Football: racist insults on the rise in the UK
Kick It Out reports a 42% increase in reported cases in professional football.
Tim Clayton / Corbis via Getty Images
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In the world of English football, insults of a racist nature are on the rise by 53% and those linked to sexual orientation have increased by 95%, according to the results of the past season by the association Kick It Out.
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This is a distressing report unveiled Thursday, September 3 Kick It Out ("Let's get it out").
The British association, which fights against all forms of intolerance in football, has revealed a 42% increase in reported cases in professional football over the 2019-2020 season.
Compared to the previous season in England, cases of racist insults rose 53%, from 184 to 282. Those linked to sexual orientation exploded by 95%, from 60 to 117.
"
Black Lives Matter
"
These figures are particularly high, especially since the end of the season was marked by the systematic homage of the Premier League teams to the anti-racist movement "
Black Lives Matter
", and that the testimonies of players on the insulting behavior of which they have victims have multiplied.
For Sanjay Bhandari, president of
Kick It Out, “
The pandemic
and the murder of George Floyd have turned the world upside down.
Football has responded positively by expanding its work with the community and with players getting down to their knees.
But beneath the surface, the hatred and divisions of society remain a pernicious threat lurking in the shadows
”.
Patrick van Aanholt of Crystal Palace kneels before the game against Leicester City Adrian Dennis / Pool via REUTERS
Indeed, if at the amateur and leisure level, the number of reported cases drops from 113 to 94, it is only a sham decrease.
Because the season was definitively interrupted in March because of the Covid-19.S pandemic compared to an equal period, there is in fact an increase of 11% of reported cases.
(With AFP)
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