fans in this fashion. Players were abused on the pitch by opponents and even by team-mates.

   Black supporters were obviously put off attending football matches by such behaviour, but in the 1990s research has shifted from the Afro-Caribbean population to Asian fans, who are clearly interested in football but very rarely attend matches. The Criminal Justice Act of 1996 (though poorly framed) offers some protection from racist chanting, and anti-racist campaigns by sports fans are spreading rapidly across football.

   Other sports have suffered too; rugby league and cricket have seen spectator abuse of minority players and confrontations between sets of fans. Test matches between England, India and Pakistan have seen fans squaring up to each other for this reason. Even in the mid-1990s it remained possible for a journalist to publicly question black players’ loyalty to the England test cricket team, on the basis of their background.

   Racism also operates institutionally: black people might successfully perform in most sports, but they have yet to take the next step and become administrators and managers. There have been very few black Football League managers, and virtually no black administrators; some club chairmen still hold highly suspect views. For British Asians there is the bigger problem of becoming competitors at all. Too many coaches in a number of sports hold racist assumptions: research by Jas Bains in 1996 found that many football officials thought Asian players’ religion and language would cause problems, and many felt the Asian physique was not strong enough for the game. The first Asian rugby league player to play for England, Ikram Butt, noted how such assumptions were simply wrong and how they made later success all the sweeter.

   The situation is improving, and when a headbandaged Paul Ince defiantly led the English football team to victory in the run-up to the 1998 World Cup finals, he became an icon of Englishness. However, much work remains to be done and many people are still unconvinced that a minority background is no impediment to a successful sporting career.

   See also: black sportsmen and women

   Further reading

    Jamie, G. (1991) Sport, Racism and Ethnicity, London: Falmer.

   SAM JOHNSTONE