‘Bigger than football’: racist talk on and off the soccer pitch

ABSTRACTRacism is a major social and cultural problem that has, in various forms, plagued football for a long time. Despite the attempts of official bodies to root it out, racist talk and behaviour are still rife among players as well as in fan communities. The present paper provides a case study of online users’ comments on the media coverage of a series of controversial incidents during a recent UEFA Europa League matchinvolving an alleged verbal act of racial abuse between two players. Adopting a discourse analytical perspective, the paper contrasts how the match controversies were reflected in the users’ public online discourses in two different cultural communities, namely the UK and the Czech Republic, and identifies some of the similarities and differences between the two. The analysis shows how the users reframe the underlying racist issue, trivialize it through humour and relativize its seriousness. The data indicate that such discourses surrounding football are important for understanding how fans construct various group identities and how specific socio-cultural contexts influence the perception of race-related controversies . Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. The Rangers coach Steven Gerrard used this phrase when talking about the key incident during his press conference on 18 March 2021: “You could say it’s been a test. I’ve tried to handle the situation in the best way I can but one thing that’s non-negotiable for me is the support for my players. I said last night that some things happen along your way as a player, a coach or a manager that aren’t really football related; they’re bigger than football or a different issue from football”. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfkc9NfIoys, time 8.22)2. Schmid, “The Definition of Racism”; Weaver, “Liquid Racism and the Ambiguity of Ali G”.3. van Dijk, “Racist Discourse”.4. Back et al., “Racism in Football”, 77.5. Gavins and Simpson, “Regina v John Terry”.6. Wolfers et al., “Just Because He’s Black”; Wolfers, “Self-directed Racialized Humor”.7. Back et al., “Racism in Football”, 77.8. Or, what Johansson (“Everyday Opinions in News Discussion Forums”) refers to as “everyday opinion” or “public vernacular discourse”.9. See Wrench and Garrett, “Constructions of ‘Whiteness’”; Kroon, “Recontextualizing Racism and Segregation”.10. See, for instance, Cleland, “Racism, Football Fans, and Online Message Boards”.11. Scholarly interest in online newspaper reader comments boards typically adopts a CDA perspective and concentrates on a single set of data (e.g. British) in order to identify racist themes and discourses (cf. Rowe and Goodman (“A Stinking Filthy Race of People”), Santana (“Virtuous or Vitriolic”), Harlow (“Story-chatterers Stirring Up Hate”), Catalano and Fielder (“European Spaces and the Roma”), Chovanec (“Irony as Counter Positioning”); and similar studies on social media data, e.g. Breazu and Machin (“Racism Toward the Roma”) for comments on Romanian Facebook). An example of a contrastive approach using comparable datasets from two different languages/cultures includes Chovanec, (“Re-educating the Roma?”) on anti-Roma racism in British and Czech discussion forums, and Weizman and Fetzer (“The Discursive Construction of Accountability”) on Israeli and British discourse.12. Gavins and Simpson (“Regina v John Terry”) describe several such cases from the English league, as well as the subsequent legal proceedings concerning the 2011 incident between John Terry and Anton Ferdinand.13. See, for instance: https://www.sportbible.com/football/football-news-horrific-photo-of-keepers-injuries-emerge-after-kemar-roofe-head-kick-20210318. Accessed on January 14, 2022.14. UEFA’s decision was appealed by the Rangers, but the appeal was dismissed by UEFA’s decision of 10 May 2021, which cited “dangerously assaulting another player” as the reason for the four-match suspension (Source: “AB: Rangers FC v SK Slavia Praha”, Last updated May 10, 2021, 18:30, https://www.uefa.com/updates/)15. When describing the incident later on, Kolář stated: “If you ever kicked a ball, you know that a foot can always be pulled back. He said that he was the first at the ball. But he did not add that he kicked it out of my hand, straightened his leg and hit me in the head. All the time he could see me. I waited for Roofe to maybe message me on Instagram but instead I was reading hateful messages from Rangers fans” (“Kdo někdy kopal do míče, ví, že noha se vždycky dá stáhnout. Řekl, že byl u balonu první. Ale už nedodal, že mi ho vykopl z ruky, propnul nohu a trefil mi hlavu. Celou dobu mě viděl. Čekal jsem, jestli mi třeba Roofe nenapíše na Instagramu, místo toho jsem si četl nenávistné vzkazy od fanoušků Rangers”). (Source: https://www.ruik.cz/kolar-poprve-o-zraneni-nechteli-me-pustit-z-kabiny-roofe-se-neomluvil-proti-sparte-mi-bylo-zle/, published on April 14, 2021.)16. Jason Cundy and Andy Goldstein on Sports Bar (Source: https://talksport.com/football/851905/rangers-kemar-roofe-tackle-ban-rangers-racism-slavia-prague/). Some other descriptions were less emotional, e.g. Thomas Duncan wrote in his post-match report for the BBC that “Roofe was clearly just trying to win the ball, but his foot was so high as to be reckless, and Kolar’s injury looked serious. The goalkeeper had to be replaced, but he returned to the bench for the closing moments after receiving treatment” (Thomas Duncan, BBC Scotland, March 18, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56375487.) It eventually turned out that the goalkeeper did sustain a serious injury to the head – a frontal sinus fracture – forcing him to wear a protective face mask and a helmet in future matches similar to the one another former Czech goalkeeper (Chelsea’s Petr Čech) had to wear throughout his career following an injury.17. Source: https://talksport.com/football/851905/rangers-kemar-roofe-tackle-ban-rangers-racism-slavia-prague/18. The Guardian live text commentary, minute 85, time 21.48, The Guardian, March 18, 2021, the commentators for the live football blog were Rob Smyth and Simon Burnton, https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2021/mar/18/europa-league-arsenal-v-olympiakos-dinamo-zagreb-v-tottenham-milan-manchester-united-rangers-slavia-praguelive19. The Guardian live text commentary, minute 87, time 21.50, The Guardian, March 18, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2021/mar/18/europa-league-arsenal-v-olympiakos-dinamo-zagreb-v-tottenham-milan-manchester-united-rangers-slavia-praguelive20. UEFA disciplinary decision, issued on April 13, 2021 and made public on April 14, 2021 (Source: UEFA Europa League: Rangers FC v SK Slavia Praha, Last updated April 14, 2021, 18:02, https://www.uefa.com/updates/)21. There is a short smartphone videorecording made by a member of the Slavia team documenting this event. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5DN-pQ88K4).22. “Club Statement: Slavia Denies Allegations of Racism”, March 19, 2021. (Source: https://en.slavia.cz/clanek.asp?id=Club-statement-Slavia-denies-allegations-of-racism-807). A part of the statement is also included in the BBC’s report on the case (“Rangers Want UEFA Action after Glen Kamara Allegedly Racially Abused by Slavia Player”, March 19, 2021; source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56451935).23. The original statement in Czech: “Napadení hráče Ondřeje Kúdely bylo připraveno a promyšleno včetně vědomého zakrytí kamer na místě incidentu. Brutální a surový útok byl veden s plnou intenzitou s cílem zranit a způsobit fyzickou újmu”. (Source: https://www.slavia.cz/clanek.asp?id=Slavia-podala-trestni-oznameni-za-fyzicke-napadeni-18257). Information about the criminal complaint appeared in the local Scottish media as well (https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/slavia-prague-lodge-rangers-assault-20217878)24. Source: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/6843784/rangers-slavia-prague-incident-ibrox-glen-kamara-kudela/25. UEFA disciplinary decision, issued on April 13, 2021 and made public on April 14, 2021 (Source: “UEFA Europa League: Rangers FC v SK Slavia Praha”, Last updated April 14, 2021 18:02, https://www.uefa.com/updates/).26. The press conference is available from Rangers Football Club’s channel on YouTube. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfkc9NfIoys)27. His full statement was: “We had never before in the history experienced a similar situation. After the match, UEFA called the coaches and the players involved to attend a meeting to clarify the dispute. But before the discussion started, Kamara hit Kúdela in the face with a fist and ran into the cabin. Coach Gerrard disappointed me; he did not say a word. This match was everything else but fair play”. (“Podobnou situaci jsme nikdy v historii nezažili. UEFA svolala po zápasu trenéry i oba zúčastněné hráče k mítinku, aby se spor vyjasnil. Ještě než ale jednání začalo, Kamara před zraky delegace UEFA dal Kúdelovi pěstí do obličeje a utekl do kabiny. Trenér Gerrard mě zklamal, neřekl ani slovo. Tento zápas byl všechno jiné než fair play”.) (Source: CNN Prima News, 19 March 2021, https://cnn.iprima.cz/hracum-rangers-neslo-o-obrat-ale-o-pomstu-gerrard-me-zklamal-rika-sef-slavie-tvrdik-21357).28. In the Guardian, for instance, the online discussion on the day of the match concentrated largely on the performance of the teams, and Roofe’s violent tackle. Out of the 57 comments that are available on the Guardian site, only three mention the racist incident; several comments, however, are not available due to moderation (deleted due to “breach of community standards” (Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/mar/18/rangers-slavia-prague-europa-league-match-report)29. See Weizman and Fetzer, “The Discursive Construction of Accountability”.30. The data in the Figure are calculated to the threshold of 300 comments for each subset, i.e. the British subset B and the Czech subset A were recalculated, each using a relevant quotient.31. All translations into English have been done by the author of the article. No spelling mistakes and typos have been corrected in the British data.32. See Chovanec, “The Othering of Roma Migrants”.33. See, for instance: “Liverpool Players support Luis Suarez After FA Race Verdict”, BBC Sport, December 21, 2011. (Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/16291583).34. For the notion of humorous fictionalization, see Kotthoff, “Coherent Keying in Conversational Humour”; Tsakona, “Online Joint Fictionalization”.35. Vásquez, Language, Creativity and Humour.36. Chovanec, The Discourse of Online Sportscasting.37. See also Gavins and Simpson, “Regina v John Terry”.38. See also Back et al., The Changing Face of Football.39. When describing the key incident, I prefer to use the expression “alleged” in order to avoid any implication of assigning blame or guilt or diminishing the seriousness of the offence in any way. Being aware of the highly contested nature of the verbal act in question, which has had legal consequences that have not been concluded yet, I wish to remain academically objective and disinterested, simply drawing on, discussing and interpreting data from mainstream media and users’ online contributions on the topic. It is not my intention to pass any judgement and nothing in this text should be interpreted as favouring one or the other side of the conflict.40. Cleland, “Racism, Football Fans, and Online Message Boards”.41. Weaver, “Liquid Racism and the Ambiguity of Ali G”; Cleland, “Racism, Football Fans, and Online Message Boards”.