Tackling racism and discrimination in grassroots sport: The case of football

Between September 2013 and September 2016, more than 30 players competing in amateur and youth leagues run by the Italian Football Association (FIGC) received a 10-game ban for racist abuse. These were incidents that involved two or more players, players and game officials of immigrant background, coaches and players. At the same time, several small amateur clubs were fined or had their ability to host home games impacted following racist abuse towards opposition players from the stands. This is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’, because the incidents that lead to a disciplinary action are only the ones directly witnessed by the referee and included in his or her report. Moreover, no statistics of such cases are kept either by the FIGC or its sub-body the National Amateur League (LND), which is in charge of amateur leagues and youth amateur leagues. Despite some exposure of individual cases in local and national media, succinctly reported based on their apparent exceptionality, the recently introduced disciplinary action of the FIGC to tackle racism and discrimination within the game has not, so far, provoked a debate at national level.