Comments on: The case of soccer racism and the success of international pressure

By: roberto k

roberto k — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:28:35 +0000

I think the author is underestimating subtle, perhaps very minute but nevertheless important changes in Israeli society exemplified in his statement about knowing “several Beitar fans, some of them right-wing, who grew increasingly uncomfortable and ended up not going to games because of racist chants and xenophobia in the stands.”

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:59:08 +0000

That’s right, XYZ, the only way to insure freedom of speech at soccer games is to forbid some talented individuals the opportunity to play.

Actually, Noam, I think an international league with US teams would posture similarly. Israel is given card blanche in internal affairs, but in international settings US teams would refuse such fan behavior; racial and religious pluralism are part of constitutional law and social ethic.

By: XYZ

XYZ — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:58:27 +0000

Is this a “fight against racism”, or is a Leftist/”progressive” struggle against freedom of speech of those they don’t like? Will Arabs screaming “death to the Jews” at soccer games be prosecuted? Or will we see a witchunt against right-wing political speech? Why should “racist” speech be outlawed in the first place, even if it is offensive? Is this the opening shot in a struggle to ban all speech the “progressives” don’t agree with?

By: Dan Judelson

Dan Judelson — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:18:39 +0000

Clearly this is a development that should be welcomed in the specific local as well as international and more widely political context.

But I think one must take issue with Noam’s assertion that

“In recent years, UEFA and the International Football Association (FIFA) have grown impatient with racism”

When the FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggests that overt racism can be settled with a handshake – http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Blatter-There-is-no-racism-in-football-article831377.html – then claiming that FIFA is taking meaningful action comes across as fanciful. UEFA may have put pressure on the IFA and Betar; equally it is possible that FIFA may have done so too in order to cover up previous, multiple failings and embarrassments. (Blatter in particular has poor form not only on incidents of racism but on women’s sport – telling female players to wear hot pants to increase spectator numbers – and homosexuality.) However, the only easily available online evidence is a Jerusalem Post article in which FIFA is mentioned in the headline but not on the body text.

Perhaps a sub-editor is responsible here, but UEFA, although they appear to take a more active anti-racist role have serious failings of their own – the leniency of the punishment handed to the Serbian FA after the racist behaviour – not of fans but of the Serbian U21 team on the pitch itself and their decision last month to close their eyes to racism altogether when they declined to deal at all with the incident in which Ghanaian player Kevin Prince Boateng led AC Milan off the pitch in response to racist abuse from fans: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/outrage-over-uefa-refusal-to-intervene-in-kevinprince-boateng-race-storm-8439228.html

I’m not being pedantic here (well, not just that, at any rate). The political point of the story still stands – that outside intervention may be a crucial factor in influencing internal problems. One hopes that the lesson can be absorbed and carried over into the wider political field. Whatever the degree of UEFA/FIFA intervention was, my point is that such outside help is going to need to be far more substantive, longer term and in depth than anything the sorry international regulators of football have to offer currently. I suspect that on this aspect the author and I are in agreement!