This article, dated May 2012, highlights the fears of racism that cast a dark cloud in the run up to the 2012 European Cup. The Cup was hosted by both Poland and the Ukraine, countries known for xenophobia and racism. The article makes note of the effects racism has not only on the players but also on the fans and speculates how the Leagues, players and host nations will deal with any incidents.
Swain’s article reflects on the progression of football from a private school boy’s game into a professional sport in the later half of the 19th century in the region of Lacashire, England. Towards the middle of the 19th century rules were set in place to cement what is today known throughout in soccer. One of our early class discussions and readings focused on the various factors that led to the development of football in Brazil, specifically into a very technical and free-flowing style. A question posed by a member of the class asked why only in Brazil was this style invented. Swain seeks to answer the same question as to why in Lancashire, England was soccer able to take hold and fully evolve into a professional sport. Swain brings up many reasons, varying from the regions private schools to the Lancashire team’s easy attitudes toward player recruitment. Continue reading
This TIFO focuses on Football Against Racism in Europe or the FARE Network. The FARE network is a dedicated group of NGOs, player Unions and Leagues which act to erase racism from soccer through campaigning and events throughout Europe. FARE focuses many of its efforts in Central and Eastern European countries where racism at football events has become an increasingly prevalent issue.
Lopes article tracks the growth of soccer in Brazil, beginning with the early games played by Europeans and the elite up until Brazil’s 1998 run to the World Cup in France where the national team fielded a racially and socially mixed team. He pays particular attention to the steady increase of non-white players, either mestizo or black, in the ranks of Brazilian club and national teams. The rise of Brazil’s non-European soccer greats mimics the history described by Carrington in his “Sport and Race” article. Carrington argues that sport, seen through the lens of imperialism and race, was initially reserved for the colonizers or the elite. This was true in the case of Brazil as it was only Europeans or those exposed to a European schooling that were able to indulge in the sport. It was only through ‘factory-teams’ that football reached the working classes of Brazil and spread like wildfire. Continue reading
This TIFO shows one of the many commercials used in the ‘Stand Up, Speak Up’ campaign launched in 2005 by Footballer Thierry Henri and Nike. The campaign fights to bring attention to racism in professional soccer and calls upon fans to help fight against this increasingly growing trend.
The first article, Banton’s Theories of ‘Race’ seeks to define Race as a social construct born out of the scientific and social enlightenments of the last few centuries. He argues that the development of race as a science was adopted in order to find meaning to what was, at the time, a complete European domination of other cultures. Banton shows, along with Mariel Mikaila and Arthur Lemonik’s article “Race”, how race is an inherently social construct stemming from geographic, political, cultural, economic and religious factors. Their articles shed light on late 19th and early 20th century attempts by social scientists to create a scientific approach to racism, such as Curie ‘European, African, Mongoloid theorem’ or social Darwinist principles. Mikaila and Lemonik go on to argue the consequences of race in modern society particularly in its limiting factor and its ability to create social, political and economic stress on society. Continue reading