ANTI-RACISM EFFORTS FLOP THIS WEEK

From tearful press conferences to an anti-racism match, football’s struggle against racism has been in the news a great deal. While Bayern Munich’s own Rot gegen Rassismus program has been going strong for several years now, other efforts are not getting traction or even seem misdirected.

In perhaps the most significant news, Napoli has withdrawn from Serie A’s “Keep Racism Out” program after Franceso Acerbi was not punished for alleged racist comments he made towards Napoli player Juan Jesus in a recent match. A sporting judge did not find against Acerbi, who is now free to return to play for Inter Milan.

Napoli’s leadership has concluded that the Serie A anti-racism project has no value or substance and has announced its refusal to participate as follows: “Napoli will no longer take part in anti-racism and anti-discrimination initiatives run by football institutions that are merely symbolic, but we will continue to organise them ourselves, as we have always done, with renewed conviction and determination.”

Also this week the Spanish and Brazilian national sides played a match to combat racism in Madrid, due at least in part to the racist abuse suffered by Vinicius Jr.

The match was said to have generated about five million euros in revenue, but none of that money appears to have been directed to anti-racism programs or donated to anti-racist charitable organizations. While not entirely clear it appears that the funds have simply been put into the pocket of the two national programs.

One person close to Vinicius told The Athletic “All of them sold the idea of a match against racism — which, in reality, it was not.”

Between the planning of the game and its execution, no changes were made to the Spanish Federation’s anti-abuse and hate rules, and none of the money generated by this match is going to programs related to the announced cause.

It appears that it least in Spain and Italy, the anti-racist efforts have been half-hearted at best.

2024-03-29T09:27:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd