Football clubs and fans are denying the existence of racism in the sport, hindering attempts to kick the problem into touch, according to a new report.
Anti-racism campaigns have resulted in leaflets, guidance, training and monitoring projects but "too often clubs and fans deny the existence of racism at their club and this inhibits any opportunities to tackle the problem", the study commissioned by Uefa (the Union of European Football Associations) said.
The report asks clubs to fully commit themselves to eradicating racism and xenophobia from stadiums, stating: "Only when they are fully committed will they be able to support stewards, police and fan groups which challenge the problem in the stands."
Its author, Dr Mark Doidge, a research fellow at the University of Brighton's School of Sport and Service Management, has called on fans, players, clubs, security forces, national and international football organisations, the media and politicians to unite in the fight.
He said: "From Zenit St Petersburg fans declaring that their club should not sign anyone who was not Slavic, to Juventus fans racially abusing Mario Balotelli, expressions of racism continue.
"They take different forms and are grounded in the rivalry that exists within football."
Dr Doidge's Uefa report studied anti-racism in European football and named Germany's Borussia Dortmund (BVB) as an example of a club that has taken on board the anti-racism message.
He said: "It distributes leaflets to all fans clearly explaining what racist and far-right slogans are not permitted in the stadium.
"They provide resources and space in the stadium for a BVB project to educate young fans on racism, intercultural learning and civil courage (how to deal with conflict without violence)."
Dr Doidge has recommended that clubs step up education and support, and share ideas to combat the problem.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article