Ethnicity and football

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Ethnicity and football is a description of the global acceptance of association football, with players from many different races and countries participating. While football has moved around the world from its roots in England during the 18th century, the progress of non-European players has sometimes been hindered, with racism a continuing problem in many different countries.

Association football Team field sport played between two teams of eleven players with spherical ball

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing goal.

Racism race or ethnic-based discrimination

Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another. It may also include prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity, or the belief that members of different races or ethnicities should be treated differently. Modern variants of racism are often based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. These views can take the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems in which different races are ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities.

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People of different races have sometimes not been accepted as players in European football. This has changed in recent times,[ when? ] due to societal change as well as campaigning on the part of the football authorities in different countries. UEFA and the European Union support the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) project which aims to stop racism.

UEFA international sport governing body

The Union of European Football Associations is the administrative body for association football, futsal and beach soccer in Europe, although several member states are primarily or entirely located in Asia. It is one of six continental confederations of world football's governing body FIFA. UEFA consists of 55 national association members.

European Union Economic and political union of European states

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2 (1,728,099 sq mi) and an estimated population of about 513 million. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. For travel within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002 and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.

Globalization

Globalisation has created a sense of homogenised culture in football where players from different ethnic backgrounds have congregated in one particular team. This enables the team to form some kind of "supranational" (Maguire J, 2009) [1] entity that in turns loses its local or national identity but gains a mixture of strengths that ideally improves the team's performance. A good example of this are the teams associated to the Premier League based in England. All of these teams are made up of players from different ethnic groups and are considered the best players in the World. Manchester United were crowned FIFA Club World Cup Champions in 2008, [2] which exemplified the importance of ethnic diversity in a team - only three of the players in their championship game were of English background.

Multiculturalism Existence of multiple cultural traditions within a single country

The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, of political philosophy, and of colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchangeably, for example, a cultural pluralism in which various ethnic groups collaborate and enter into a dialogue with one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities. It can describe a mixed ethnic community area where multiple cultural traditions exist or a single country within which they do. Groups associated with an aboriginal or autochthonous ethnic group and foreigner ethnic groups are often the focus.

National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one state or to one nation. It is the sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, language and politics. National identity may refer to the subjective feeling one shares with a group of people about a nation, regardless of one's legal citizenship status. National identity is viewed in psychological terms as "an awareness of difference", a "feeling and recognition of 'we' and 'they'".

Premier League Association football league in England

The Premier League is the top level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League (EFL).

Globalisation has also affected football from a different perspective. John Nauright (2004) [3] explains that during the globalisation process, local and national identity is celebrated especially during significant sporting events such as the Football World Cup. An estimated 715.1 million people from different countries and ultimately ethnic backgrounds watched the Football World Cup in 2006 which makes it the most viewed event in history. This results in businesses looking for opportunities to advertise their brand through sponsorship and funding which leads to commercialism in football.

Commercialism is the application of both manufacturing and consumption towards personal usage, or the practices, methods, aims, and spirit of free enterprise geared toward generating profit.

Commercialism

In 1992, Rupert Murdoch and British Sky Broadcasting purchased the rights to televise the English FA Premier League for 304 million English pounds which was 600% more than the previous contract. [4] Feeding off the passionate interest for football, matches were televised all over the world through satellite television which made the league the "crown jewel" of football. Since then aspiring players from different ethnic backgrounds have strived to play in this league to achieve fame, money and satisfaction of reaching a defining peak in football excellence. Sales and revenue through advertising and technology have been determining factors in the commercialisation of football which has resulted in the globalisation of the sport. The main reason for sport organisations adopting the business model is to ensure their financial sustainability for the future. In order to gain a larger market share of audiences, well known football players from different countries who have loyal local fans are recruited. An example of this is Liverpool Football Club in the Premier League recruiting Fernando Torres from Spain where he played for a local club and had many supporters. This caused the loyal supporters to change allegiances as a sign of support for their player.[ citation needed ] This has in turn increased the ethnic diversity within the sporting code but also brought to attention the apparent racism associated among the players.

Rupert Murdoch Australian-born American media mogul

Keith Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born American media mogul who founded News Corp.

Advertising Form of communication for marketing, typically paid for

Advertising is a marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea. Sponsors of advertising are typically businesses wishing to promote their products or services. Advertising is differentiated from public relations in that an advertiser pays for and has control over the message. It differs from personal selling in that the message is non-personal, i.e., not directed to a particular individual. Advertising is communicated through various mass media, including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor advertising or direct mail; and new media such as search results, blogs, social media, websites or text messages. The actual presentation of the message in a medium is referred to as an advertisement, or "ad" or advert for short.

Technology making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, and methods of organization

Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to allow for operation without detailed knowledge of their workings. Systems applying technology by taking an input, changing it according to the system's use, and then producing an outcome are referred to as technology systems or technological systems.

Early football (1880–1960)

In several countries, black players were often harassed by spectators; stories of players being pelted with racial slurs, chants, and even bananas were quite commonplace, although there had been black players playing in Europe since the early days of football.

Black people is a skin group-based classification used for specific people with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all "black people" are dark skinned. However, in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification in the Western World, it is used to describe persons who are perceived to be dark-skinned when compared to other populations. Depending on the usage, it is mostly used for the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and the indigenous peoples of Oceania, Southeast Asia and India.

Andrew Watson, an amateur player, was capped for Scotland three times in the early 1880s, and played in the Scottish Cup for Queen's Park.Arthur Wharton, who played for Preston North End and Sheffield United, amongst others, is recognised[ by whom? ] as the world's first black professional footballer. Jack Leslie was the first black player to be selected for England, but never actually played for his country – which is thought[ by whom? ] to be due to the colour of his skin.

Frank Soo was the first (and so far only) ethnic Chinese person to play for England, during the Second World War, though these were not official internationals. Other non-white footballers in Britain in the early and mid-20th century included Eddie Parris, a black Welsh international; Mohammed Abdul Salim, an Indian playing for Celtic; Tewfik Abdullah, an Egyptian who played for Derby County; the Jamaican Lindy Delapenha, who won a title with Portsmouth before moving to Middlesbrough; his countryman Gil Heron, who played for Celtic; and Charlie Williams, a British black defender for Doncaster Rovers who later became a successful entertainer.

Modern football (1960 onwards)

It was not until Viv Anderson that black footballers started to become accepted into the England national football team. Since then, many black players have played for England, and several have served as captain, notably Paul Ince, John Barnes and Sol Campbell.

Nowadays in the bigger leagues minority players have become part of football, and are supported. This was seen in the French football team which won the 1998 World Cup. The team was composed of white and black Frenchmen including immigrants from or descendants of several countries/colonies such as Argentina (David Trezeguet), Senegal (Patrick Vieira), French Guiana (Bernard Lama), Martinique (Thierry Henry), Guadeloupe (Lilian Thuram, Bernard Diomède), Ghana (Marcel Desailly), plus a New Caledonian (Christian Karembeu); the whites also included an ethnic Armenian and Kalmyk (Youri Djorkaeff), another player of Armenian descent (Alain Boghossian), a Basque (Bixente Lizarazu), a Breton (Stephane Guivarc'h), Robert Pires whose parents hail from Portugal and Spain, and an ethnic Berber (Zinedine Zidane). This composition was seen as an indicator of racial harmony, in a country where race and immigration has been and still remains a source of tension and conflict.[ citation needed ]

Incidents in 2004 have also shown this to be the case in some bigger leagues, where there are a visible number of players from a different ethnicity. A notable incident occurred that year when England played Spain in Madrid, and home fans were heard by the world media to be making "monkey chants" at some of the black players on the pitch, [5] forcing the Spanish football authorities to apologise for their fans. [6]

On November 27, 2005, Marc Zoro, a player from Côte d'Ivoire, was playing for the Italian team Messina when he was racially abused by Inter Milan fans to the extent that he picked up the ball and threatened to leave the field. [7] [8] This caused the Italian football authorities to propose to start the following week's matches late after an anti-racism display. [9] This came at the same time that European Union legislators were threatening Europe-wide legal sanctions against national football associations and clubs whose fans were seen to take part in racist actions. [10]

Australia

Ethnic minorities were instrumental in establishing the National Soccer League, which lasted from 1977 to 2004 as Australia's top-flight competition; however, clubs such as South Melbourne, Sydney Olympic, Sydney United, Adelaide City and Marconi could only draw fans from the ethnic group which they originated from. Names such as "Hellas", "Croatia" and "Juventus" were removed from clubs in an attempt to draw new supporters from outside of these ethnic groups, but falling attendances and financial difficulties caused the NSL to fold. Eighteen months later, the A-League was launched with no clubs having ethnic ties, and several teams, such as Melbourne Victory and Central Coast Mariners, were newly created. Almost all of the old NSL powerhouses are now dominating their respective state leagues.[ citation needed ]

Religion in football

Sometimes certain clubs have often been connected with religious denominations, such as both Tottenham Hotspur and Ajax with Judaism, or the Old Firm Rangers F.C. and Celtic F.C. of Glasgow, who are seen to be Protestant and Roman Catholic respectively. This has led to problems with violence and occasionally death, but often equates to little more than derogatory nicknames.[ citation needed ]

'Oriental' footballers

Players of Oriental origin have a long tradition – often forgotten[ citation needed ] – in European football. Hong Y 'Frank' Soo played 9 times for England during the Second World War. Sammy Chung coached Wolverhampton Wanderers to a UEFA Cup Final in 1972, and later as manager helped lead them to promotion from the old 2nd division to the old 1st division. Vikash Dhorasoo, of Indo-Mauritian descent, played for the French national team during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. South Korean Park Ji-Sung, who played for Manchester United, is an example of an Asian footballer who can be a rising star in big clubs in Europe.[ citation needed ] Park may be preceded by the Japanese player Hidetoshi Nakata, who played at various European clubs such as Perugia, AS Roma, Parma, Bologna, Fiorentina and lately at Bolton Wanderers. Another Japanese player, Shunsuke Nakamura, overcame criticism of his lack of pace and stamina, and helped seal Celtic FC's 2006-2007 Scottish Premier League season title. The most prominent example[ citation needed ] of an Asian player having a successful career in a big European League in the 20th century was Cha Bum-Kun, a Korean striker who played for Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Leverkusen in the German league, scoring 98 goals in 308 matches in Germany. He was later given the title Asia's Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. Other Korean, Iranian, Chinese and Japanese football players have also gained starting places in their respective clubs in Europe. Some football clubs hire the Asian football stars hoping to increase merchandise sales from the player's respective Asian country. However, in Britain in 2007, there were complaints of a lack of Asian participants in top league football. [11]

See also

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References

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